CABOTAGE?
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'CABOTAGE' is a word we shall have to become more familiar with. Quite understandably Mr D. E. Allen (CM February 1) draws attention to the misgivings which many hauliers feel about foreign hauliers being allowed to both pick up and deliver loads within this country, which is what cabotage is all about. But the problem has to he set in a wider context.
I am a great supporter of the concept of the common market for Europe. Overall it has certainly been good for transport. The various barriers to the common market are gradually being eased or removed. This is a process which must take years and is where harmonisation is slowly developing between the member states. The policy has to he supported as offering the best opportunity for British industry.
It may well cause side problems on the way, which arc the hardships which Mr Allen is referring to.
Whether cabotage is creating unfairness has to be examined in several different aspects: whether there is equivalent opportunity for British hauliers to undertake cabotage in those other countries from where the foreign hauliers come; whether the use of this device in Britain is an opportunity of escaping sonic or all our controls on lorries; whether, even if some hauliers in Britain are suffering, there are other British hauliers who are benefiting from the system abroad.
These arc some of the questions to which Mr Allen and his many supporters need to address themselves if they wish to substantiate their contention about the unfairness of the competition arising out of cabotage. Ralph Cropper Beckenham Kem