Dip's 1992 confidence
Page 11
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• British hauliers are in good shape to reap a rich harvest in a unified European market, according to Ian Holmes, head of the international branch of the freight policy and road haulage division at the Department of Transport.
Speaking at last week's Transport and Distribution Services Show, he said: "UK hauliers will be well placed from the growth in Community road haulage and the new freedom of the wider market because they have 20 years' experience of free competition."
Our streamlined industry will be able to take business away from previously regulated hauliers in Germany and France, secure in the knowledge that the Europeans will have a tough time gaining a foothold in Britain, he said.
"We confidently expect UK hauliers to get a good share of loads carried in other member states, extra backloads, and many more export loads."
As well as benefitting from cabotage, Holmes believes a unified market will mean an end to the permit problem: "Since 1970 there has been a tenfold increase in the number of return journeys that UK hauliers are able to make, and yet through this time a position has never been reached when quotas were adequate. The 1988 quota total is only 239,500. With the abolition of EEC permits in 1992, about half a million journeys made by UK hauliers each year will be freed from bureaucratic requirements."
He assured the audience that the Government is working hard to achieve a harmonisation of tax and weight regulations by 1992. "Other member states must increase their road taxes in order at least to recoup their own infrastructure costs. With regard to weight, it is in everyone's interests to make sure competition is not distorted by unfair practices," he said.