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Cabotage:
Page 30
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bad for business
and bad for safe
UK operators are losing business from cabotage while motorists are at risk of accidents involving left-hookers.
Roanna Avison and Dylan Gray look at the impact foreign trucks are having in the UK.
In 2005 the Burns report highlighted the impact of foreign competition on the UK haulage market (CM 24 November 2005). The report revealed that cabotage only accounted for 1.2% of the market but was concentrated in areas such as the East Coast container ports, where foreign hauliers were taking work with rates up to 50% below the UK average. UK operators were also being driven out of cross-Channel work.
Simon Chapman, chief economist and general manager for information services at the Freight 'fransport Association (ETA), says: "On the cabotage front, the situation has not changed much because the EU accession states are not allowed to do it."
He adds that the stability of the sterlingieuro exchange rate will also have had an impact.
Fair competition even if cut-throat is an integral part of road haulage. So why can't domestic operators match the rates offered by their foreign competitors? The answer is twofold: the UK's high duty and high wage costs.
The Burns report said costs for UK operators running 44-tonne artics were 4% higher than for German operators, 8% higher than for Belgian operators, 22% higher than for Czech operators,31% higher than for Polish operators and 37% higher than for Hungarian operators.
Geoff Dossetter.director of external affairs at the ETA, believes the Chancellor's announcement of fuel duty increases until 2009 shows the government has taken the issue of high fuel prices and its impact on hauliers seriously: "The government isn't allowed to decouple the fuel duty for freight and private vehicles, and the EC dictates that the Chancellor cannot cut fuel duty. By setting out his stall for the next few years, Gordon Brown has tried to balance the business needs with the environmental issues."
A spokesman for the Department for Transport reports that the Measures for Road Safety Act, which is at the consultation stage, will include a deposit system to allow Vosa inspectors and the police to collect on-the-spot fines from foreign hauliers.
-At present foreign drivers are given a fixed penalty notice,but that's the last we hear of them so they never pay up," he admits. -Under the deposit system,Vosa or the police will be able to take a deposit from them which we expect will be in the region of the total amount of the fine, although we are still working out the details," The act will also allow the police and Vosa to immobilise vehicles if they discover hours or safety offences.
Research by the ETA and the RHA in 2005 indicated that foreign-registered trucks are damaging UK roads to the tune of £200m a year and will rob the country of E3bn in lost revenue by 2020 (CM 3 November 2005). •