Welcome our allies!
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Thank goodness for the French. Not our usual cry, we admit, and certainly not what many British hauliers must feel as they queue at ports watching ever increasing numbers of French and other foreign vehicles enter the country to pinch UK haulage business. But when it comes to taking action the French know how to get results. And their two main gripes at the moment will be of particular interest to hauliers throughout Europe—the price of fuel and illegal immigrants.
The complaint from the French trade association FNTR about the cost of diesel around Europe may ring hollow in Britain, given that the price of a litre of diesel in France is about 6op. However, the FNTR is calling for a system that reflects essential usage and for tax rebates of up to 5% for hauliers throughout Europe—and that has our wholehearted support.
On the immigrants issue, it isn't only UK vehicles that get saddled with ridiculous and unfair fines for stowaways. Latest figures show about one in eight drivers served with penalty notices are French.
It remains to be seen what success the FNTR will have on either issue, but their pressure on the European authorities to act can only help.
What an irony if British hauliers were ultimately to be saved from extinction through high fuel pricing by the foreign hauliers we have all enjoyed blaming for our plight! And what a damning reflection on the UK sector that while news of French unrest gives us fresh hope, news of unrest within Britain, whether by our trade associations or by hauliers themselves, is all too often so wildly exaggerated—as recent "protest" action proves only too well.