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Scots are paid more to cut pollution
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SCOTTISH OPERATORS will receive much bigger incentives to reduce truck pollution this year than their counterparts in England.
The Scottish Executive has allocated £1.44m to the Transport Energy CleanUpprogranune which is designed to reduce emission from commercial diesel vehicles.
Although the sum on offer is the same as last year when 354 trucks were upgraded through the CleanUp programme, the level of grants is higher than in England.
One example of this difference is the grant for retrofitting diesel particulate filters on medium-sized trucks. Scots will get £3,700, which is 60% more than in England. Operators in England may
also have to wait longer before receiving the grant because its total allocation of £7.5m is being released in chunks every two months (CM 27 May).
In Scotland the grants are awarded on a first-come, firstserved basis.
Ian Murdoch, manager of the programme in Scotland, says: "The CleanUp grants and advice programme will go a long way to help reduce emissions from some of the most polluting vehicles on our roads." Details of the funding and application process are available from TransportEnergy's hotline on 0845 6021425 or at www.trans portenergy.org.uk P&OTE purrs over new profit
Emma Penny reports on VVincanton's financial success with P&O TransEuropean, one year after its acquisition.
WINCANTON HAS enjoyed the full-year effect of its P&O TransEuropean acquisition, recording a 68.4% increase in turnover and a 29.7% increase in profit in the year to 31 March.
The results, released last Thursday (10 June), show turnover has risen from £998m to £1,680.5m; operating profit has increased from £33.3m in 2003 to £43.2m.
Chief executive Paul Bateman says that while P&OTE was profitable when Wincanton bought it, the current management team has done a lot of work to improve it. He admits he would have liked more profit but stresses that the company has made good progress in less than 18 months. Bateman says that the firm has taken steps to cut costs and reduce the duplication between P&OTE and Wincanton businesses, including closing businesses, including closing
P&OTE's Ipswich head office. It is also running the UK business as one entity to ensure maximum utilisation. "We initially thought we'd save £2m by reducing this duplication but we found there was more to do than we initially thought, and have saved £4m as a
result," says Bateman. Wincanton's German division has turned in a profit, after famously being hit by low water levels on the Rhine last year. However, the company's shareduser business in France and Spain is under review after a "disappointing performance". Bateman
says it needs more volume to drive up profit.
Despite this, he adds that Wincanton is considering "opportunities for acquisition in Europe", concluding: "There are some parts of the Continent where we would like the opportunity to strengthen our network."