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Hauliers fight over
Page 8
Page 9
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ferry fares
• A row has broken out between truck and parcel van operators on a Scottish island over the concessionary rates the smaller vehicles are charged by a ferry company.
Some larger hauliers are backing a proposal by the ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne to abolish the system under which vans less than 5m long are charged as private cars and benefit from multijourney discounts. The hauliers claim the parcel operators are undercutting their business by running specially built panel vans — nicknamed Dumpys — which weigh under 7.5 tonnes and are shorter than 5m, but are over 3m high and wide.
They say these vans have been made to get round the existing rules set by Caledonian MacBrayne, which runs services to almost all the west of Scotland islands. "They are taking away our business," says John MacDonald, a partner with Hebrides Haulage on the island of Lewis. "We haven't upped our rates in five years."
He says that some of the parcel companies which run in competition with him to Glasgow can charge their customers almost as little as the rates he has to pay for his rigids on the ferry from Lewis to the mainland. A single fare costs MacDonald £254, but he says some parcel companies are charging 2400 to take the same amount of goods that he can carry on a 32-tonne rigid.
David Wood, who runs Woodys Parcels of Stornoway, retorts that he provides a vital daily service for the islands to and from Inverness. He uses a specially built Leyland Roadrunner and Iveco Ford Transit, and says he has built his reputation on being able to provide a regular, cheap operation. If Caledonian MacBrayne ends the concession system Woodys' rates could double. "Customers would have to pick up the tab," he says. Wood spent £25,000 on his Roadrunner, but because it has been specially built it would have little resale value if the rules were charged, he claims, adding that at least 10 other operators would be affected. At the end of this month Caledonian MacBrayne's proposals will be put to a meeting of the Shipping Services Advisory Committee, a body of trade associations, ports and local authorities, in Glasgow. The company wants to do away with the multi-ticket concession early next year, and from the start of 1992 vehicles under 5m will only be allowed to travel as cars if they are less than 2.9m high and 2.3m wide.
The FTA says the proposals seem to be the "best compromise" between the demands of the larger hauliers and the parcel carriers. They would still allow traders using carderived and 3.5-tonne vans to enjoy car concessions, says Scottish regional secretary Gavin Scott.