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HAULIERS should get better training in economic driving, says a report from the European Parliament.
Pointing out that better driving can save up to 20 per cent of fuel, the MEPs want drivers to be given an idea of the most economic speed range for each gear on the speedometer or rev counter, for manufacturers to provide a handbook on energy consumption, and for vehicles to be equipped with econometers, giving a precise indication of energy consumption. They also want misleading or false publicity to be banned "as a matter of urgency."
The suggestions are made in a report by Netherlands MEP, Willem Albers, on behalf of the assembly's Transport Committee, which was adopted at the October session of the Parliament in Strasbourg (CM, October 10).
Although the report was able to make suggestions of detail, it was unable to make any forthright recommendations on major issues such as the suggestion of wholesale transfer of freight from road to railways.
Mr Albers said that when his Committee invited experts from the different sectors to give their opinion, their evidence to the hearings was "diametrically opposed."
He said: Professional hauliers and undertakings operating transport on their own account were categorically opposed to a policy favouring transport by rail and inland waterways. "The liaison committee of the Automobile Industry UNICE, and the International Road Federation take the same view."
Railway and canal undertakings, on the other hand, believed that their position should be strengthened.
"The various organisations manage to put forward figures and statistics to back their respective standpoints," said Mr Albers.