Traffic flow has fallen
Page 8
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
INTERNATIONAL road transport between Britain and the rest of the EEC has been harder hit by the recession than traffic flows between other member countries.
The latest figures published in Brussels this month show that during the last quarter of 1980 the total number of lorries carried on ro-ro ferries between Britain and the Continent fell by 19 per cent to 132,000.
Driver-accompanied lorries fell by 12 per cent to 73,500 compared with an average decrease in international road tonnage of only 6.4 per cent in other EEC countries.
At Dover, which handles 40 per cent of UK ro-ro traffic; and which has not been so hard hit as other British ro-ro ports, tonnage fell three per cent in the last quarter of 1980. The situation worsened to minus 10 per cent in the first three months of this year.
But the EEC notes that the aggregate figures for Dover in April and May showed a slight easing of the situation with tonnage down 5.3 per cent.
In contrast cross-channel rail tonnage performed very well during 1980 with total ferry traffic surpassing one million tonnes and so equalling the record 1979 levels.
The EEC Commission thinks the worst is now over. There are indications that the fall in international transport tonnages bottomed out in the second quarter of this year.