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IRU slams lorry ban stranglehold
Page 7
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• "rhe International Road Transport Union (IRU) has demanded that Europe's Governments "eliminate all unjustified restrictions on the freedom of movement of commercial vehicles".
IRU, which is a worldwide confederation of employers' trade associations, is angry that hauliers are losing their traditional "freedom to use the public highway" and that international freight traffic is being "strangled to death" by more and more local lorry bans.
Meeting in Istanbul this week for its 21st biennial world congress, IRU has passed a motion expressing its determination "to achieve the progressive elimination of all traffic restrictions affecting commercial vehicles at night, weekends and on public holidays."
IRU believes that ideas like the London lorry ban and the French and Italian schemes, which prohibit truck movements on Sundays and public holidays, are actually a threat to road safety.
Drivers feel an "obsessional need to leave a country, region or town before a certain hour of the day" to avoid the ban, says IRU, and "the result is that traffic restrictions, aimed at improving road safety, have the opposite effect."
IRU has also slammed the inadequate pace of road building and improvements throughout Europe.
There are too many bottlenecks, says the union, and too many incomplete motorway systems which switch from three to two lanes at their busiest point, like the St Gothard tunnel which crosses the Alps in Switzerland. "The solution," says IRU, "does not lie in the introduction of traffic restrictions, but in ensuring that the road investment rhythm catches up with traffic growth."
Just-in-time manufacturing trends, which demand fluid and responsive truck schedules, will progressively seize up if Europe's road network does not keep pace with demand, warns IRU, which has slammed the fact that world traffic growth between 1975 and 1984 was 29%, whereas International Government road-building investment fell during the same riod by 32%.
Ron Whittle, managing director of the Blackpool-based long distance coach tour company Go Whittle and current president of IRU, awarded the Grand Prix D'Hormeur this week to Richard Murtland, a driver with Christian Salvesen (Food Services) for his acts of heroism during the Herald of Free Enterprise ferry disaster at Zeebrugge. American-born Murtland, who now lives in Grantham with his wife and daughter, has worked on international runs with Christian Salvesen for 16 years. The award was made by an International jury which meets every two years.
Polish driver Waldemar Rogowski also won the Grand Prix D'Honneur. This is the first time that two people have been jointly awarded the prize. As well as a diploma, and a golden pin, the drivers won a substantial cash sum.