• COMMENT PERMIT FIASCO
Page 5
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• Yet again, sectional and chauvinistic interests have blocked a move towards sorting out the European international permits mess. Again, Britain ends up as the biggest loser in this silly battle for advantage in the haulage industry. It seems that certain parties will use every excuse they can think of to delay progress for as long as possible, and that in this particular conflict, obstructive action does indeed speak much louder than saccharine words on harmonisation.
All this conflict, apart from delaying a liberalised and harmonised European transport policy, also obscures a more fundamental issue. That is, that competition for haulage work has been completely subjugated by competition for artificial bits of paper which restrict that competition.
The whole point of international road haulage, in common with every other form of road haulage, is that customers want loads moved. They want them moved smoothly, efficiently, quickly and at the right price. For a large percentage of the international traffic between Britain and the Continent, the form of transport which most effectively meets those criteria is road haulage.
Theoretically, a customer should be able to go to any haulier and get a competitive quote for any European delivery. In practice, the number of hauliers who can even quote for a job is limited by permit availability. If those hauliers with permits cannot provide the customer with the required service (or standard of service) then that customer must look elsewhere — to rail, sea, or air.
In most circumstances, that is as bad for the customer as it is for the road haulage industry.
At the moment, it appears that nothing can or will be done about the permits issue until one of the aggrieved parties takes over the presidency of the EEC. This might mean that some progress will be made while Belgium has the presidency, but anyone who thinks that dramatic progress might be made would do well to remember that the last time a permit-starved country was in the chair, no real progress was made. The country in question, of course, was Britain. . .