cabotage plans
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
cabotage will also "allow unsafe vehicles and below-standard drivers", to operate in Britain.
The union's Greater Manchester branch secretary Jack Crossfield, who is one of the organisers of the anticabotage campaign, says the campaign "is not just for cabotage, but to create stronger links within the union". He expects more regional conferences after Scarborough.
Crossfield asserts that "in view of the imbalance of trade and the growth of numbers of foreign registered vehicles making international trips to and from the UK, UK operators will find it more difficult to catch both outbound traffic and return loads."
Following the election the TGWU is expected to brief all those MPs it sponsors —currently 31 — on cabotage.
Ashwell says a lot of MPs might "change their tune when they realise that some of their support is from road haulage".
Among the politicians already backing the TGWU campaign is Labour MEP Les Huckfield who will be speaking at Scarborough.
The FTA's director of Transport User Services, Jack Welsh, says that while the association is in favour of cabotage, which "will help in return-load traffic and improve the operating revenue of UK hauliers", he believes that the channel will provide a natural barrier to continental hauliers. He reports that a limited trial in 1988 is a possibility.
RHA International Group Director Bob Duffy, however, says that support for cabotage is subdued throughout the EEC and that there is no great pressure for anyone to get it done before 1992.