1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208 
East Europeans put pressure on the UK
Page 12
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
UK international hauliers held onto 26% of the cross
Channel market last year. Bridget Carter reports.
THE NUMBER OF East European vehicles coming to the UK continues to surge. according to government figures. Some industry observers now estimate that one in 10 trucks on the UK's roads is now foreign-registered.
The Department for Transport's latest quarterly report, Goods Vehicles Travelling to Mainland Europe: Qtearter 4 2005, shows East European haulage firms have been the big winners since their countries joined the EU in May 2004, mainly at the expense of the older EU states.
In the last year 167,000 trucks from the accession states entered the UK. The majority came from Hungary, Poland and the Czech and Slovak Republics.
Foreign vehicles now make up almost 75% of those leaving Britain for mainland Europe:1.47 million of the 2.02 million trucks travelling from the UK to mainland Europe last year were foreign registered.
Simon Chapman, chief economist at the Freight Transport Association, says East European hauliers' cheaper cost base means that UK hauliers cannot possibly match their rates: "The new figures confirm the problem is worsening.
"With the government ahan doning plans for Lorry Road User Charging last year, there's little prospect of change to this unacceptable situation for the next 10 years at the very least."
However, the report is not all bad news for UK-Continental hauliers:it shows that international journeys by UK hauliers jumped by 5% last year.