Hauliers buy up foreign vehicles
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• British hauliers spent more than 1:1bn on foreign trucks in 1995 while British truck manufacturers struggled to fill their order books.
Figures released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers show that British hauliers spent almost £600m on trucks over five tonnes and around .458m on vehicles under five tonnes. But almost all that money went to create jobs for truck manufacturers in other EU countries.
Ironically the figures show Britain is able to support only a small vehicle manufacturing industry despite being the second biggest commercial vehicle market in Europe.
Our roads carry 3.2 million CVs—second only to France's 5.1 million and rather more than Germany's 3.0 million. Only the former Soviet Union, with 9.5 million CVs offers such a large potential market.
Britain's CV exports reflect greater competition from abroad, falling from 210,450 vehicles in 1975 to 69,808 in 1985 but rising slightly to 91,069 in 1995.