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Talks tiptoe around £5 MG toll for big users
Page 7
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THE OPERATOR of the M6To11 has begun discussing a possible reduction in charges for trucks following widespread criticism that the £10 rate is too high.
The Freight liansport Association says several meetings have been held with large fleet operators to discuss a hypothetical rate of £5.
But Colin Hagan,FTA Midlands regional policy manager, says the exercise has so far been limited to taking soundings from industry leaders and a general discount still seems unlikely.
"I think there will be trading agreements between volume users and MEL [the toll operator]," he explains. "But I don't even think that the meetings are going down that particular path at this stage. It is more information gathering.
David Irlam, MD of Cheshirebased James Irlam Logistics, says he and four or five other operators attended a meeting with MEL's managing director Tom Fanning a month ago.
"There were open discussions about where we needed to be," he reports. You might as well sweat the asset and get some volume through because its no good having a price that is too high and nobody using the road."
Irlam says his trucks already make considerable use of the M6 Toll. But he concedes that his company has a different financial relationship with MEL because the road is advertised on the back of Irlam trucks.
MEL has so far refused to disclose the number of trucks using the road but it is thought to be negligible.