RHA refuses a day off
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• Haulier, Mike Pickering of Loughborough, who lost thousands of pounds as a result of the Spanish truckers' blockade wants operators throughout the UK to stop work for a day in December.
The move is planned to put pressure on the Government which, Pickering believes, has done too little to fight for compensation for hauliers from the Spanish government since the blockade ended.
But the Road Haulage Association has rubbished Pickering's call, saying: "We're not in the business of striking."
Pickering plans to have pamphlets printed encouraging hauliers to take their trucks off the road as a "token gesture". He says the Government does "not take us seriously as a united body".
The RHA is trying to set up a scheme under which TIR operators will be able to claim compensation from Spain through government channels.
It says it wants a package similar to that won by Agriculture Minister John Gummer for farmers and livestock hauliers after the French lamb dispute.
Another hauliers' body, Owner Operators UK, has talked to Cornwall Euro MP Christopher Beazley, chairman of the EC parliament's transport committee, in a bid to pursue compensation for damage to vehicles.