Ise No 1: Permits — who needs them?
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ERIES ABOUT permits and )tas have always been high the list of inquiries from our mbers. There seem to be few igs which cause the Itinental freight driver to red more often.
'roblems with the endless )erwork inevitably cause ays and frustrations, as CFDC mber Rick Wells of Aington in Sussex found with his bonus extra Italian permits.
This summer, the Department of Transport announced after talks with the Italian Transport Ministry that a further 2,000 Italian general quota and a further 500 co-operation quota permits would be available to British hauliers this year.
Unfortunately, the French and West Germans have not offered more permits to match, so hauliers such as Mr Wells have often found themselves short of authorisation for the countries 'en route.
This situation has been made apparent by the fact that extra permits are being offered to operators prepared to surrender French or West German general quota permits from their 1984 bilateral allocations {CM November 19) for redistribution.
Clearly, there is insufficient coordination at present between EEC member states over road haulage. The question "Do we need permits at all?" has begun to be asked.
In the last six months there has been much discussion within the EEC of removing the present controls and restrictions on Community road transport.
It remains to be seen whether the EEC Transport Ministers can come to a decision at their meeting on December 20 on a subject on which they are split. What will win, protection of national railways, or a free market for hauliers?