Invasion' expected
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• by Guy Sheppard Foreign haulcrs are poised to rapidly expand their cabotage services in the UK because of their lower cost base, according to the Freight Transport Association. Its latest quarterly survey of member companies found that one in eight expect to make use of foreign operators for the first time or expand their existing use over the next three months.
ETA director-general David Green says this year's fuel duty and vehicle tax increases meant that foreign hauliers now have a 14% cost advantage over their UK counterparts when providing cabotage services in the UK.
He warns that foreign hauliers are likely to make even bigger inroads into the UK market because one in three of the 140 companies involved in the survey expected to increase their domestic road freight activity this quarter.
'Where business is strong, transport users will be sourcing additional haulage capacity from wherever they can, giving foreign operators the opportunity to break into new areas of the market," he says.
A spokesman for the Department of Transport disputes the ETA's claim that UK hauliers are at a competitive disadvantage. He says that when annual running costs of a 50-strong fleet of 38-tonners trucks were compared, France was £425,000 more expensive than the UK; Holland was £600,000 more expensive; and Belgium was £800,000 more expensive.
This calculation was based on an average fuel price across Europe because international hauliers did not have to refuel in any particular country.