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Reasons to be miserable

21st December 2006
Page 9
Page 9, 21st December 2006 — Reasons to be miserable
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Goodwill to all men? Not if you'i Mr X. Run ragged in the run-up Christmas, he's preparing for thE post-holiday slump — and not al all surprised that, once again, thi government has kicked the indi in the teeth. Ho ho ho...

Bah. humbug! Christmas is here again. Brilliant. Weeks of fra work followed by the mother of all lulls, with trucks standing in the drizzle losing all the money you worked so hard to ear before the 'festive period. I sometimes wonder why we botf We should just park the trucks up and we'd still probably co out ahead.

For me this time of year is nothing more than an over-hyped sack of tinselfestooned nonsense. It's a month of overindulgence resulting in a hideous hangover, a bloated feeling from too much rich food and pockets scraped clean in the interests of placating your grasping offspring.

"I sometimes wonde bother. We should ju the trucks up and we probably come out a

What really catches in the throat like a piece of desiccate( turkey is the fact that 2006 was meant to be the year that the haulage industry received a lovingly wrapped gift from the government. We were told that the Road Haulage Task Grot was going to convince the powers that be of the industry's plight, and that they would respond accordingly Did this happen? Did it hell. The government listened, nodded politely and told us we hadn't been good enough b and girls this year before disappearing with the Christmas presents and all the cake.

The trade associations played up certain aspects of the forum, notably the apparent acceptance of the effects of cabotage. But like a glass of cheap sherry, I find that difficult to swallow. What we got was the government assuring us th the current 4% level of cabotage was having no noticeable affect on the industry: ditto the supposed 'footprint effect' of diminished rates.

So for all the bleating about the good that talking to the government is doing, the overall effect is akin to beating our Heads against a wall but at least there the pain goes away when you stop.

Still, there's always next year. eh?

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