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auliers count cost of ferry war

19th May 1988, Page 8
19th May 1988
Page 8
Page 9
Page 8, 19th May 1988 — auliers count cost of ferry war
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

• As the cross-Channel ferries begin to sail again on schedule, Britain's hauliers are counting the cost of the 16week dispute.

For many of them the drivers' blockade brought things to a head just as they were on the verge of bankruptcy. Every international haulier we contacted admitted that the strike had caused cashflow problems, and some had worked out exactly how much had been lost.

Rod Carman of Brit European, for instance, says that his firm has lost 10% of its 1988 turnover through lost sail Drivers on the M20 vote to end the blockade after their action forced the end of the Channel ferry dispute. ings and unpredictable delays. Owner driver Paul Ryan from Dublin has lost £6,500. "For a company the size of mine that's serious," he says. Plane Trucking reckons that the strike has cost it £100,000 and Eastern European Freight from Rochdale has seen half of its average weekly turnover of £4,000 disappear since Christmas 1987.

Reefer haulier Hargrave International lost £1,500 a week during the three-month strike. The company is considering suing for compensation. Boss Graham Eames diverted his trucks on extra long journeys to get the load through.

Geoff Kiggins of Lancasterbased Nonnheath International reckons that for every four runs his company normally makes to Switzerland carrying yarn, his drivers have been doing only three, and "25% of our turnover has just gone", he says, "vanished. No-one I know has fallen by the wayside because of the strike, but it was getting very close to that," he says.

Whittle International of Preston has been hit hard by the dispute. It has not yet added up the damage but it found keeping contract hired tractor sitting in queues either side of the Channel, going nowhere for days on end, was extremely expensive to subsidise.

Century Oils of Stoke-onTrent nearly missed the Hungarian truck Grand Prix at the weekend because it could not get its Kenworth racing truck out of the country. The hovercraft could not accept the vehicle because of customs men objecting to the documentation. A 2am sailing from Dover only 48 hours before the racing was due to begin saved the day.

Plane Trucking, which specialises in carrying air cargo between Europe's main airports for carriers like Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways, found it was better to keep its vehicles in the UK than to promise that timesensitive loads would reach their destination, when manager Chris Phillips could not be sure his trucks would get through. Air cargo movements within the UK boomed during the dispute, he says, as the airlines flew in cargo they would normally truck into the country.

Nine-truck operator Harold Neville of Fleetwood also took his three Dais off international work and kept them in the UK during the last weeks of the strike. "I haven't made a shilling for three months," he says. "We've really been struggling as a company." He put the units out on bulk tipper work instead.

One of Britain's biggest international hauliers, which did not wish to be identified, has calculated that the ferry dispute has eaten away all of the profit it made during 1987. It has not made any money as a result for the past 18 months now and some of its drivers have been kept out on the Continent while unaccompanied trailers have been shipped across. Some drivers have not been home for six weeks.

P&O, conscious that its image has been tarnished by the strike, has written to hauliers explaining its refusal to negotiate further with the NUS.


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