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by Johnny Johnson
APART from Customs clearance, transport, like music, knows no frontiers and wherever transport men gather the problems they encounter seem to be similar. But when they do gather, do they discuss the same problems? Apparently they do, if the 30th annual congress of the Federation Nationale des Transports Routiers (FNTR), the French equivalent of our Road Haulage Association, is anything to go by. But some problems, also like music, go around and around.
The Federation which, unlike the RHA, includes passenger transport operators, held its conference a few days before the British Road Haulage and Freight Transport Associations met in Bournemouth and Eastbourne, respectively, last month. Some of the subjects discussed will raise memory echoes for British hauliers.
For instance, operators were worried about the study being undertaken to create a superlicence to drive heavy goods vehicles—shades of 1968 and the British heavy goods vehicle licence. There will be problems of renewal in five years, there will be a shortage of drivers, the cost of obtaining a heavy goods vehicle licence will be prohibitive, for already in one driving school in the Paris area lessons cost 1,500F (about t150), said operators attending the conference. It all happened here seven years ago.
On the other hand French hauliers are in the lead in some instances. There was a great deal of discussion on the effect that the French proposals to support their economy would have on road haulage over there. The British proposals to meet current economic needs and revitalise the nation's industry had not then been published and almost a month was to go by before British hauliers could judge how they would be affected; they became aware of the Government's .policy on this subject only last week. A transport policy is still awaited.
From conference reports available, it is not possible to give details of the French Govornment's recommendations for the road haulage industry in that country but they must have been acceptable, for the FNTR welcomed the measures taken in favour of hauliers. The only grouse was that they were unhappy with the recent 3.6 per cent increase in fuel prices and the effect it would have on the economy as a whole.
Like British road authorities, however, their French counterparts were proving unrealistic in their expenditure on roadbuilding. The FNTR delegates complained of the paucity of funds being made available for this purpose. They pointed out that in 1974 and 1975 only 10 and 15 per cent increases were budgeted for, and in 1976 only 7 per cent more would be available. These increases were insufficient to cover the cost of work left unfinished from the preceding years, they said, and because the motorways were denied to abnormal indivisible loads, there was a need for alternative routes to be constructed for this traffic.
Speed limits and road safety figured in discussion and a call for relief from value added tax on fuel and lubricating Oil was made. Operators were told that the Government was studying proposals for modification. Could it be that French fuel might become cheaper than British fuel shortly ?
The difficulty of obtaining credit to finance business operations was evident from a discussion on the need for new directives to be given by the Government to organisations responsible for arranging credit both for ,long-term arrangements in acquiring in stallations and equipment and in financing short-term loans to consolidate a company's financial position.
During a debate about the possibility of reducing working hours to 45 weekly, and the possible difficulty of enforcement, it became plain that French hauliers are not at all happy about the reliability of tachographs. This was particularly disturbing when they were fitted to a tipper on which the vibration tended to induce malfunction. It was said that the instrument manufacturers, the operators and the FNTR were to meet shortly to seek a solution to this problem.
Both passenger and freight operators aired their views. During the passenger transport session, such subjects as publicity, school services, fares and fuel were debated.
It was suggested that a publicity campaign should be launched aimed at alerting the public to the reduction in services which would result from the financial allocation for 1977 for passenger road transport.
French passenger operators also wanted to be allowed to use rebated fuel as did French railways and farmers. Many of the problems were similar to those in Britain, however. Subventions for services operated for social reasons, a review of fares for regular services, new fares and revised networks for school buses and further control of school coaches were among these.
Purely freight problems bore a distinct similarity to those facing British hauliers in the main. Such things as uncertainty about the certificate of professional competency for entry to the industry; difficulty in persuading customers that rates increase were justified; complaints about the proliferation of what the British haulier would describe as own-account transport and the lack of control on this sector; the unsatisfactory arrangements for loading and unloading at customers' premises.
On this last subject, however, the French have a problem which the British haulier has not yet encountered. There is an allocation in the obligatory (forked) tariff, to which the Continental hauliers are subject though still as an experiment, to allow for loading and unloading but it is not sufficient to cover the cost, according to the French operators. Indeed, there was a strong call for the abolition of the obligatory tariff altogether. They also wanted the motorways to be free for freight vehicles—French motorways are virtually all toll roads.
On the international front, there was a suggestion that international journey permits should be related to the needs of French internal transport needs (do they want to reduce the number of permits to foreign hauliers?). Reciprocal exemption from transport taxes in other countries; exemption from VAT for import traffic; extension of financial guarantees now granted to exporters to haulage operators, and promotion of Middle East transport were also wanted.
Doubts about the fair treatment of French drivers abroad were evident from the request that the Government increases its protection for them by making more aid available from diplomatic sources. Perhaps they should weigh their vehicles before leaving their own country.