Brits grabbing more
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• British hauliers are grabbing an increasing share of European road transport, according to the latest Europa report from the EC — but they are still small fry compared with some of their Continental competitors.
International road freight journeys are increasing at 2.4% a year within the EC — but British hauliers are increasing their international business by 10.6% a year.
The strongest growth is in import movements by road, up 7.9% to 9.3 minion tonnes in 1987. In the same year exports by road rose 6% to 6.3 million tonnes. This disparity in trade (the worst in Europe) is reflected in an increasing tendency among British hauliers to make empty outward journeys to pick up return loads.
International road freight within the EC is dominated by the Dutch, with 26.6% of traffic, the Germans with 20.7%, the Belgians with 17.8% and the French with 15.2%.
No other EC country accounts for more than 6.1% of international road freight. British hauliers currently account for just 2.4%.
It appears that French, Italian and Greek hauliers have most to fear from the move to a Single European Market in 1992. All three countries have suffered a steady decline in their share of the international road freight market during the past five years.
Britain's strong recent growth has been based on a flourishing domestic haulage market. Hauliers in this country enjoy Europe's third largest national market in terms of tonne kilometres, representing 22.5% of total national road freight movements in the European Community.
So strong is Britain's national road freight market that it currently accounts for over 95% of British road transport business. International road freight traffic from Britain only amounts to 4.1% of our road transport business: the smallest proportion of any European country.
By contrast, almost 75% of road freight transport starting in Luxemburg is international; 52.9% from Belgium, and 50.5% from the Netherlands. The EC average is 26.79%.
Comparisons of costings sugget that British hauliers are well placed to increase their share of the European freight market. Though they have high comparative tax rates, overall costs are competitive.