THE WIND OF CHANGE
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Do we detect a pragmatic wind of change blowing towards the road transport industry? There are signs that Transport Secretary Brian Mawhinney's Great Transport Debate has finally started to lift the scales from the eyes of a few people when it comes to accepting that there is simply no viable alternative to road transport. Shadow Transport Secretary Michael Meacher's remarks that:It is possible to conceive a future in which 44-tonners are permitted—but only if freight policy as a whole is sharpened" may well have been prompted by the House of Lords recommendation that the 44-tonne limit should be extended to general haulage (or it might have been because he was talking to the Brewery Transport Advisory Committee and didn't want to upset his hosts). Whatever the cause his views are a welcome change to the "let's put it all back on the railways" rhetoric that the Labour Party has traditionally espoused. Of course Meacher might have been persuaded by the FTA's assertion that a move to 44-tonnes would take some 9,000 heavy trucks off the road. If the ETA is correct, perhaps Dr Mawhinney will think again on 44 tonnes. Higher gross weights would certainly, help deal with the 27% of all lorry journeys which are currently empty running: the more you can get on a truck, the less you'll leave behind and have to go back for. However,the most surprising blast of fresh air this week comes from the Civic Trust, which is not generally noted for its pro-lorry policies. When the CT says that hauliers need to improve rates to comply with legislation it shows a clecir understanding of the real malaise effecting road transport. Namely that poor rates are getting in the way of the environmental and enforcement goals that have to be achieved if the general public is ever to be at ease with the heavy lorry. For make no mistake, the Great British Public will continue to hold its
to the road haulage industryenloying the low price goods it de ivers, but disliking the way it delivers them—until it is convinced that hauliers take those environmental and legislative obligations 100% seriously, And if anybody in road haulage thinks that the industry has achieved those goals they ought to think again. Like the Green lobby, the rood transport industry must bend before its own wind of change.