FTA challenges Blunkett
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• Fines levied on firms for carrying Mega, stowaways have now passed the £12m mark, prompting the Freight Transport Association to challenge the Home Secretary to a meeting.
If David Blunkett accepts, he will face the FTA, EWS Railways, Eurostar, Eurotunnel, P&O Stena Line, Sea France and the RHA at a meeting in September. The FTA maintains that although operators have a duty of care to protect their opera tions against illegal immigrants, it should also be the responsibility of governments on both sides of the channel.
Geoff Dossetter, FR head of external affairs, says that operators are running out of patience with the government: "These businesses have done all they can to protect themselves and they are at the end of their tethers," he says. "The government doesn't think of it as a shared problem, just a transport industry problem."
Denby Transport, which sends around 100 trucks per week to the continent, has so far been fined £22,000. Director Dick Denby says: "The government should be accepting its own responsibilities instead of trying to pass them on to ferry operators or haulage companies."
• The joint legal challenge at the !tip Court on stowaway penalties, which will include hauliers from across Europe, is due to get underway at the end of October with "preliminary proceedings".
According to Jane George of transport solicitors Rothera Dawson, more then 50 operators are involved.
Nearly half of them are from Germany, while the rest come from Belgium, Britain. Ireland, and Switzerland.
The Group litigation Order came about after a German haulier was caught with illegal immigrants on board his truck. It will challenge the whole basis of the UK penalty system and will be watched carefully by the rest of the industry (CM 26 April-2 May).