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TOO MUCH STICK FOR UK OPERATORS
Page 12
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The international truck show kicked off last week in Amsterdam with a refreshing keynote speech by the Dutch transport minister Karla Peijs. No nonsense about how freight should be moving to the railways, no patronising rhetoric about managing congestion, just good, old-fashioned common sense. The economy needs the transport industry to fuel growth, she said, and we're committing big money into infrastructure development to ease congestion. Yes, there'll be road pricing in the future, but no hint of hair-brained, over-complex plans to bamboozle the industry; we'll do it when the technology is ready, which is unlikely for another 10 years or more.
"Sadly in Britain we're
She also outlined plans to help operators invest in Euro-4 engine technology ahead of the deadline next year.
Contrast that with the musings of our own ministers, who can rarely bring themselves to say anything positive about this sector, let alone grapple with the difference between Euro-3 and 4 emissions requirements. The commercial vehicle industry is bursting with solutions for efficient, environmentally friendly road transport. but, if the government will not provide incentives to use the best equipment, the UK industry will continue to languish in the second tier of the European transport industry.
The Dutch minister outlined a mix of carrot and stick for the future of road transport in that country. Sadly in Britain we're wearily accustomed to the whack of the cane.
• We're pleased Brian Kent has finally won £50,000 from the government. Kent was fined and his truck impounded although he had alerted enforcement officials that he thought someone was in his truck. After years of trauma and loss for Kent the Home Office has settled out of court. What stuns and dismays us is that the Home Office should still claim "the action taken against him was neither unlawful nor unreasonable". Law may be the province of the courts, but we don't know many who would consider that ruining an innocent's man's livelihood was reasonable.