T he potential for increased backloads in Europe seems enormous: 8%
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of UK trucks travel back from the Continent empty. The abolition of frontier checks and the removal of all restrictions on international haulage within the European Community on 1 January this year should have made the possibilities even more self-evident. Not only did it bring an end to lengthy delays, but it allows international operators to calculate with far more accuracy how long journeys will take.
Dave Green, international affairs' controller for the Freight Transport Association, says: "The increase in certainty that the removal of border controls provides will make it much easier to arrange backloads on an ad-hoc basis." But he points out that UK operators have always been efficient at backloading and the scope to expand it may not be that great. This is because the UK imports far more goods from Brit European Transport, based in Stoke has also found increased opportunities for cross-trading. Dave Ellis, senior traffic operator, says: "Before, you would think twice about taking low rated traffic across Europe because of the delays. Now we are much more inclined to take it." He says this particularly applies to loads between Spain and Italy. "You can just about cover your costs on that trip and then get good rates back from Italy."
Whether these examples herald the start of a major trend remains to be seen. But Jim Hardy, sales and marketing manager for Route] (081-975 9759), the other UK licensee for Teleroute, claims the potential amount of business that UK hauliers could carry between EC countries is substantial.
"It's now more cost-effective to keep vehicles in Europe because they can travel freely between countries. The information that is carried by Teleroute is spreading into Teleroute has broadened our range of contacts ." He says it is important to establish the credentials of any potential new customer, however. This need for caution is emphasised by Routel's Hardy: "Although we do our best to monitor the situation and will take issue with companies when there are problems, people still need to be sensible ." Apart from scepticism about the quality of loads available on freight exchanges, there are also strong doubts about the scope for increasing backloading in Europe anyway.
Melvyn Peters, teaching fellow at the Cranfield Centre for Logistics and Transportation, says: "It is very difficult to plan journeys around inconsistent requests; you probably have timetables which are determined by customers and you dare not start disrupting them."
Colin Beaumont, trade division manager of the British International Freight Association (BEFA), is equally dubious about freight exchanges. "There are lots of practical reasons why it is not very successful even though it looks a brilliant idea on paper. Loads never seem to materialise in the right place at the right time."
Beaumont says he never receives requests from BIFA members for backloading opportunities. "The general philosophy for them is to only fund their own transport if they have the basis of a fairly secure two-way operation." With cabotage still limited, the full benefits of the single market have yet to be realised. But according to the FTMs Green, cabotage is unlikely to be of great interest to UK hauliers anyway. "It is important that agreement should be reached but most UK-based international hauliers are more concerned about finding a load which gets them ham(" This view is born out by the cabotage quota system which was introduced and extended last year after the EC f reach agreement on the issue. Betwe and December last year, the equivale two-month cabotage permits were t2 by UK operators, compared with 1,0 France and 1,314 in Germany.
Green says that one of the most u: ways that cabotage permits can be u UK operators is to pick up unaccomi wailers from the French Channel poi delivery within France. Even if oppc for cabotage and backloads to the 1.11 limited, the scope for cross-trading i. seems bound to grow as trade in the expands. If Teleroute is anything to , hauliers have plenty of catching up I Although the number of its subscrib this country grew by a third last yea still amount to just 5% of the total throughout Europe.
0 by Guy Sheppard