French will not pay compensation
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• Desperate British hauliers who lost up to £2,500 in the illegal French truckers' blockade are being warned that they stand "next to no chance" of getting any compensation.
Dave Green, Freight Transport Association controller of international affairs, says: "You can sue for any amount — but the fact is that it's unlikely to be worth your while unless you've lost more than £2,500."
The FTA says that the French government has issued a statement through its embassay, saying that all out-of-court claims for compensation will be refused. According to Green, this means that "litigation now seems to be the only way forward" for those who want to reclaim their losses.
The cost of pushing a claim through the courts under French national law will be at least £500 excluding any appeals, says Green, and cases are likely to take up to two years to complete. Under French law cases must be made on an individual basis, which invalidates plans to share legal costs among several hauliers.
Tony Hubbard, transport manager of Coventry-based Express Freight, says: "E2,500 may not seem like much to the French, but it's a lot to our owner-drivers — it's probably crippling some of them."
The French Government made its statement following a recent meeting of the Council of Transport Ministers, at which other EC countries refused to back compensation claims. European Commissioner Karel van Miert has also confirmed the EC's reluctance to pursue the issue.
"We are extremely disappointed," says the ETA. "To say that this is wholly unsatisfactory is a polite way of putting it."
French law will allow claims to be made on three condition: El The claimant must be of a "definable class" (for example, "road haulier"); El The claimant must not have consciously exposed himself to the risk of incurring losses;
CI Costs must have exceeded normal costs, or dangers must have been other than those usually encountered,
These conditions will weaken the claims of many operators, who continued to send trucks while the dispute was on.
Among these is British International of Southampton, which lost about £25,000 during the 12-day blockade. Managing director Tim Allen is furious about the French attitude: "We did carry on sending stuff out there, as our customers expected us to," he says. "The French should've kept the routes open, but they did nothing for six days — and who's going to take the brunt of this? The hauliers."
Allen is also angered by the British government's inaction over the issue: "They could have taken a cudgel to the French once and for all for us."