New Chunnel views from Euro hauliers
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• More than twice as many hauliers planning to use the Channel Tunnel will take trucks across, rather than using rail containers or swap bodies, according to views expressed at an international road haulage conference.
Of those who do favour nondriver-accompanied traffic, 80% plan to use swaps rather than containers, judging by the straw poll, held at the Road Haulage Association's international group meeting in Dover last week among 120 hauliers from eight European countries.
The findings will please Eurotunnel—all but one of the delegates said they would use the Chunnel—but will puzzle those who predict that driverless freight will be the Chunnel's main selling point.
The vast majority of delegates said they planned to engage in cabotage: the Belgians and Dutch seemed most keen. Only one haulier in the survey does not plan to seek internal business in other countries once trade barriers come down in 1993.
Eurotunnel is expected to publish a list of products which trucks will be banned from carrying through the Chunnel early next year. A document has been drafted, but has to be finalised by a safety group made up of representatives of the French and British governments.
0 Up to 60% of EC trucks arriving at Dover are expected to use the fast-lane system designed to speed freight traffic through the port