Chemicals firm slams 44 tonnes
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by Karen Miles
• Chemical manufacturing firm Albright & Wilson (A&W) has warned the Government that it will cancel its plan to shift a million tonnes of freight from road to rail if trucks are allowed to run at 44 tonnes on general haulage.
The Government is understood to have all but decided to end the weight advantage currently enjoyed by operators using road/rail combinations.
Such a move would leave road even more competitive against rail, says A&W, forcing it to drop plans to take up to 40,000 lorry journeys a year off the road.
However, if the forthcoming Transport White Paper leaves the maximum operating weight at 38 tonnes, A&W says it will continue with its plans to try to shift the traffic to rail. This stance contrasts with last week's announcement by Milk Marque, which said it would continue to use rail regardless of changes to domestic weight limits.
Junior transport ministers are said to be convinced by the economic argument to switch all trucks to 44 tonnes, although the attitude of Transport Secretary John Prescott is unclear.
With the help of a multi-million-pound Government grant, A&W wants to re-open a disused rail line which would link its Whitehaven factory in Cumbria (the com• pany's largest in Britain) to Crewe, for onward movement by rail. Under this plan 95% of Whitehaven's production would be moved by rail.
This would represent an enormous change for the company. It currently uses the railways to transport only around 14,000 tonnes of chemicals a year, leaving the rest to travel by truck.
A&W's warning backs up fears expressed recently by rail freight operator English, Welsh & Scottish, which says that the introduction of 44-tonners would cut its traffic by around 20%, equating to 20-million tonnes a year.
Li Safeway is marking the first anniversary of its partnership with EWS with a commitment to move at least 10% of its products by rail. Later this year the company will start using refrigerated swap bodies on rail wagons for &linking food products. A&W: If 44-tonners come, railfreight plans will go.
• Parcefforce is launching a piggback rail service between London and Glasgow this week in a move that will save the Post Office subsidiary 100,000 lorry miles each year.
For the past year Parcetforce has been evaluating a Eurospine piggyback trailer with rail operator EMS.
This week another seven trailers start operating on a commercial basis carrying standard traffic to Glasgow from Parcelforce's London distribution centres.
The intermodal trailers cost around 5:/more to buy but they are cheaper to operate than road-based trailers, says Graham Boughton, road transport engineering policy manager.
They are being introduced to avoid congestion and eventually take traffic into Europe. he adds.
Parcelforce is rationalising its network and spending 1100m on two new "super hubs" in Coventry. When they open in 2000, one hub will sort international traffic and the other next-day traffic, • The European Union is preparing to offer hauliers some powerful incentives to encourage greater use of road/rail operations.
Speaking at the Franco-British Transport Forum last week, EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock said intermodal operations would benefit from: • A weight limit of 44 tonnes throughout the EU; Mandatory exemptions from weekend and holiday driving bans; • Rebates on vehicle tax; financial assistance for "useful new pilot schemes".
Kinnock said he recognised that the idea of a level playing field across the Union was currently -a complete illusion-, with VED on trucks alone differing by as much as a factor of 12. -This patchwork of charging systems undermines transport efficiency and sustainability," he added.
His department's forthcoming White Paper on Fair & Efficient Transport Pricing will aim to provide a framework for commercial transport charging "relating to costs and use''. But Kinnock reassured delegates that he has no wish to establish centralised rules, or to increase overall transport taxation.