Major move to third party
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• Haulage runs are getting longer, empty running is in decline and own-account haulage is going out of fashion,
Those are the facts owner-drivers will welcome in the DOT's latest report: Transport of Goods by Road in Great Britain 1996. The greatest change is in the shift from own-account to third-party haulage, continuing a trend that has run with barely a blip since 1980.
Owner-drivers and haulage companies shifted 62% of the 1.6bn tonnes moved in the UK last year, compared with 61% in 1995 and 50% in 1980. They accounted for 74% of tonnekilometres shifted—the same as in 1995 but significantly ahead of the 61% recorded in 1980.
Empty running continued to fall, accounting for 28.7% of
goods vehicle mileage in 1996, compared with 29.4% in 1995 and 32.6% in 1980.
Signs that the economy is suffering in some sectors also emerged with the Department's claim that the volume of freight moved by the industry in 1996 was only 2.2% higher than in 1995, compared with a 4% rise between 1994 and 1995.
In 1996 Britain's goods vehicles moved 147bn tonne-kilometres; the annual rate of growth between 1980 and 1996 averaged 3.1%.
Britain runs 421,000 HGVs including 110,000 artics, according to separate DOT figures on licensing statistics,
This is a 0.7% rise on 1995 and marks the third annual increase since the decline from the 1989 peak of 478,000 vehicles,