Eurotunnel loss-leader
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• Eurotunnel has admitted that carrying unaccompanied trailers through the Channel Tunnel will be a loss-leader, although it agrees it is a necessary service.
Unaccompanied trailers currently account for about 12% of all short-sea and 50% of longhaul crossings from the UK.
Lack of space at the UK Channel Tunnel terminal means that unaccompanied trailers will have to be dropped off by hauliers at another site. They will then be moved to the terminal by a team of Eurotunnel drivers or outside hauliers. The tractors will then have to stay with the trailers as they go through the tunnel on the shuttle service as there is no way of getting them out of the shuttle train once they are loaded.
The French have a separate parking area for trailers at their tunnel terminal.
Their site, near Calais, is substantially larger than the UK's Folkestone terminal.
Eurotunnel claims that the cost of running t he unaccompanied service is not a cause for great concern, because the trend towards just-in-time deliveries has led to a decline in the number of unaccompanied trailers travelling across the Channel.
The Channel Tunnel is due to open for business by Summer 1993.