Irish 0-licensing move
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IRELAND'S Fianna Fail government was poised to liberalise the country's ailing haulage industry before it was brought down last week in a vote of no confidence over its controversial economic plan entitled "They Way Forward,' writes our Irish correspondent.
Among the proposals in the plan was the granting of licences to all qualified applicants, including own-account operators, within the next two years.
Whatever the outcome of the general election, it is likely that the new incumbents will pursue a similar policy on commercial transport.
The move will produce a storm in the licensed haulage industry because unlike the UK, where own-account operators are able to backload for hire or reward, unlimited carriage of goods in Ireland is restricted to the Republic's 840 licence holders.
Their representative body, the Irish Road Haulage Association, has consistently opposed moves to liberalise the industry on the grounds that this will cause unfair competition and produce chaos in an industry which is already suffering from overcapacity.
The association's president, Jim Walsh, warned that there would be strong opposition to any moves to liberalise the industry. "We are fed up with these simplistic solutions to our problems," he said.
The economic plan, which contained the Government's economic strategy for the next four years, had accepted the report of the Transport Consultative Commission on road freight haulage which was published in July 1981. The commission recommended the phased removal of the restrictions on access to haulage to make road freight transport more efficient, flexible and competitive.
Its report concluded that restrictions on access to the professional haulage industry had impeded improvement in the quality of transport and contributed to a situation where as much as two-thirds of road freight activity continues to be undertaken by own-account vehicles. This, it said, represented under-utilisation of investment in vehicles.
The Government accepted the commission's report, according to the economic plan, and wanted to take an early decision on the report's recommendations.
However, it also said that the liberalisation would be linked with improved enforcement of the transport and traffic law.