Foot and mouth might not be contagious to humans, but
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it still can have catastrophic side effects for truck operators. As Pat Hagan reports, the disease has landed a serious blow on Britain's livestock hauliers.
F— resh country air has not been quite as fresh recently. There's a new, pervasive aroma in Britain's rural heartlands, and it serves as a constant and inescapable reminder of the terrifying consequences of the foot and mouth epidemic, which has struck at the very core of the livestock farming industry.
"Disinfectant!" says Alan Saxby, managing director of Northallerton-based livestock haulier A Wade & Company. "It smells like a bloody hospital round here."
Attempts to sanitise the country's farms chemically in a largely futile bid to stop the foot and mouth virus spreading have left livestock hauliers like Wade wallowing in a sea of cleaning fluids. Vehicles must be scrubbed diligently on the way into farms, and scrubbed diligently on the way out.
In normal circumstances such an exhaustive regime of cleanliness would take several hours out of the working day. So how are livestock hauliers coping? Easy: they've had little else to do.
Until the agriculture secretary, Nick Brown, sanctioned the restricted movement of livestock in infection-free areas at the beginning of this month, thousands of trucks belonging to Britain's zoo specialist livestock hauliers came to a complete standstill. As soon as farmers were hit by the outbreak, so were their colleagues in haulage. The flow of live animals around the country came to an abrupt halt the moment it became clear this was no isolated incident, but the worst outbreak of the extraordinarily virulent disease in more than 30 years.
At this stage, it's hard to say what the total damage to this relatively small but highly specialised band of hauliers will be. The worst estimates are that it is costing the industry about L4m a week. Some have already had to lay off drivers; others fear for the future of family-run firms that now operate on margins so thin they might not withstand the consequences of a prolonged outbreak.
"It costs us L75 a day for each wagon just to keep it standing there doing nothing," says Saxby, whose firm runs four vehicles, three rigids and a drawbar. "Then there are drivers' wages on top of that. I can't pay our drivers off, because they are a very specialist breed. I've told them I will keep on going."
Devastation
For Somerset-based AE George & Sons— three generations and 70 years in the business—foot and mouth was just the latest in a succession of devastating blows.
"We have 22 purpose-built vehicles, and we are moving up to one million head of stock a year," says company director Barry Woof. "But we have had two years of negative trading, and we have not got very much fat on us. Two years ago we were the victims of an arson attack, and because of the BSE crisis we have had to alter what we carry. We now specialise in pigs.
"The situation is being monitored, but we appear to have gone one step forward and io steps back. It's going to be controlled by our financial advisers. They are doing a risk assessment at the moment. Its very sad, because in the first quarter of this year it looked like we might be turning the corner."
The company has already lost four skilled drivers who were desperate to safeguard their own livelihoods. And Woof admits he is "very, very pessimistic at the moment.
Like others, Woof will be anxiously awaiting any government move to grant compensation to livestock hauliers as well as farmers.
Industry bodies say they are determined to fight for financial recompense, but are conscious of the need to get the timing right. The Freight Transport Association says it has called on the government to discuss how and when hauliers might be thrown a financial lifeline. But it has also emphasised that the industry is aware there are more pressing foot and mouth-related issues to be resolved first.
"Our position is that we would like to see the government investigate the possibility of compensation. We would like them to work with us to set up a scheme for those affected," says spokesman David Russell.
"We will pursue this with vigour, but we would very much rather it dealt with all the restrictions and eradicated the disease first. We are flagging it up as a problem that needs to be addressed," It's not clear yet whether any scheme would pay for loss of earnings or simply cover costs incurred by hauliers while doing nothing. However, they have already been granted one small concession. Recognising that the disinfectant procedures could hold up drivers for hours, ministers have agreed to a temporary lifting of the rules on drivers' hours. The daily limit of nine hours has gone up to io hours for livestock drivers, and the fortnightly driving limit of 90 hours has been lifted. The rule stating that at least 45 hours' rest must be taken each week has also been changed: the new minimum is just 24 hours. However, drivers are still expected to take a 45-minute break after four-and-a-half hours' driving.
But if discussions about a compensation scheme do go ahead, ministers might want to know why hauliers who depend on the movement of livestock are not routinely insured against the risk of foot and mouth. In fact this type of insurance cover isn't readily available, say hauliers. The risks have been deemed so small that few insurance companies are prepared to quote on it.
"My parents were insured against foot and mouth—it's something they did every year," says Alan Saxby. "I have enquired about it once or twice, but I've always been told nobody would quote for it."
And although AE George ec, Sons does have foot-and-mouth cover, it protects them only against infection of any stock they are holding before transporting them to another destination. If the animals had to be destroyed the policy, with a premium of about i2oo a year, would cover it.
As the dust begins to settle, it's becoming clear that this has been a disaster no one could have foreseen. What many livestock hauliers will be hoping is that the government remembers this when it comes to deciding whether to come to their aid financially. The consequences otherwise could be disastrous. And the smell of disinfectant is certain to linger.