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UK scores low with

25th July 1991, Page 6
25th July 1991
Page 6
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Page 6, 25th July 1991 — UK scores low with
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

EC cabotage

• British hauliers are way behind their Continental colleagues when it comes to snapping up cabotage business abroad.

New statistics from the European Commission show that UK operators are fifth behind Germany, France, Belgium and Denmark, based on the volumes of freight moved with cabotage permits in the last quarter of 1990.

British firms carried just 3% of all goods on cabotage journeys. Countries such as the Netherlands, which in the previous quarter carried 10 times as much as the UK on domestic trips in foreign states, have not submitted statistics to the European Commission.

Although Department of Transport figures for the first three months of 1991 are believed to indicate an improvement on the 9,462 tonnes shifted by UK operators on cabotage journeys in the previous quarter, they still show that Britain is lagging behind.

British hauliers have used only 34% of the 2,214 cabotage permits allocated to the UK since cabotage became legal on 1 July last year. Another 18% were allocated to operators but they were never used.

The UK's cabotage permit allocation for 1991/92 is slightly higher at 2,474. The Road Haulage Association says the slow take-up of permits is not surprising. "International members don't find the need to use them'," it says. "They're obviously not hanging around waiting for domestic loads."

Other countries such as Germany, France and the Netherlands are likely to carry out more cabotage journeys because they border more European countries. Many international UK hauliers have joint ventures abroad which carry out domestic business, it adds.

However, hauliers may soon be able to travel anywhere in the Community without needing a permit. EC Transport Commissioner Karel van Miert has announced plans to fully liberalise the system.

Banning UK hauliers from running four-axle artics and drawbars at 35 tonnes from 1993, unless they have road friendly suspensions, is unfair, according to the Road Haulage and Freight Transport associations. They have written to the DTp outlining their opposition to the proposed weight increase for medium weight lorries (CM 23-30 May).

Although the FTA says it is "not opposed to the concept of road friendly suspension", it believes UK operators are being penalised by not being allowed to have the higher weight vehicles specified by the EC directive without the extra requirement.

The RHA complains that the DTp's document does not define road friendly suspension or whether the suspension systems should be fitted to all axles to qualify for the extra weight allowance.

The proposals only cover domestic UK journeys, so what happens if an international operator, who is running at the higher EC-permitted weights without road friendly axles, does a trip in the UK, it asks.


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