Ca ll to review 3an would aid Japs all road bans
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RRY deliveries to 60,000 shops and 8,000 factpries, and the sering of 2.7m homes in the Greater London area underlines our )endence on heavy vehicles, the Society of Motor Manufacturers I Traders told the Wood Inquiry in a written submission.
lorry ban and the failure to :ide how else the goods ,uld be transported would not y disregard the needs of a jor city, its workers and its idents, but also "undermine efficiency" of Britain's indusand commerce, the report tes.
leet operators today use the gust vehicles available to m for efficiency and practicalIf loads had to be broken fvn at break-bulk depots at the je of the lorry ban area, the je rise in vehicle numbers uld cause more nuisance for idon residents, with more se, pollution and congestion, SMMT points out.
SMMT is quick to point that the completion of the 5 orbital motorway will not ve London's traffic problems iny great way. It will provide a h-quality link between the sting radial motorways and ik roads feeding London and rough route for airports. But at 20 to 25 miles from the city centre — the distance from Leicester to Nottingham — its effect on street traffic will be hardly noticeable.
Less than five per cent of the 250m tons of goods travelling each year in London is estimated to be through traffic. Not a single road in Greater London is expected to lose even 15 per cent of its existing traffic to the M25.
London is, therefore, heavily dependent on road transport. Eighty per cent of the tonnage moved to and from London and 92 per cent inside the capital goes by road, with no opportunity for a shift to rail, water or pipeline, the report says.
Freight is also a major source of employment in London. It accounts for 7.5 per cent of all employment. About one quarter is in road haulage, almost half in warehousing and the rest in other related activities, the SMMT states.
"For a lorry ban to be satisfactory it must create an overall benefit to the community at an acceptable cost to industry and to the consumer of the goods moved by lorry," the report explains. A complete ban on lorries over 16 tonnes with no exemptions for access, would cost £250m to industry, the report calculates, with a two or threefold increase in vehicle numbers on the roads.
DAF Trucks (GB) Ltd and the Ford Motor Company Ltd are both quoted in the report. Ford says that any such ban would be "extremely damaging," and would further widen the gap between Ford and Japanese cost performance. DAF feels that a ban would cost it £725,000 to £825,000 with a loss of 60 jobs in the Greater London areas.
More money should be put into the job of road building, the SMMT says. Private capital in the form of a special fund, could finance this new building work.
PICKFORDS Removals and British Road Services drivers are being advised to accept a 7.5 per cent wage offer which would give top-category drivers a basic rate of £87 for 40 hours.
But the Transport and General Workers Union has rejected a Roadline UK proposal for increases which include a new rate for collection and delivery drivers, and a five per cent increase in basic pay.