LETTER OF THE WEEK
Page 12
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This barmy ban idea will do nothing to help our economic recovery...
I REALISE THAT writing to Commercial Motor is like preaching to the converted but surely the great and good of the industry, including Mike Penning, can’t let Richard Hayes’ barmy idea be taken seriously (Sunday lorry ban plan lambasted by hauliers, CM 5 July).
Where has Mr Hayes been hiding? Doesn’t he know the UK economy is in the midst of a double-dip recession and all our industries are working hard to try to pull us through this?
The one thing they all have in common is their reliance on a competitive, eficient and lexible 24/7 road transport industry, which, fortunately in the UK they have, despite the best efforts of politicians, legislators and enforcers to wreck it.
He feels that just-in-time delivery patterns are unsustainable, but they weren’t invented by the road transport industry, which, as always, simply responds to demand. Banning trucks from motorways on Sundays won’t reduce demand. That comes from the companies and individuals using the transport industry’s services and is often driven by Mr and Mrs Joe Public, who won’t be best pleased if the maximum choice and immediate availability they’ve become accustomed to isn’t there because another ‘expert’ has arrived on the scene with yet another costly hoop for transport to jump through.
Mr Hayes is president of the Institute of Highway Engineers and it’s interesting to note motorway construction, repair and maintenance companies, many that are probably members of the same institute, often carry out repair work over weekends. While carrying out this work, they require hauliers to eficiently remove their waste and usually insist that their new materials arrive on site, you’ve guessed it, just-in-time.
Mike Davies Waterlooville, Hants