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Drivers count the cost

10th March 1984, Page 26
10th March 1984
Page 26
Page 26, 10th March 1984 — Drivers count the cost
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

NOW THAT the blockades are over and all British drivers involved have returned home, the true cost of the French crisis is at last becoming apparent.

The total number of British drivers blockaded has never been verified, but it is possible to guess that at least 400 were stuck in France alone. Some of these were employees, some "self employed", and the balance owner-drivers.

The survey undertaken by the Routiers Drivers Club shows that individual losses (excluding all insured losses) over the ten-day period have ranged from £160 worth of trip or wages to £3,000 of lost revenue for the ownerdriver.

Although calculating the average loss across the 400 drivers is difficult, it is likely to be at least £500 and may be as much as £1,000. Simple multiplication tells us that the total bill must be in the range £200,000 to £400,000.

This compares with the FFr2,000 (£166) per vehicle offered by the French Government from M Fiterman's fund. If all drivers had collected this, the total recovered would have been £68,000, a shortfall of at least £140,000.

But not all drivers received the money as Ron Higgins's story confirms. In fact, no more than half the drivers received the hand out, making a maximum sum recovered of £34,000 or 17 per cent of the uninsured sums lost.

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