John Prescott. on your bike!
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While trying to make sense of all the forthcoming changes in our industry it appears that all the anti-transport lobbyists and rail freight supporters couldn't have made such a hash of things as the White Paper has.
Over recent months your magazine and others have been forecasting gloom over the lifting of cabotage regulations and the sudden influx of the Continentals coming here to steal all our domestic traffic. If this is the case then why has the quota of permits been so under-used over recent years? As one of the drivers who over the past 10 years has worked in Europe on cabotage and third country permits I haven't heard the same complaint from them.
As we are being told daily, we are now Europeans but we still have a different rule book to follow. We were told that due to EC Law, harmonisation of vehicle weights had to come by 1 Jan 1999 which it appears it has, albeit with a different set of laws for the UK haulier. Britain wanted 40 tonnes on five axles and 44 tonnes on six axles, so John Prescott agreed to something quite different 41 tonnes!
The tax situation will probably make the conventional and sensible 2+3 so uncompetitive that the UK customers will be forced to beg the foreigners to come and service their transport needs. This they can do as they have formulated a very competitive vehicle over the years—the long-wheelbase two-axle tractors with threeaxle semitrailers supported on air. As a benefit they can also carry adequate amounts of fuel and also give the poor downtrodden chauffeur a decent working environment.
So to remain competitive the UK government has agreed with them and will now force us to use 3+3 combinations which have to be so heavy and cluttered there is no room to carry fuel, and because customers require maximum weights they then force the driver to do without home comforts such as a bunk or a sleeper cab. EC harmonisation! Not in this yard mate!
MJ Stockhill, Employed driving German trucks, Brough, North Yorkshire