We need 42 tons SMMT chief
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• The EEC proposals for a 40-tonne (39.3-ton) gross weight limit are inadequate, but the 11-tonne axle weight proposal is higher than is desirable, said the president of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders in Brussels on Friday.
The president, Mr Gilbert Hunt, who was speaking at a Brussels Show reception, said the motor industry of Britain believed that efficiency would be achieved by a maximum weight limit of around 42 tons but with external dimension limits virtually identical with those at present permitted. The 40ft container was the prime criterion in deciding international limits, but in any event the limits must soon be resolved because, while uncertainties remained, time was lost in progress towards a new breed of trucks which, designed for Europe, could bring greater efficiency and improved environmental "behaviour".
Environmentalists who were inclined to throw up their hands in horror at the suggestion of heavier vehicles should consider that the motor industry, too, believed the environment was worth protecting and was contributing to that aim: it believed that two vehicles should not be asked to perform a task for which one was adequate.
Mr Hunt said that world dependence on road transport for trade was growing consistently, and in Europe could satisfy most of the demands for more goods by people enjoying a higher material living standard yearly. But this demanded that problems were dealt with in the immediate future — for example, by providing efficient transport networks to speed the integration of the Community. Eighteenth-century villages and nineteenth-century roads were no place for heavy trucks; freedom of trade must not be hindered by inadequate transport facilities.
The new unity, said Mr Hunt, could bring economic expansion and an improved quality of life but these high aims would be imperilled unless a common transport policy for the EEC was treated as a matter of urgency. He added: "As an immediate move, it should be determined how far common rules are necessary."
The SMMT president said membership of the Community meant much to Britain's commercial vehicle industry, which produced the widest range of commercial vehicles in the EEC.
Despite a cut-back in world trade, in the first nine months of last year Britain exported 98,837 commercial vehicles worth £122m, compared with commercial vehicle imports of 25,392 worth 127m.