Truckers' protest rolls into London by David Craik • Hauliers
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are hailing last week's London TransAction truck demonstration as a success, but they warn the Government that it "ain't seen nothin' yet".
On Friday, more than 100 trucks, mainly from Kent and Merseyside, emblazoned with signs and banners denouncing fuel-tax rises, descended on the capital and drove in convoy around a route agreed with the police.
The convoy appeared to split up because of the already congested streets and the protesters failed to have a major impact on traffic during the day. But the size of the demonstration showed that there is a new and powerful resolve among hauliers that direct action is the only way to challenge their spiralling costs.
Chris Cain of Liverpool-based TR Group Holdings refused to join the approved route and headed on his own to Trafalgar Square. Cain, who dressed as the Grim Reaper to symbolise the death of the haulage industry, was disappointed that more protesters did not join him. "The demo would have been more effective if the trucks had all stopped in the streets on my unofficial route," he says. "It should have been better organised."
But fellow Kent haulier Mike Beer, of Mike Beer Transport, says traffic disruption was not the main aim of the demonstration—it was simply designed to raise the profile of the problems hauliers faced.
John Donald of Donald Transport (see panel, right) says the message did get across to the public on London's streets. However, he and Cain are angered by the lack of media coverage. "Was it suppressed?" he asks. "Maybe if we were gay, pot-smoking environmentalists who loved fox hunting our message would have got across!"
Demonstrator Vaughan Howland, owner of Kent haulage firm V Howland, praises his colleagues for organising such a large demonstration at short notice. However, he says there should have been more banners and more publicity. "The lack of organisation let the demonstration down," he says, "and the Road Haulage Association must ' take the blame."
Howland says up to 30 Kent hauliers are planning to resign their membership of the association in protest against the lack of support on the day.
Beer also blames the RHA for the lack of publicity. He believes it should have been there to talk to the cameras: "It should remember we pay its salaries," he says. "It must support legal direct action."
But the RHA and the Freight Transport