• A Channel Tunnel would be of little use to
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British hauliers because "it is in the wrong place for road freight movements into Europe," says Mr Philip Turner, chairman and managing director of P and 0 Road Services Ltd and a past national chairman of the Road Haulage Association.
In an interview with Eric Gibbins published in the summer edition of Pirelli Ltd's journal Cat's Eye, Mr Turner also complained that the Tunnel would be largely passenger oriented. Its location would allow only a limited traffic catchment area on both sides of the Channel and he could foresee freight clearance problems plus marshalling difficulties and bottlenecks at the Tunnel's end.
On the subject of gross vehicle weights, Mr Turner criticized the present UK 32-ton limit for inhibiting the deep-sea container operator enormously. . At the moment shippers had to underload containers which could lead to load distribution problems for the road operator. Because shipping operators were increasingly moving over to 40ft containers this problem of load distribution was aggravated — because of the inability to load the bigger container to its maximum load.
The problem was greater, emphasized Mr Turner, at deep-sea ports like Liverpool, Southampton, Tilbury, Felixstowe and Grangemouth than those serving the short sea routes where 20ft and 30ft containers predominated.
Referring to EEC influences on British transport policies, Mr Turner thought that an amalgamation of haulier and freight forwarder was likely, resulting in greater professionalism. There would be greater restrictions on quantity and quality of transport operations. Hauliers were either going to be very big or very small, and it was likely that in the long term rates schedules would have to be published.
Cv auctions for SW
• Central Motor Auctions is opening new premises in the South West on August 16. The new premises will be at Berkeley Road, Cam, Dursley, Gloucestershire. The first of the firm's monthly sales of heavy commercial vehicles will take place on the day of opening.