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Eurotunnel puts regulars first as Calais seizes up...
Page 8
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Eurotunnelis new quota system which promises priority service to regular customers got its first live test this week Dominic Perry reports.
OPERATORS USING Eurotunnel have given the company's new quota system a mixed reception this week as it faces its first real test following a series of major problems at Calais.
When it introduced its new system at the start of the year the debt-ridden Anglo-French company promised that regular users would receive a priority service at busy times.
Previously when there were problems with ferry crossings Eurotunnel has been swamped by truck operators using the tunnel as a way of beating the delays, forcing regular customers to the back of the queue.
However, faced with additional traffic this week regular users report that the crossing was largely trouble-free.
Nick Charlesworth,manager at Hythe-based Laser Transport, says the company's trucks have being making the crossing relatively smoothly: "Once you get into the terminal we do seem to be getting onto the trains relatively quickly. However, there is still the question of how the hell we are meant to get into the terminal in front of everybody else."
But Keith Rawlings, who drives for Hertfordshire firm JR Smith, says there have been some issues: "The problem has been an increased volume of traffic. They simply can't seem to cope with it. There's no-one stopping people pushing in. No-one wants to take charge there was nearly a riot there on Wednesday."
A Eurotunnel spokesman explains: "We have stuck to our new strategy and we are only accepting account customers so we didn't automatically take volume from the ferry operators."
However,he admitted that some operators may have used booking agency Eurotunnel Plus to get around the quota system.