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Driver shortage and cost rise predicted
Page 7
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• I he hadage industry will face rocketing operating costs and a crippling driver shortage once the Working Time Directive is introduced.
That's the stark warning delivered by a new study carried out by the respected Centre for Economic and Business Research (cebrl, which produced the report in conjunction with the RHA.
The report, which the cebr says is conservative in its estimates, claims that the industry will see its costs soar by £3.8bn in 2005, the year the WTD is introduced. This increases to 1.24.8bn between 2005 and 2010. IT also forecasts an additional shortage of between 60,000 and 90,000 drivers.
The huge rise in operating costs is based on the need for extra drivers, 12,000 extra trucks, higher hourly wages and increasing congestion which the cebr says are inevitable once the 48-hour working week is introduced. Roger King, chief executive of the RHA, says he hopes it will make the government consider how stringently it implements the directive.
He also claims the directh will have an enormous impa on the British economy: "I wi• interested to read this WOE about the problems facing [ste maker] Corus, with one analy saying that amongst the iSSUf affecting it were increased rE tape and high transport cost
"We are increasingly coi corned that the directive w result in massively increasE transport costs at a time whE we should be reducing them The cebr figures show ft WTD will initially have a posith impact on the UK economy di, to a greater number of people employment. However, it pi dicts that, after three years, will hit the UK's GDP to the tun of .21.3bn per year.
King adds: "We are askir for the most liberal interpreti tion of the rules as possible s that the industry can continue t deliver the degree of service t its customers."
• See Comment page 10.
• For more on the costs of th WTD see CM interview wit Ruth Pott next week.