'If he wants trucks more friendly, he should look to the people who build them'
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Iwould like to comment on two articles in 'Sound Off' recently, one from the Green Party, the other from Transport 2000. For the Green Party, Gareth Edwards says lorries only pay 23% of their cost to society, and the taxpayer is subsidising the lorry. In fact, society is paying 100% of the lorries' cost by buying the goods which they move, such as food, fuel and household goods.
He says he would not immediately increase fuel tax or road tax—note the word "tax". He could increase fuel to £5 a gallon and road tax to £8,000 a year, but who would pay? Society. The hauliers would still make a profit—they would have to in order to stay in business Edwards also says that rail transport must receive a greater share of government investment to put it on a level footing with road transport. The Government has no money, it's the tax payers' money, and what Edwards wants is the Government to subsidise a defunct form of freight transport with our money.
He wants new rail lines and interchange depots and freight depots. Who will pay for all this? Society, not the Government. He says long-distance freight should go by rail to freight terminals That means most cities will have to have a terminal. Where is he going to build all these new freight terminals, and when are the freight trains going to run?.
I live on a main road and 200 yards away is the Leeds to Manchester line. During the night when a lorry goes past we can hear it, but when a train goes past the whole house vibrates, so I don't want any more freight trains at night, thank you very much.
Stephen Joseph from Transport 2000 wants lorry bans in cities and road pricing, so the further lorries travel the more they will pay. Who will pay, and who to? Society will pay to the Government as a form of hidden tax. Joseph says: "It is not acceptable for the biggest lorries to be used in high streets and town centres" He wants environmentallyfriendly haulage operations If he wants trucks more friendly he should look to the people who build them, not the people who run them. If he wants theliser to pay for any environmental damage he has to look ultimately to the end user, and that is society, every man, woman and child in the country.
So what do these people want? Let's build freight terminals near all big cities and towns and industrial estates. We'll dig up half the countryside: dig tunnels and cuttings. We'll rebuild all the railway bridges which have been pulled down and lay new tracks When that's done we'll run freight trains at night so we don't delay passenger trains during the day.
When and if the goods get to the terminal we'll use six 7.5-tonners to do the same job as one 38-tonner so we don't have big lorries in the towns We'll have six drivers, six engines polluting the atmosphere, six lots of road tax and insurance. We'll also have 18-year-old nonprofessional drivers whizzing about in these things to keep costs down.
Then we'll go down to the supermarket (if we can get there) and pay £3 for a loaf of bread and £1.50 for a tin of beans.
Now don't get me wrong, Jam all in favour of saving the environment. But doing it this way is a bit too costly for me. lam sure if these groups of people told the general public what the cost is likely to be—and told the whole story instead of clouding the issue with this environmental twaddle—they might agree.
As far as road haulage goes, lorries have got bigger, better and faster and are a lot more flexible and a lot cheaper than they used to be.
When are these environmental groups going to tell society about the hidden costs that they will have to pay? Charging hauliers for using and clogging up the motorways and making them pay for polluting the air sounds like a good idea, but it's the general public who will cough up.
I think it's time for the haulage industry to get together and tell the public that it might not be the good idea that they think it is Tell them it could be called a "transport tax"paid by the consumer through the shops and through the haulage companies to the Government, all in the name of "The Environment".
The haulage industry can start by not listening to these people. And Commercial Motor can start by not giving them any more space in its pages D If you want to sound off about a road transport issue write to features editor Patric Cunnane