Perfecting permit paperwork
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?reviously used or expired permits have been returned. Me second quarter is issued when two-thirds of the first quarter have been returned properly completed. Similarly the third quarter's issue is made when all permits for the first quarter, and two-thirds of the permit for the second quarter have been returned. The final quarter is not released until half of the total allocation and two-thirds of the permits for the third quarter have been returned properly completed to the IRFO. Operators with a block allocation of less than 12 permits can take up their allocation in two halves.
In any case, permits should be returned properly completed within 15 days of the completion of the journey or, if the permit is unused, within 15 days of its expiry date. Permits outstanding from the previous year are deducted from the current allocation and the further issue of permits could be suspended until the outstanding permits were returned.
Mr Hughes told me that by analysing the returns it is possible for the department to monitor how effectively operators are using permits. For example, trade with Italy has been rather sluggish in some commodities this year and the department has been able to offer a few additional permits to those operators whose traffic has not been affected.
Permits are not directly transferable to another operator and may only be used for vehicles authorised on an operator's licence which are properly taxed. However an operator may ask for the transfer by the IRFO of up to 10 per cent of his block allocation to other operators provided that he has genuine operational reasons for doing so, and provided the recipient applies on the appropriate form.
Even though hauliers failing to comply with this ruling are liable to a minimum penalty involving the loss of one quarter of their block allocation, the department suspects that some unauthorised transfers are taking place between operators and their sub-contractors. The IRFO carries complete files on all the operators on its books and regular checks are made to bring •the information up to date, for example operators travelling on " piggy-back " permits have their journey records vetted to see that in fact the vehicles did use the railway for the greater part of their journey.
The EEC permits
Under the bilateral permit, tramping operations are not permissible but as members of the EEG the UK has been allocated a small number of EEC permits. These enable operators to make journeys between any of the nine member countries (Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Eire, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands and UK), using empty or laden vehicles. These permits are available only for hire or reward operation and cannot be used for unaccompanied traffic. Neither can they be used to replace bilateral permits for transit purpose to take vehicles through •an EEC country into a non-member country. The EEC permit costs £60 and is valid for a year for one vehicle at a time but there is no limit on the number of journeys.
Britain also holds 20 ECMT —European Conference of Ministers of Transport—permits and these are valid between the 18 member States of the ECMT. These comprise the original EEC countries together with Austria, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Yugoslavia, and the conditions governing their use are similar to those of EEC permits.
As yet no permits for Middle East operations are required but the IRFO are recommending that operators with shipments for the Middle East should look closely at the possibility of using the Continental railway " piggy-back " system.
Mr Hughes told me that many of the problems which appear to beset operators wishing to take their vehicles abroad would be solved if only they would take the trouble to ask the department for information and then study that information before making any other move. The department's comprehensive guide Your Lorry Abroad (which was serialised in CM) will answer most of the questions and it is written in plain English that anyone should be able to understand. NOT for the first time, a section of the road transport industry is faced with a problem of identity which prompt and concerted steps may help to solve. .A 'novelty in this case is the need to take the action into other countries.
International operators who .built up a good reputation for themselves in the early days now find the going less easy. Public attention has been directed away from them to some less repittable newcomers.
The entry of vehicles from abroad, and their use of sensitive routes lined with protesting citizens—at least that is what the volume of propaganda would lead one to imagine—has made the situation worse. The international lorry is more and more identified with the hatted juggernaut.
Operators, however well established, ought not to let the situation drift. They need to establish their separate identity. They may have the ear of government, or at any rate of the civil servants, but this will not be sufficient if the activities even of a few mavericks lead to a public demand for unwelcome restrictions.
• Ever since the Government imposed its own version of order upon the road transport industry 50 years ago, the tradition has been that operators, confronted with a new set of circumstances, discuss what ought to be done, sometimes very sensibly, but in the end are drawn into a new phase by legislation that they have not played a major part in shaping.
There are occasional exceptions. For example, a few hauliers took the initiative in devising a career Structure and a training scheme for lorry drivers under the age of 21, and have now seen regulations under way which are very much •in line with itheir proposals. They made up their minds what was wanted, and took the necessary steps in public and in private to achieve It.
The opportunity is still there to follow the example in the international field. Most of the operators realise that the main task is to persuade the customer with the traffic to be prudent in his choice of carrier. But he has to be guided to where, the suitable carriers are, and given a means of identifying them. Up to this point, the requirement is for a more or less normal publicity campaign. What is new in the situation is that operators will have to conduct the campaign on an international and not merely a national basis. They must be active and keep in touch with what is happening in every country through which their vehicles run.
Evidence of the need is already there. Governments, when they are moved to act, favour legislation which allows as few exceptions as possible, unless there is good reason to identify them. Irritation at the increase in dubious clocumentabion and other practices prompted the Yugoslav authorities to cancel the useful arrangement under which operators without a permit were allowed past the frontier on payment of a fee.
Humiliating
The prohibition is no respecter of persons. It means that many operators who had found it useful to travel through Yugoslavia are now under the humiliating necessity of using another longer and more expensive route. If they had had a clearer and corporate identity in the country they might have been able to make a better arrangement.
The necessity is not always obvious to the people mainly concerned. They must guard against the danger of thinking themselves secure and complacently ignoring the wild men beyond the pale. The general public, including trade and industry, and especially overseas, may not easily be able to make the distinction.
Most international operators 'appreciate the situation. They know that in many countries their image has been damaged. The task in those countries, as in the UK, is to establish, or re-establish, their reputation as something different in kind from that of the minority of mostly new operators who have crossed the Channel with no coherent idea of the many problems they would encounter. THE only cross-Channel ferry operator to be running a freight-only service for driveraccompanied vehicles—that is the claim of Truckline Ferries Ltd.
The company, based at Poole, Dorset, operates two• vessels on three trips daily to and from Cherbourg. The vessels, which are identical, can carry 24 vehicles but, owing to a Board of Trade regulation, only 12 drivers. The unlucky 12 drivers who cannot be accommodated on each trip are flown across the Channel and meet up their charges in time to clear customs.
The cost of moving 72 drivers a week by air must be enormous and it has to be absorbed in the operating costs. M Jean Duval, Truckline's UK freight manager, would not say how much the "flying drivers" were costing, nor would he reveal what his base rate was per linear foot. So relating the strange overhead to the operating cost was impossible.
Indeed, I almost felt privileged to be told what little he was prepared to divulge! "I will tell you the truth: we are five per cent above the Dover/ Calais rate and 10 per cent below the Southampton/Le Havre rate."
He explained that because they did not need to carry a "tourist crew" for 52 weeks and use it fully for only a few months his company could pay the air fare and still operate more economically than dualpurpose operators. The PooleCherbourg run takes around four hours and there are sailing's from both ports at 08.00, 15.00 and 23.00 hours. On Saturdays there are no night sailings.
In addition to its unique freight services Truckline enjoys the back-up facility of exclusive customs clearance. Because it is the only operator into the port the entire Poole custom's staff clear its 72 vehicles every 24 hours,
8 min clearance
Provided the documentation is correct vehicles can be cleared in a relatively short time. In fact eight minutes is claimed as a record for clearing a load of perishables, but one hour is considered normal for this type of traffic. I was told that the ferry which leaves Cherbourg at 08.00 hours and arrives in Poole at 13.00 hours is guaranteed to be clear of the port by 17.00 hours. The next ferry which arrives at 20.00 hours is clear by 21.30 and the night ferry which berths at 06.00 hours is clear by 12.00 hours. During the weekend a one-hour clearance is guaranteed for all vehicles; this takes into account bringing the drivers from the nearby Hum airport at Bournemouth.
Quick port clearance is undoubtedly assisted by the presence of 17 agents, who are based within the compound. These agents, provided they are supplied with the manifest in advance, can expedite through-traffic considerably.
The Truckline service was established in April, 1973, in association with Compagnie Naval Worms, but already it has outgrown its vessel capacity. New customers, large and small, are inquiring for space every week, according to Mr M. Wiswould, the commercial manager. During my visit I met Mr William Cowie, the Southern BRS manager, from Dunstable. Mr Cowie had tried 10 vehicles on the service before deciding to negotiate a contract. He told me: "On the run from the South West of England or the area west of London through to Paris we have proved Poole/Cherbourg to be worth while. Whether or not we can use it economically on other routes remains to be seen."
Every ferry operator has been faced at sometime during its development with an approach-road problem and Truckline is no exception. I covered the network of approach roads in southern Dorset after leaving M3 and the situation is almost a complete parallel with the Kent approaches to Dover of a decade ago. It may be that Poole will benefit from the efforts of the Minister for Transport, Dr John Gilbert, who has already made it clear that one of his principal concerns is an adequate road network to cope with, among other things, heavy goods vehicles (CM September 26). In the meantime, Truckline is not in any position to influence the planners.
Motorway network
M Wiswould sees the catchment area in Britain as the industrial North West, the Midlands, South Wales, the West Country and London, and points out that already M6, M5, M4 and M3 almost complete the motorway network to the port. But there are still these last 30-odd miles, which will continue to cause problems.
The signposting both to Poole and inside the town I found to be inadequate; indeed, the first indication I had that I was near the port occurred when I was 11 miles away. Once inside this old and pleasant Dorset town there were no signs which would indicate to a driver how to approach the roll-on/roll-off ferry until he reached the centre of the town, when it might be too late to avoid bottlenecks. Thereafter, there are only two official signs. Truckline, through the good offices of property owners, has managed to erect its own unobtrusive signs in the immediate harbour area.
In my discussions locally I sensed passive resistance amongst the locals to the "TIR lorries." It will require some diplomatic public relations work and a better understanding among the bureaucrats and councillors if an East Kent situation is to be avoided. By contrast the approach roads to Cherbourg 67 miles across the Channel are of dual-carriageway and motorway standards.
Something will certainly need to be done in Dorset in side the next 18 months, because by then two new and larger ferries will go into service. These vessels will carry twice as many vehicles, and cause twice as much congestion until the approach roads are improved.
Did this mean four vessels out of Poole in 1977? No, the present vessels would be withdrawn, M Duval told me. To be scrapped, I queried? With many Gallic gestures he told me I was wrong, very wrong. "They will go into service elsewhere," he said, "and still on an exclusive freight service." But where? "I would tell you the truth (again), but I do not wish to upset my friends in Southampton so you will just have to wait and see."
Free meals
In the meantime, Truckline is hoping for dispensation from the Board of Trade to allow it to carry the additional "flying drivers," who will then be able to enjoy the facilities provided for those who sail. Each driver is supplied with a free meal. Depending on the sailing time this could be lunch or dinner; lunch is supplied on the 08.00 hour sailing, the other two crossings having a dinner menu. There is also a dutyfree shop on board the vessels, and they carry the normal driver requirements. "In other words we carry no perfumes," said M Duval.
The whole emphasis at Truckline is on the commercial aspect. M Wiswould stressed that with all of its energies directed towards freight customers the company was able to offer a highly efficient and competitive service. I had the opportunity later to talk to only two drivers who had used the service; they had no complaints and were satisfied with the service, as indeed were their operator bosses.