Labour plans to penalise part loads Gables Group goes under
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• The Labour pm i o. %%arning hauliers who regularly run trucks part loaded that they will be more heavily taxed if it wins power.
The party, which outlines its plans in an internal party discussion document, debated the issue last weekend at its Party Policy Forum. One party insider says there was unlikely to be anyone at the forum who knew anything about haulage.
"They don't understand the implications of this proposal." he says. "how will they police it? Have weighbridges at every depot? Weigh every load? What about tankers which need to cleaned out each time?"
It is understood that Shadow Transport Minister Clare Short, whose office produced the document in consultation with Labour's shadow treasury team, was closely advised by the environmental pressure group Transport 2000.
Transport 2000 director Stephen Joseph says he is delighted with the document, which also proposes: • Tolls on local roads; • Banning heavy vehicles from small town centres and villages; • Widespread adoption of supermarket-style urban distribution centres; • A vehicle excise duty system which takes account of mileage and engine size.
The Labour document also commits the party to review 44tonne legislation "to encourage transfer of freight to rail or ship".
The document is due to be published this summer and a formal policy will then be drawn up during the party's conference in the autumn.
• An Essex-based tipper operator has gone out of business with the loss of nearly 50 drivers' jobs.
Receivers were called into the Gables Group's depots in Bishop's Stortford, Herts and Elsenham. Essex on Monday morning: 70 employees, including 34 staff drivers and 15 owner-drivers, were told they no longer had jobs.
The group, comprising Gables Transport and Gables Aggregates, ran 34 tippers and had an annual turnover of more than £8in. Staff were stunned by the news; one Gables senior manager says: "We were told receivers were called in for financial reasons but trade has been excellent and the vehicles have been earning well above budget.
"The second half of 1995 wasn't very good," he adds, "but this year it was really going well and we couldn't cope with the volumes of work," As CM went to press no financial details on the group were available, but dates for creditors meetings are due to announced next week.