LAMB
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TACK French farmers are grabbing the headlines again with their attacks on British Iamb trucks. CM talks to some of the victims. Aottacks on British trucks by
French farmers have been going n for years. The summer of 1990 saw a particularly vicious onslaught when lorries loaded with British lamb were forceably stopped and their cargoes burnt. Last month the violence flared up again.
Gulliver's Transport Services of Cardiff was a recent victim. It exports about 60% of its loads through France, 70% of which are British lamb.
Gulliver's driver Raymond White had his truck ambushed at midnight on a small country road only six miles out of Cherbourg. About 50 farmers surrounded the vehicle forcing it to stop by scattering metal spikes on the road.
The farmers then spent about five hours emptying the load of lamb carcasses and burning them; out of 900 carcasses, 315 were destroyed. A loss of £12,500.
The irony of the attack is that the Gulliver's truck was supposed to have police protection. Gulliver's had instructed its drivers not to leave the port until police protection arrived following a spate of attacks on meat trucks. "Even if it means they have to wait up to 12 hours at the port," says Gulliver's transport manager Nick Harding.
PATROL CAR
White left Cherbourg with two policemen following in a patrol car. However, five miles further on the police deserted the truck, leaving it open to attack a mile down the road.
It took an hour for the local gendarmes to arrive on the scene after the attack. Twenty police eventually turned up, but according to Gulliver's they just stood by and did nothing for two hours.
'The attack was a form of terrorism — it wasn't just a case of 'do you mind, we have a grievance'. Worst of all, the local police clearly did not give a damn," says Harding,
TRUCK DOORS
Gulliver's has been unable to claim on its insurance for the attack. However, it is trying to get £1,000 compensation from the French government for the damage to the truck doors, and the 48-hour delay in delivering the meat.
Harding believes that an application to the French ministry of agriculture for compensation stands a better chance of success if it is accompanied by a police statement. He speaks fluent French and visited the French police station immediately after the attack and demanded a statement.
The statement was reluctantly given to him, together with bureaucratic excuses for the lack of police action at the time. "The police are part of the community and don't want to interfere," says Harding.
The Lamb Wars are a long-running saga caused by French farmers upset at cheap British lamb imports. Yet despite the regularity of the attacks the French government and police are not attempting to stop them and compensation can take more than two years to come through.
The British Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food has issued guidelines to hauliers making claims.
It recommends that operators obtain a French police statement, evidence of repair costs and medical injuries — in French and English — to send to the MAFF who will then forward the claim to the French ministry.
Central Road Services, which is no longer trading, suffered badly under the current compensation system. It had to wait 21/2 years for its compensation to be paid after being attacked in Lyons. Even then, compensation was not awarded for time without the truck and about £2,000 was lost through a poor exchange rate and inflation, says former managing director Frank Chown, now marketing manager of Yeobridge Distribution.
SIX WEEKS
Bob Armstrong, owner of William Armstrong, had a vehicle and driver attacked last year. He has only just submitted his claim for £9,000 damages, plus compensation for delay and the driver being off sick for six weeks.
The reason Armstrong's claim has taken so long is because he had great difficulty getting a police statement: "I wrote on my firm's behalf for a statement, and I was continually told it was with other offices," he says. "I was then told I had to go through a solicitor."
Manor Farm Partners, a lamb and beef haulier which was attacked last year, has also had problems getting the right paperwork to make a claim. It hopes to submit its claim at the end of this month.
The claim, for about £2,000, might not have been made at all. At the end of last year the company was considering bearing the cost itself because "in the panic of the situation many details, such as time delays, were not recorded and were now impossible to prove".
It is almost exactly a year since owner-driver Mick Blunt had his truck vandalised during a strike by Spanish hauliers — and he is still waiting to hear whether or not he will be compensated.
Blunt was stuck for two weeks in Spain after his tyres were slashed and the cab of his Mercedes truck was set alight. Rob McHugh, a director of the association Owner Operators UK, flew to Spain to help him, and Blunt eventually limped home after patching up the electrical problems in his wrecked cab. He then lost about five months earnings while his truck was repaired.
Despite constant lobbying by Blunt and 00UK, the Spanish government says it will not compensate him for loss of earnings, only for actual damage. Blunt is claiming £18,000.
His case has been officially recognised by the Spanish government, the only one so far, according to 00UK. There were about 10 claims that the Freight Transport Association was pressing for on behalf of members but these have now been dropped.
At a meeting between the Spanish and British departments of transport, the FTA put forward its claims to the Spanish but received a "very negative response" according to John Hix, FTA executive of international transport.
The FTA was told that no claims for loss of earnings would be accepted; unfortunately, all the FTA's claims were for just that. "We have taken the pragmatic approach that there is no point throwing good money after bad," says Hix. "It is a let-down after the Spanish initially said they would accept claims. A lot of time and money has gone into it."
Cold comfort for Blunt, who had hoped to replace his truck this year.
0 by Mary Williams