auliers problems grow
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by Amanda Bradbury
• The Licensing Authorities' report for the year 1993, published last week, yields the most complete picture of the health of the whole of the UK road transport industry. More than any other set of published figures, the LAs' statistics record the most vital stages of a haulage business' life.
The growth of the industry during the year can be seen from the applications tor ()licences; renewals; applications to add vehicles to the licence and the number of authorisations to operate in the EU.
And the report also provides a snapshot of what happens when the industry does not grow. This comes in the form of levels of enforcement activity by the Vehicle Inspectorate and in numbers of licences taken away because of insolvency, bad maintenance and convictions for offences from drivers hours to overloading.
What emerges is that in 1993 many hauliers were still struggling to make a living. Buyers of haulage, few and far between as they were, continued to cut costs savagely during the year. Rates remained flat in most sectors and in some—notably haulage of coal and steel—they were slashed. As a result, vehicles, drivers and transport managers were driven to the limit—this report shows how that affected on the industry as a whole.
The LAs have displayed increasing frustration with the behaviour of rogue operators. The evidence in their report points to the fact that they are taking a harder line than ever before. But even this is not enough. In his review of the year, the senior LA Ronald Ashford calls for the cowboys to lose their vehicles: "9% of the national fleet is operated illegally, that is some 4,000 lorries. Present sanctions do not work."