to ro operators Med on rates
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ITICISM of the costs and luency of ferry services to rope contained in a Freight tnsport Association subision last week has been t with a deafening silence m most ferry operators.
le submission to the Econic Development Commitfor International Freight wement criticised the opeors — particularly the cross-Channel ferries, and said there has been collusion between operators fixing rates that has led to a "semi-monopoly situation."
But a spokesman for P and 0 lines told CM he thought any collusion in rates fixing had been to the advantage of the hauliers.
"Collusion has meant that tickets for ferries are interavailable making it pass ible for a driver to use a different ferry if the one he was booked on doesn't sail," said the spokesman.
"As a result no one dare charge more than anyone else in the ferry business or he will lose trade.
"To a point it is true that there is no competition on price but we try to compete on services and even so freight rates have not kept up with inflation over the past decade," he said.
Scope
The spokesman commented that operators tended to put up their rates as little as possible — "there is no real scope for cutting costs," he said.
Despite being vindicated by the FTA submission, British Rail Sealink would not comment on the charges levelled at the ferry industry.
A spokesman for Fred Olsen Lines condemned the report as "a load of tripe".
The submission met with silence from other operators who refused to comment on the criticism. A spokesman for Townsend Thoresen called the FTA charges "that old chestnut again, it's perennial," he said.