Hauliers' EEC 'blues
Page 10
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
IF HAULIERS throughout the Common Market and other countries are ever to be allowed t1 compete successfullya total abandonment of all permits or special licences must come first.
Addressing the North Western Section of the Chartered Institute of Transport on Saturda3 James Duncan, a director of Transport Development Group Ltd, said this was only one of seven restrictions enforced on British hauliers since Britain had become a member of the EEC. Mor were in the pipeline.
"Marketeers" in Brussels are seeking, said Mr Duncan, to implement a standard regulation covering the movement of goods vehicles both within and between each country.
"Fortunately they have been slow in implementing the proposals, and they are even allowing some of them to be dropped.
"Without regret, we have seen the proposed but impractical forked tariff system for traffic rates disappear".
"The headline catcher" in any debate on EEC proposals was that concerning lorry and axle weights. Environmentalists were not the only ones concerned with this question. Many hauliers were also apprehensive about raising weight limits. "More important, they (hauliers) cannot see any real benefit coming their way from an increase in weight limits to 40 tons, although they can see benefits to consumers from reduced costs, and benefits to manufacturers who will b kept busy with a re-equipmer boom".
But the last thing a hauliE wanted, he added, was to b involved in a re-equipmer race.