Road haulage and the Common Market
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by G. K. Newman, MA (Oxon), director-general, Road Haulage Association
MUCH that has been written about the common transport policy of the EEC gives the impression that the principles and the means of their implementation have long ago been decided and cannot be changed. Nobody who has the opportunity of taking part in discussions in Brussels can be long under this illusion. The policy is evolving all the time in response to new developments and fresh ideas.
Inevitably there will in the end be a wide range of legislatica and practice which is standard throughout the Community. No other course is possible if the Common Market is to achieve its purpose, Although at. present each member country has the right to refuse its assent if it believes a decision is inimical to its vital interests, there must ultimately be compromises. Even the long-drawn-out conflict on vehicle weights and sizes will have to end at some time. Shortly before Britain joined the EEC a settlement of this problem was very near. It was pitched reasonably between the upper and lower limits in the six original countries.
Road transport operators as well as vehicle manufacturers would have welcomed the proposed maxima of 40 tonnes gross and 11 tonnes axle weights. It was a strong, if miscellaneous, lobby which persuaded the British Government to reject the proposal.
On some other matters decisions had already been reached. It was, broadly speaking, a condition of our membership that Great Britain should accept them. Some latitude was permitted in fixing the dates when they should come into effect. New limits on drivers' hours, coupled with a new type of record book, are due to take effect in Britain on January I next. The same date has been fixed for the compulsory fitting of tachographs on new vehicles and those carrying dangerous goods. For other vehicles there is a further two years' breath ing space.
The Road Haulage Association •has accepted the provisions on drivers' hours and records, although they may raise some problems particularly at the time when the change is made from the present system. What the RHAand, indeed, all the other EEC operators' associations— strenuously opposes is the supplementary requirement that drivers of vehicles exceeding 20 tonnes gross must not cover more than 280 miles in a day.
Objections have also been made, not to the tachograph itself, but to the requirement to fit it on all vehicles over 3.5 tonnes gross weight. For some types of operation the tachograph is a useful servant, but in many other cases it is merely an extra item of cost and another piece of equipment to worry.about.
Important as they are, considerations such as vehicle weights and sizes, drivers' hours, tachographs and so on are in one sense merely the forerunners of far more fundamental issues concerned with the whole future of the road haulage industry. These major issues can most simply be summarised, in British terms, as licensing and rates.
Stringent "quality"
The framework for futurE "quality" licensing has beer firmly established. It include: control on lines which are or the whole more stringent thar under the British operators licensing system; proof of hi: good character and financia resources by an applicant fo a licence; and the need for hin to demonstrate his transpor knowledge and ability througl an examination.
Parallel with this carefu control of entry to the occupa tion of road haulage there ar plans for the future operatic), of the freight transport marke within the Community. Thes proposals would apply initiall to intra-Community transpor but in due course member States would be required to apply the same principles to domestic transport.
In normal economic conditions licensed operators would not be subject to capacity control or to compulsory tariffs, though there would be recommended rates guides. Conversely, in periods of economic difficulty and imbalance in the transport market road haulage capacity would be frozen, or even reduced, and a system of rates control would he brought into operation. These proposals are to some extent revolutionary. When fully developed they may prove of great value, not only to hauliers, but to the whole of trade and industry. There is merit in having an index or regulator, if one can be devised, which will allow the maximum possible degree of commercial freedom to hauliers and their customers in an expanding economy, but prevent senseless rate-cutting and the over-provision of vehicles when traffic is declining.
Implications
For the outsider it is not easy to understand all the implications of what is happening within the EEC. The process is not simply one of discussion, agreement and implementation. Changes in circumstances and strongly expressed but well reasoned objections have made it possible to reopen some issues upon which the Community's decisions appeared to be immutable. Careful and enlightened consideration is con stantly being given to the whole field of transport.
Within this field, in the opinion of the RHA, hauliers have more to look forward to than to fear. Even if this were not the case the wider benefits of EEC membership are overwhelming. Road haulage, as a service industry, will prosper or decline with its customers, and there is no doubt whatever that they are anxious to remain in the Common Market and would regard Britain's withdrawal as a disaster.