When the Saints come marching in
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This year’s CV Show was an enjoyable three-day experience. It was a relief to get back among the industry again, renew old acquaintances and see people doing business.
This industry has always displayed plenty of resilience and it was good to see that spirit to the fore at Birmingham. I spent a bit of time with Martin Carroll, boss man at Saints Transport, at the show. He’s just bought a load more MANs, and we arranged to meet on the German truck builder’s stand for a catch up.
Martin’s good value and never short of an opinion on matters. He was joined by his son Piers – an astute businessman – and Steve Beeches – the brains of the organisation – and we had a good spin round the industry.
The new MANs are all joining the fleet as part of a replacement policy for a load of Euro-3 trucks – and also conveniently align the Saints fleet into a cycle that should see them skip the worst of the impending Euro-6 regulation [check out next week’s issue for more on Euro-6 – Ed].
Whether this is a mark of astute planning or luck is open to question of course, but it will certainly assist Saints in avoiding the inevitable increased purchase and running costs of the new emissions law.
It doesn’t take much to light the blue touch paper of Europe with Martin, and the conversation soon turned to Brussels and the pointless nature of the European Parliament and all it entails. While I would take a slightly more liberal view to Brussels than Martin, he got me thinking about the continued flood of legislation from Europe, and how businesses in general, and truck operators in particular, keep finding themselves signed up to regulation that leads to more cost. Emissions regulation, training laws and noise reduction were all well-meaning rules, no doubt, but in the final execution they lacked common sense and an understanding of the impact that the rule tinkering has on business.
So be warned now about the Euro-7 discussions that are starting to take shape. At the Hannover truck show last year, the truck manufacturers presented a blueprint for a 20% CO2 reduction for 2020. For CO2, you can read fuel economy and, on the face of
it, this is very nice of them. But I struggle to see how a 20% gain can be made by the vehicle alone. It’s surely going to need new aerodynamic trailers and body designs and some significant operational changes to get anywhere near a 20% reduction.
All good stuff, but we’re not sure the truck makers are best placed to sign the industry up to this sort of law without a clearer understanding of the business impact. It’s a bonkers world where business needs legislation to force it to be more efficient – further evidence politicians (and a few others who should know better) know jack all about business.
Speaking of legislative matters, a quick plug for the free legal seminar we’re running next month in Harrogate. Go to www.roadtransport.com/legalseminar for all the details.