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THE RULES WE HAVE AND THE RULES WE MIGHT HAVE
Page 40
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The current UK rules on cabotage state that any foreign haulier taking on work in this country must do so on an "ad hoc' basis, This is usually taken to mean that the work must be casual and circumstantial, with, in the words of the Road Haulage Association, "no contract of any kind between the haulier and the customer".
But this may be all about to change. There has long been pressure from Europe for all cabotage regulations to be scrapped. There are at least two arguments for complete liberalisation.
One is a straightforward case for free trade, the right, as far as possible, for all businesses in the European Community to do business where they wish. The second is an environmental argument, that encouraging cabotage will cut down on trucks running empty when they could be usefully employed carrying freight.
However, any idea that cabotage rules should be completely scrapped is heavily opposed by UK haulage associations on the grounds that differences in taxation and regulatory regimes mean that open competition would be anything but fair and the Department for Transport has agreed enough to argue the UK case in Europe's corridors of power.
The result of this debate is the compromise proposal currently before the European Parliament (it is awaiting a second reading), which suggests that foreign operators in another EC country should be allowed three journeys under cabotage rules in seven days of arriving on an international journey. They would then have to go home.
The problem with this, says Joan Williams, head of road freight and enforcement policy at the Freight Transport Association, is that there seems to be nothing to stop a foreign operator doing this repeatedly. If a foreign haulier can spend a week here every time they arrive with an international load, then that might well become the business model for some foreign hauliers.
And if that were the case, say critics, then surely fuel duty would have to be harmonised, and steps would have to be taken to ensure that truck maintenance standards are enforced with equal rigour across the EC.