• Let's draw the line at another ban
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Call them drawbars, roadtrains or anyhing else, writes John Durant. As far as local goVernment's concerned --ney're just too big!
DRAWBAR-TRAILER unit
operators asked me: -Do you think this proposal by the Greater London Council to ban drawbars in London is serious?"
In a word my answer was Yes — but the councillors may take some time to decide. Even this qualification is a dangerous one to make: suppose they don't take long to make up their minds to put their ideas into effect?
Another question is Why should the GLC even think about a ban? And the answer is that it is a difficult reason to contest it seems that it really just thinks that drawbars look too big. Local government language for this is "'environmentally undesirable".
Such a ban could come in quicker than some people think. The Freight Transport Association, which has more members operating "roadtrains" (the GLC's term rather than the Road Haulage Association's), is putting forward the advantages of drawbars to the GLC. So is the R HA.
But operators would be well advised to explain the position individually to councillors, whether they are based in London or elsewhere.
In the case of prejudiced councillors, the "visual amenity" argument is virtually impossible to refute convincingly.
But smart drawbar units will always look better than poorly painted rigids, although some -environmentalists" used to complain when London Transport had buses with all-over ad
vertising. While other people, some of whom could equally claim to be environmentalists, thought they added a bright touch to the capital.
As regards the history of the proposed ban in February the GLC Planning and Communications Committee considered a report on the use of roadtrains in Greater London. The Council then decided in principle to "prohibit the use of combinations of motor vehicles and trailers which together exceed 15.5m in length".
Officers were then asked to find out the views of industry and other interested parties. Four months later the FTA and RHA were consulted by letter, and they met council officers in June. As neither Association could assess the full implications without research a0 consultation, the deadlifie for comments has been postponed until the autumn.
Meanwhile, the European Economic Community has yet to harmonise maximum permitted vehicle weight to 38 / 40 / 44 tonnes. It is effectively waitipg for the United Kingdom to put its case, and Britain is waiting for the Armitage Report.
Could there be a further delay caused by Greece, Spain or Portugal joining the EEC? Presumably not, because they would be in a similar position on joining and accepting accepteL; EEC regulations as Britain was with tachographs. Nor are these countries likely to find drawbar units "environmentally unacceptable''.
While we wait, various organisations in Britain won't. For instance, the London Boroughs Association has now said it wants to see drawbar vehicles banned from the capital's roads !CM, July 5).
CM's Brussels correspondent reports that Common Market officials are hopeful for weights harmonisation to be agreed next year, although environmentalists among Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are rallying their forces and have forced through a vote (7-4) against any proposed 44-tonne limit. But what really matters is what happens in the EEC transport committee.
The GLC fears that an EEC increase in weight limits would make roadtrains more attractive *ken articulated vehicles, given their additional volume capacity and the flexibility of split loads.
Would exemptions to the ban be granted for access purposes? The London Boroughs Association suggests that fours and circus vehicles should be able to use drawbars by means of a permit scheme. But the fundamental thinking of the GLC has been one of no access exemptions — excluding drawbars -across the board". But vehicles would be catered for by means of permits. Other than this, a ban on all combinations of motor vehicles and trailers over 15.5m long would simplify their order-making procedures and enforcement.
I asked Richard Turner, the FTA's controller of planning and traffic services, his opinion on these matters. "I'm afraid that the GLC thinks that EEC harmonisation would lead to an overnight translation of London into the Continental scene, where drawbars are popular," he told me. "My view is that increased weights may improve drawbar attractions at the margin, but that the artic will still be preferred.
"However, to be fair to the GLC what it is saying is perfectly reasonable: it is 'that before in dustry buys we should set the rules'."' Richard thinks that a ban on drawbars in London would be a small — but unnecessary — price to pay for getting an increase in maximum permitted gross weight in Britain, while arguing that drawbars have environmental advantages — allowing preloading on a container basis and having less cutin corners.
"We must persuade the GLC that a large-scale strategic ban is unnecessary," he said.
The GLC believes anyway that permitted gvw in Britain should not be increased without specific assurances, but it decided to tell the EEC this only last December, The GLC has a history of looking at prohibitions and discovering how difficult they are, Extensive bans on hgv in London have been investigated, but it has recognised what harm an access ban on hgv to London could do industrially and commercially.
We can expect a move to deter through journeys, but we can also expect objection from adjacent authorities likely to receive diverted traffic.
Similarly, the GLC has no doubt learned when it considered lorry routes that this leads to local opposition — an hgv and/or drawbar route certainly would be environmentally disadvantageous to householders living on such specified roads.
So its decision could be hurried — the GLC reasonably wants to make its decisions before operators buy. If they think few will want them it can say the industrial cost is low, anyway.
But its view so far has been that many more drawbars could appear: so a ban will be environmentally desirable in its terms, Whatever the council does will influence other local authorities. So operators all over the country had better look to London. ALSTONS Ltd, an Ipswichbased furniture manufacturer, reckons it is probably the largest operator of drawbars in the country, so this company would be likely to be affected as much as most users, though not so badly perhaps as a smaller operator around London with only one vehicle and that a drawbar — if there is such a firm.
Patrick Connel, the Alstons transport manager, told me that he can't understand the philosophy behind those who are proposing a drawbar ban.
His firm delivers furniture to half a dozen warehouses in London, and if he can't do this by drawbar unit he will be forced
to send two vehicles instead — "two 34ft lorries with a 70ft gap between them: that won't save road space or ease congestion-.
Patrick has 40 York drawbar trailers hauled by Bedford TKs, and another four trailers on order at E8000 each. The result of a ban would end in higher priced furniture.
The company has run drawbars since 1972 when one-man operation was first allowed in the UK. Patrick believes the maximum permissible speed of drawbar units should be increased from the present 30mph to 40mph, because they are very safe and he finds the present speed restriction ludicrous' The drivers, he said, prefer drawbar units. Drivers do, incidentally, earn more for driving them, but like drawbars because they never slide round. During the worst winters they have run to Scotland without trouble.
Financially, the most worrying aspect of a London ban is the possibility that local authorities in Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle might be encouraged to follow the capital's example.
While Alstons could cope with what it regards as an un necessary ban in London, it would cost it a much greater financial penalty if it had to send two vehicles instead of one on these longer hauls to the Midlands, the North and Scot land. And it has the eight-hour driving week to cope with next year.
Besides own-account operators, a ban could affect some hire or reward firms. 'Drawbars are not widely used by our members.'' said the RH A's head of communications, John Ockenden, "but they are concerned
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