Swiss road report stirs furious reaction
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THE BRITISH road haulage industry has hit back strongly at the Swiss report which said, amongst other things, that commercial vehicles are not paying their track costs (See CM, July 13).
The report, by a Swiss transport analyst, was presented to a meeting of European Government officials in Paris organised by the European Conference of Transport Ministers and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
But the British road haulage industry and road lobby has cast doubts on the accuracy of the report and how much of it applies to Britain. On the question of commercial vehicles not meeting their true track costs, a spokesman for the British Road Federation said: "It seems that it is not a very profound examination of a very complex subject. The key factor is that lorries as a whole are paying their way". He wondered how applicable the figures quoted in the Swiss report are in this country.
A FreightTransport Association spokesman went further: "There seems to be no original research whatsoever in the report. It is based on a hotch-potch of ideas with some rather subjective sources — very little stems from scientific factual references."
"What there is in the report bears little or no relation to the UK position. There are too many assumptions and averages of averages. We know that in the UK goods vehicles are more than paying their way."
The FTA pointed out that it was generally accepted in this country that it is only some of the top-weight lorries that marginally do not pay their true track costs, but that the rest of the mid-range and lighter goods vehicles more than compensated for this small shortfall. A spokesman for the Road Haulage Association was equally vehement. "This European report restricts itself to the unrealistic averages of the whole of Western Europe. Even the Department of Transport estimates that road haulage pays 90 per cent of its track costs and the RHA continually opposes this figure. The report is yet another stick to beat the head of the road haulage industry, upon which the economy is totally dependent."
The Department of Transport said it could not question the accuracy of the figures in the report, but that its own latest figures for this country showed that only 30-ton four axle rigids (of which there are less than 13,000) and 32-ton four-axle artics (of which there are 36,000) do not quite meet their track costs. The Department thinks this is a good record and perhaps contrary to other European countries.