Hauliers slat :hannel price hikes
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• Outraged hauliers who operate to the Continent say they face loss of work and soaring costs if they pay ferry companies' surcharges on most Channel crossings. Some operators are refusing to pay the hike which takes effect next week.
Backing hauliers, the Freight Transport Association says there is a "strong possibility" that it will complain to the Office of Fair Trading and the EC competition directorate if the surcharges, of as much as 10%, are not withdrawn.
The ferry operators, which include Stena Sealink Lines, P&O European Ferries and North Sea Ferries, say the devaluation of the pound against other European currencies has pushed up their French costs, forcing them to impose the surcharge.
Jon Hirst of Cambridge International Haulage and Storage which sub-contracts work to about 30 owner-drivers each month, says he hopes the cost of the surcharge will not affect sub-contractors: he is attempt ing to absorb it himself "but some of it will inevitably have to get passed on to them", he says.
Hirst operates two vehicles himself and will have to pay an extra £2,000 a month. "Hopefully it will be a temporary situation because hopefully our economy will improve," says Hirst.
Baymex International operat
ions director Neil Pearson fears he may lose some clients but says he cannot afford to absorb the increase. "If this increase is through currency devaluation then our prices have got to go up to compensate, but we have costed it very carefully so we're not ripping off our customers," he says.
Framptons International managing director Paul Frampton says he is refusing to pay the new charge. "We're going to resist this and the industry should resist this. There is no attempt to justify why they are doing it. They're imposing it and imposing it on British operators."
The Road Haulage Association is urging the Government for intervention. The surcharge, they claim, will give Continental operators who do not pay in Sterling a competitive edge over British hauliers.
"We are told the removal of the pound from the Exchange Rate Mechanism is making exports more competitive and then on the other hand we have got ferry companies putting on a surcharge which is going to remove that competitiveness," says RHA operations director Tim Inman.
The FTA is suspicious of the move because several ferry operators have imposed similar charges which all come into force on the same date and the letters to hauliers announcing the change were similarly worded. "We are strongly suspicious of the fact that different companies came up with exactly the same surcharges," says Dave Green, controller of international affairs.
The ferry companies deny acting together. A Sealink Stena Lines spokesman says his company acted first and others followed because they were under similar financial pressure_ A spokesman for P&O European Ferries says any suggestion of collusion between the ferry companies is "total nonsense". "We are in an extremely competitive and price-sensitive business and have acted independently and will continue to do so," he says.
The freight charge — applying only to hauliers who pay in Sterling and not those who pay in other European currencies or to passengers — will operate on a sliding scale depending on the level of the pound.