Will hauliers take to the streets in 2001?
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• When Roger King took over at the Road Haulage Association in April, he surely couldn't have known what he was getting himself into. In the subsequent months there would a blockade of oil refineries, a war of words with the government and a nation brought to a standstill— an interesting, not to say unusual, way to kick off your first nine months in office.
Campaign
So, while King might be pondering whether he should have applied for a different job, the big question for his association is how to continue a campaign that many think has already reached the end of the line.
One of the striking features of the summer of discontent was thatat one stage it took the focus away from King and his more seasoned counterpart at the Freight Transport Association, David Green. Once the barricades went up they were quickly forgotten by the national media, while a disparate band of hauliers and farmers took centre stage. But now the focus has returned to the trade associations, and they acknowledge that the top issue for most hauliers, diesel prices, remains unresolved.
"There is no doubting that it has been an interesting year for the haulage industry, and one that has seen the fight move on in leaps and bounds," says King, who readily admits that concessions offered by the Chancellor in November came about as the result of the blockades. "I think the speed of events took everyone by surprise—even us to some extent. But we had been warning the government that something like it would happen."
But given that UK hauliers are still paying the highest diesel prices in Europe, what is the RHA's next move? "Over the next few days we are going to be sitting down to examine where we stand on future policy and certain issues, including our demand for the essential user rebate," says King.
Concessions
'Although the government has made concessions, diesel prices are still too high in this country, and we have to continue to campaign to get them lowered. We are already talking to the European Commission about the imposition of a maximum cap on fuel duty across the EU, and we are getting some very favourable responses.
"The EU currently sets minimum fuel duty levels, and we see no reason why it shouldn't set a maximum as well. We know we've got to keep the pressure on over fuel duty, and we will."
David Green says the past 15 months have been the most extraordinary in the ETA's history: "I can't remember a year when we have met so many senior politicians, from the Prime Minister down, and there have been so many dramatic events.
"The industry has been offered a raft of measures, from vehicle excise duty rebates to the introduction of impounding, but the challenge now is to keep up the pressure. The government has announced a £1.1bn package for road transport and a 10-year plan—it's now up to us to make sure it delivers the measures that will help the industry most."
The ETA famously told the Chancellor that hauliers needed a 15p/lit cut in fuel duty to restore parity with European competitors, and it knows this is still an issue that has to be addressed. "I think everyone needs to take a little time to reflect on the events of the past year and to ponder the next move," says Green. "Certainly we continue to believe that trucks have to be treated differently from cars in terms of fuel [diesel] duty, and that doesn't have to mean an essential user rebate, We have an election coming up next year, and will continue to press for that at the [Road Transport] forum."
Commentators
If we had asked both men, as football commentators are so fond of doing, whether they would have accepted the concessions at the beginning of the year, both would probably have said yes.
But the acid test of whether the government has done enough to help hauliers will come in the next 12 months, when we see how many more gob the wall.