Industry refuses to fund PR campaign
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• by Melanie Hammond A high-profile campaign designed to strengthen public support for hauliers and pressurise the Government into lowering their tax burden has been aborted after it failed to attract any sponsorship from the industry Cornwall-based marketing agency Mega Markets had planned to launch a national television advertising campaign to urge members of the public to register their support for hauliers by calling a hotline. The results of the hotline were then to be used as a lobbying tool.
The 2750,000 campaign was to have been funded by selling teeshirts with the logo "Truck Relief UK". It was scrapped when not one of the companies asked to sponsor and fund the teeshirts showed any interest.
Mega Markets wrote to 60 well-known companies within the haulage industry, asking for 2.6,500 (ex-VAT) in return for their logo appearing on the teeshirts. Only 12 of them replied and they all declined to offer their support.
Peter Hyatt from Mega Markets is disillusioned with the lack of support from non hauliers within the industry. "All they're interested in is people buying trucks," he says. "Once they're out of the door that's the end of it. It works out that they're not even prepared to give 12p to every haulier.
"We haven't even had one firm acknowledgement that there's a problem within the industry," he adds. "Only Bass and Whitbread have said their delivery companies might want to reply, but apart from that we've had nothing."
Mega Markets wrote to truck manufacturers, major retail groups, tyre manufacturers and oil companies.
The Road Haulage Association, the Freight Transport Association and Trans-Action also chose not to provide any financial backing, despite applauding the motive behind the campaign.