Talk to everyone
Page 8
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This week's Industry Forum puts hauliers right back between the devil of low rates and the deep blue sea of extortionate fuel duty. The authorities may be happy to talk about the problem, but they obviously have no. intention of doing anything about it—at least not yet. Unfortunately, as RHA national chairman John Bridge says, many hard-pressed hauliers don't have much time left to talk, as the everyday story of closing businesses underlines.
Yet if small hauliers are to see in the new millennium, talk they must, whether it's on the street in another demo, or hassling MPs one-to-one in a surgery. Falling silent certainly won't do much to promote change, even if we do have to wait until the next Budget for it.
As for the statistics the authorities keep requesting, here are two for a start: 47% of respondents to the recent CM/RHA faxback survey are making no money from haulage, and 73% of respondents say the prospects for their business are worse or much worse than in the past. That, we'd say, is a bit of a giveaway on the state of the industry. And if new Transport Minister Helen Liddell needs further proof of the parlous state of British haulage, she need only talk to Dutch freight forwarder Frans Maas, who this week confirmed that UK hauliers are simply "not in a position to compete" with Continental transport firms (see news story, page 4).
Whether next week's Park Lane demo will do more to shift government opinion than previous protests remains to be seen. But hauliers must pursue any and every legal means open to them to keep the pressure up. If nothing else, increasing public awareness of the problems you face might give you a bit more of an edge the next time you talk rates with your customers...