Back to normal but £3m lost: RHA
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ROAD TRANSPORT operators heaved a sigh of relief this week, as the national docks strike was called off and blockades of Dover and Calais docks ended.
The Road Haulage Associawould have been very badly tion, the Freight Transport Assoaffected.
ciation, and the Confederation of British Industry all told CM that as the strike continued it became more and more worrying for owner-drivers (in particular), haulage companies and industry generally.
The CBI, for example, said that if the freight ban at ferry ports had continued for a month, 75 per cent of British industry A CBI spokesman also said that because the dock dispute lasted for less than two weeks, the aftermath of lost orders would not be too great.
The RHA estimated the total cost to the international haulage sector to be at least Om and added that this figure ignored the costs to domestic hauliers affected by the dispute but not stuck at the docks.
The FTA said it welcomed the return to normal working at the country's ports, but said that the strike had been "disruptive and costly for many companies."
The ETA and the RHA declined to comment on what action might be taken in the future to protect their members in similar situations.
Neither saw much effect in their pressure this time; Freddie Plaskett, director general of the RHA, asked Moss Evans, the general secretary of the TGWU, to "act in a spirit of the greatest good for the greatest number".
The ETA asked the TGWU to allow the trapped Dover and Calais drivers to exchange positions. Both requests fell on deaf ears.
For operators, this was the third such interruption this year, coming after January's lamb lorry hijacks in France, and the Alpine blockades in February.