Clarifying cabotage
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A new EU cabotage regime comes into force in May. Do operators in the UK stand to gain or lose under the new regulations?
Words: Guy Sheppard Anew cabotage regime is due to come into force in May. The aim is to make enforcement easier, but could it also encourage more foreign competiton for UK domestic work?
The impact that cabotage has on the UK haulage market is not significant, and is mostly focused around the Channel, North Sea and Irish Sea ports, according to the Department for Transport (DT). This assessment, as revealed in a DfT "explanatory memorandumon new cabotage rules, is scant comfort to Ipswich-hased Magnus Group, which runs a fleet of 90 vehicles.
General manager John Springer estimates that, every night. between 30 and 40 foreign trucks are parked up at the ports of Ipswich, Felixstowe and Harwich, ready to haul unaccompanied trailers around the UK the next day.
He adds: "It is something we have had to live with for years, but it forces down rates.The biggest argument I have is that they have no operating centres and they are not paying high rental for depots It is not a level playing field."
From 14 May, any cabotage work done within the European Union (EU) will be limited to three domestic jobs within a seven-day period. This replaces a system long-criticised for being too vague and difficult to enforce. A VOSA spokeswoman argues that, under the current system, cabotage must be temporary in nature. He says: The biggest problem with this is that the EU has never provided any legal definition of 'temporary' in legislation." She adds that enforcement officers have always found it difficult to determine exactly how much cabotage activity constituted a breach of the requirements. If this is proved, VOSA can fine offenders £200.
Is the UK a soft touch?
George White, an owner-driver based near Mansfield, who mostly delivers for the ex-patriot community in south-west France. says the UK has traditionally been regarded as a soft touch by foreign hauliers as far as cabotage is concerned. "Almost any foreigner would think they have a good chance of getting away with it," he says.
The prospect of better enforcement should reassure operators like Magnus, but the DIT memorandum states "it is likely that the number of contracts in the UK won by non-UK operators will increase as a result of the changes".
This concerns Road Haulage Association head of international affairs Peter Cullum. "What we are worried about, with three in seven, is it will effectively allow foreign drivers to have almost a full week's work taking internal loads and then going out of the country empty."
He believes the only good thing from the new regime is that the onus has shifted from enforcement agencies to caboteurs to prove compliance.
Chris Yarsley, European affairs manager at the Freight Transport Association, agrees "There was a whole mish-mash of definitions, and this is much clearer and is much more enforceable. In the past,VOSA had to do stake-outs and follow vehicles. No it's up to the driver to show the validity of the journey."
VOSA says it will check from the names, addresses and signatures of the sender, haulier and consignee as well as the type of goods being carried and the method used to pack them. However, there are doubts about how effective this approach will be.
Magnus's Springer says a foreign operator could easily do six domestic loads in two days, let alone an entire week and exceeding the maximum number of domestic loads will be easy. "All you do is to keep two documents in a folder and say 'this is what I have done: lf asked what you've been doing on other days, you just say, 'I've been parked up waiting for instructions" The International Road Transport Union's (MU) head of EU goods transport Marc Billiet is equally dubious.
He says: -There is no particular control document linked to cabotage, and there is no authorisation to do cabotage. The FU can't prescribe how, in detail, the records need to be enforced."
Like Springer, Billiet says that it will be extremely difficult to prove how many journeys are done in a seven-day period and remains unconvinced this can be checked efficiently despite speaking to several authorities who claim they can.
Not a problem
However, some UK-based international operators believe any threat posed to domestic operators is probably overstated. Peter Denby, managing director of Lincolnbased Denby Transport, says: "It is one of those issues that raises a bit of emotion but, in my experience, it has never been \ significant for anybody."
Nick Charlesworth, director of Kent-based Laser \ Transport International, , comments: "I don't see it as opening the floodgates to the UK transport industry; being an island does give some protection."
And Billiet confirms that, despite the wage and fuel cost advantages that many Continental operators have in the UK, the main areas for cabotage are France and Belgium, with the Dutch and Germans the main caboteurs.
However, he says that new EU member states are expected to become important caboteurs as well following the completion of a transition period for new entrants last year.
The prospect of UK operators increasing their cabotage penetration in Europe seems remote. As a net importer of goods, the opportunities for international haulage are reduced anyway.
The attitude of David Rogers, managing director of Northampton-based EM Rogers Transport, seems typical of UK international hauliers. lie says his firm does some cabotage in Italy and Spain, but it's usually too fiddly to arrange unless a client asks for it. He adds: "You are not going to get fat on it and 1 don't want to do a lot of it." •