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Roil rood turnaround
Page 5
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OWN ACCOUNT operators all over the country have been forced to consider switching the transport of their freight from rail to road. This is entirely a result of the 'brinksmanship' rail dispute involving the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF), and the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR).
The rail union's decision (ASLEF) to call of its planned 24-hour strike on Wednesday came too late for many operators who had already made alternative plans to use road haulage.
And with the threat of further industrial action by the rail men, many own account operators have drawn up con tingency plans to transfer more freight to the roads.
One supermarket chain's distribution director told CM that his company considered it environmentally desirable to move goods in bulk over long distance by rail.
But they could not afford to take chances: "Already traffic moving between Scotland and the South of England has been switched from rail to road freight," he said.
A Freightliner spokesman commented that the company would be moving an extra ten per cent of its 3,000 containers a day by road and would be re-scheduling as many trains as possible.
In the event of a series of strikes we would obviously be looking for other means of moving our freight," he said, "but we are in contact with our customers over this."
He added that many of the Freightliner trains were scheduled to run overnight and these would be altered to run immediately up to and immediately after the end of a stoppage. _ The Freight Transport Association said that it would not be putting out any advice to members on how to cope with the situation but was ready to give advice if called upon to do so.
A spokesman added: "Our members know their own situation best and are making their own arrangements but we shall be here if there are individual problems," he said.