Thank you for highlighting flaws in the longer semi-trailer trial
Page 14
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
HAVING READ your articles in CM 17 January on the issue of the low take up of longer semi-trailer allocations, I fully support your view that the licences in issue should be allowed to switch between categories.
In fact, we would be supportive of any means to get the project moving as I do genuinely believe this to be in the best interest of UK plc.
Unfortunately despite owning some 6,500 semi-trailers, we have no voice in the matter!
However, the Department for Transport (DfT) has failed to acknowledge that the take up is lower than anticipated — perhaps the NIMBY anti-truck Westminster set are happy to see the trial fail before it starts.
I wrote to the then roads minister, Mike Penning, back in May advising that the trial was flawed and could be sped up, with more trailers put into service if the DfT allowed rental businesses to take up the build slots and hire the trailers to the licence holders.
Not surprisingly, the DfT's response six weeks later demonstrated a fundamental lack of knowledge about how assets are funded in the road transport industry.
I am pleased that CM has put the issue back in the spotlight, and I sincerely hope that something like a lobby group that is capable of extolling the virtues of the longer semi-trailers emerges, and keeps this issue mainstream, until the trial is concluded and C&U regulations have been changed to accommodate their use.
I will certainly write again to the DfT offering once more our services to assist in the trial and allow wider, quicker access to the equipment.
John Fletcher MD Dawsonrentals