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Does someone In the industry deserve a pat on the back, or a dressing down? Drop us a line at Commercial Motor, Room H203, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS or fax us on 0191 652 8969. Alternatively you can e-mail us at MIles.Brlgnall®rbl.co.uk TELL THE PUBLIC I run a small family removals company operatingtwo HGVs and a panel van, and would like to comment on the haulage crisis.
The government is obsessed with being re-elected and it sees the fight against inflation as a key issue. I feel the end of the fuel duty escalator was not due to the pressure from truckers, but from motorists, who are seen as important voters.
I think that every time costs are increased charges must be increased, with as much fanfare as possible, so everyone realises the inflationary pressure being applied. If everyone passes on increased costs, no work should be lost.
This will undermine the government's policy on inflation giving the feared "bad publicity". However, the other main problem facing UK hauliers is competition from foreigners with lower operating costs.
They do not need to buy fuel in the UK because of the size of their tanks. They are taking work from UK hauliers because they are competing on dissimilar costs. According to your article on last week's "Operation Mermaid", 17% of foreign but only 10% of UK trucks were found to be 'illegal".
I think foreign trucks coming into the UK should have to pay a levy of at least nb a day to contribute to the road system. This policy would receive public support when it is pointed out that foreigners pay nothing and cause
more wear and tear on the road network.
This is at the expense of the British taxpayer and motorist, who will have an even greater burden as more British hauliers go out of business.
To tackle this problem we need the support of the public and I feel that this will best be achieved by publicising the points listed, rather than by blockades. The public needs to be made aware of the large increase in the numbers of foreign trucks using our roads, not in a "sensational headline" way, but in a well-organised publicity campaign, seeking help from as many other organisations as possible.
When motorists, and taxpayers in general, realise what a bad deal they are getting, then the government will see possible votes being lost and that might generate another preBudget announcement. While it is seen as just a trucker's problem, no-one will care!
Jeff Heath, Witcombs Removals, Birmingham.
EC FIGHTS NON-EC
• This letter has been sent to the European Commissioner for Transport, Loyola de Palacio.
lam concerned at the increasing use by EU-based haulage firms of non-EU lorry drivers.
As you will be aware it is legal to use a non-EU driver to drive an EU-registered lorry as long as this driver does not drive the vehicle in the member state in which that vehicle is registered. The lorry does not even need to be en a journey where the EU borders are crossed. Therefore operators
can simply register their vehicles in a member state in which they do not wish to operate and then employ solely non-EU drivers (employed in their own country) for all their operations.
By paying them much less than an EU driver can afford to live on, the best of the non-EU drivers can be happily employed. Even if EU drivers were prepared to match this lower wage there is opposing EU law.
Some EU member states (including Britain) have minimum wage legislation. If drivers are employed in non-EU countries these laws do not apply even though they may be working within the EU.
And the Working Time Directive may be extended and forced on EU drivers, limiting their working week to an average 48 hours. This will not apply to non-EC drivers, who will only have to work to the existing hours regs (EC 3820/85) while on EU and AETR journeys, so these drivers will not only be cheaper but will be allowed to be much more productive.
An EU driver cannot simply move home and live in one of these non-EU countries in order to keep a job as they do not have work permits.
As you can see this extremely unfair. But if one transport company does it, all have to, in order to remain competitive. There has been publicity over German operator Willi Betz's use of East European drivers within the EU but he is certainly not the only one.
Please let me know if you intend to introduce legislation to prevent this practice and what form it is likely to take. I trust you will turn your attention to this issue before all EU lorries, both domestic and international, are driven by non-EU drivers while our own skilled drivers join the dole queue! Julian Dockery,
Ferryhill, County Durham.
DEALER'S OK
I have some comments to make on remarks attributed to me in your Tools of the Trade feature on the Foden Alpha CM25 Nov-1 Dec).
The turbo on the new Cat engine failed after about six weeks. When a new turbo from Foden was fitted the engine promptly blew up. A new engine was supplied by Foden and installed by the dealer: the vehicle was back on the road 14 days after the turbo failure, At no time was I left without a loan vehicle and the dealer did everything it could to help.
We later found that the turbo failed because the wrong dipstick had been fitted.
Two months later the compressor seal went at the engine and the vehicle was off the road two days for repair. Again, the dealer supplied a loan vehicle. When the vehicle came back from repair there was more noise from the turbo but no fault could be found.
The second turbo failed on 5 January 1999. A new turbo arrived the next day and was fitted straight away. The vehicle could have been returned that evening but the dealer refused to return it until the oil was cleared out of the charge cooler. At no time did I say that they had never thought to do this, as is stated in the feature. Once again, the dealer supplied me with a loan vehicle.
The tone of the feature suggests that I am extremely unhappy with the service 'get. This is not fair: I said when interviewed that they try to do their utmost to help at every occasion. it's just that sometimes they try too hard and end up shooting themselves in the foot Ewan D Cameron,
EC Transport, UdoWton, Glasgow.
NO SUPPORT As one of the three drivers fined over the TransAction demo ( CM25 Nov-1 Dec) I feel very badly let down by the leaders of TransAction.
While they urged and encouraged all drivers to take part in the demos, when the day of reckoning came in court they were nowhere to be seen, leaving the three of us to fight the case by ourselves. Instead members have been left isolated and dependent on the RHA to fight our corner.
What I would say to the leaders of TransAction is this: you shoot your mouth off to all owner-drivers begging for support but when it comes to the crunch you cannot or will not fight. When I paid my £25 subscription I trusted you to fight the corner but, as the saying goes, if you cannot fight, buy yourself a big hat. So, with my £25 go get yourselves a Stetson! Name and address supplied.