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NO BETS ON 1992
Page 5
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• Hands up everyone who honestly believes that by the end of 1992 we will have a completely harmonised and liberalised Europe. While Commercial Motor is not able to look into the offices and truck cabs which are the working environments of our readers, it's a good bet that not too many hands are waving Ui the air.
So is the concept of a Single European Market, and all that it entails for the road transport industry, really unworkable? Is the timetable unrealistic? In some areas there is movement, not least with cabotage. Strange as it might sound, the British and French Departments of Transport are actually backing a plan to try out cabotage using, wait for it, a quota system.
Now we might be accused of grasping the wrong end of the stick, but isn't the whole idea of harmonisation to get rid of the quota system for international truck movements, rather than adding to it? Pierre Debeusscher, head of the French road transport department, says: "We have to start somewhere. Hauliers have fears about cabotage and we need to give them a framework from which to work." But are hauliers really so afraid of cabotage, or only the politicians, especially in those countries where the road transport industry is protected from the real world?
Surely the best way to introduce cabotage is to say, quite simply, that from 1 January 1993, as long as you meet the necessary requirements to run trucks within each member state, then you will be able to carry out cabotage . . end of story. No permits, no trial periods — just do it.
At least the European Commission is actually working on standard criteria for entering the profession, which would include such things as good repute, professional competence and financial standing.
The simple fact about 1992 is that there is too much talking and not enough doing. If we really are to weld the pieces of the European market, with harmonised and liberalised road transport, then the sooner some firm decisions are taken the better.