European employers slam Kinnock's intermodal plan
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• The organisation of European employers has branded EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock's road transport policy as unrealistic and dangerous for the competitiveness of EU industry.
Kinnock's plan to promote the transfer of traffic from road to other modes would not work because "rail, inland navigation, short-sea shipping and multimodal transport are simply not ready to cope with the extra tonnage", says the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE).
It adds that 85% of road deliveries are shorter than 150km, making alternative solutions questionable. The Commission's policy boils down to using road transport as a "convenient cash cow", according to FTA deputy director-general Richard Turner.
UNICE says that EU trans port and logistics costs are already I 6 % higher than the USA's and 21% higher than Japan's. Turner believes that tackover freight plan. ling pollu
tion and congestion requires a mix of solutions that also involves passenger traffic.
Freight accounts for less than 10% of European road traffic, says Turner. He suggests that EU policy makers should examine the "transferability of people between modes". Passengers and car drivers would be better targets, he believes, because they are "self-loading freight". Kinnock: Row