Scots to claim disadvantage
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by Amanda Bradbury • Scottish hauliers are gathering evidence on what they claim is their competitive disadvantage compared with operators in the rest of the UK. Hauliers north of the border will use the information to try to persuade Government to rethink transport policy in order to reverse the imbalance.
A new study, Getting Scotland Moving, will be released to the public at a Glasgow conference of the same name on 30 March.
The 8,000-word study, by Heriot Watt University's reader in transport & logistics Dr Alan McKinnon, brings together for the first time a number of surveys of Scots operators' needs. It concludes: • Scotland is more dependent than the rest of the UK on worldwide exports of goods it makes— so improvement of transport links to ports is crucial. Dr McKinnon says a move to allow 44 tonnes to ports, rather than just railheads, would be particularly useful for Scots road haulage.
• Fuel tax increases and continental road tolls affect Scottish operators more than their colleagues in the rest of the UK because the average length of haul is longer and more likely to be in mainland Europe.
• Scotland has more bridges per 1,000km of road than the rest of the UK and so the extent of local authority action on bridge strengthening in the run-up to the derogation on 40 tonnes in 1999 needs to be monitored urgently.
Getting Scotland Moving is available from Glasgow Chamber of Commerce: 0141-204 2121.