Hauliers turn a blind eye to problems
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• Plenty of candidates were castigated from the platform and the floor at the Road Haulage Association conference in Sorrento last month. Trade unions, politicians, lorry thieves, environmentalists, vehicle testers, oil companies, the media (as usual) and the road transport press (unusually) all took a fair amount of stick.
I, however, came away from Sorrento with the depressing feeling that the greatest danger to the haulage industry is the haulier himself. This stems from RHA members reaction to a talk by Allan Winn, editor of Commercial Motor, Having been in the post for 14 months, he was asked to speak on "Impressions of the industry through new eyes. His talk was reported at the time (Commercial Motor, November 15). Being well-researched and thoughtful it is difficult to summarise adequately, but there were three main parts.
First, Winn quoted percentages of vehicles failing roadside and annual tests, using DTp statistics, and asked if his audience thought they revealed a satisfactory state of affairs; then he demonstrated the industry's low profitability, using ICC Financial Survey figures; and he drew attention to the number of people coming into the industry not because they are interested in the business of haulage, but because they love lorries "have diesel in the blood".
Winn said that in his view both a CPC and an 0-licence were too easy to obtain. The implication was that the first two problems have their roots in the third. So I expected the questions to concentrate on that. I was quite mistaken.
First the statistics were challenged. Initially the fair point was made that vehicles are not selected for roadside checks at random, but the test station failure figures were attacked on much wider grounds. There was the standard "It's only a little one" excuse for many faults, An RHA executive board member made a vitriolic attack on the qualifications of the test station staff "rubbish men plucked from the dole queues". Most worryingly, there were serious arid sustained allegations of corruption at some test stations.
This might have been a useful curtain-raiser to an examination of the basic problem the alleged ease with which 0-licences can be obtained, but the audience turned both blind eyes to these. Instead of looking for cures they attacked the trade press for "always presenting the industry in a bad light".
One haulier even asked, "instead of reporting that 20% of vehicles fail the annual test, why not say that 80% pass?" That pathetic cry was the nearest approach to a suggestion for solving a serious problem.
No one commented on Winn's view that CPC,s and 0-licences were too easily available. Yet many had also attended the 1985 conference in Portugal. They must have forgotten that one of the speakers had been a senior DTp official, Patrick Jackson. Conducting a "Seminar on 0-Licensing and Enforcement', he asked whether entry should be made even easier, and if so, how. He got only one positive suggestion abolish the environmental controls over operating centres. He ruled this out on the grounds that these were part of the 38-tonne package, All other ideas put forward would have made entry more difficult Jackson seemed surprised at the hostility, and little more has been heard of the idea so far. But the powers-that-be in Marsham Street do not lightly deprive themselves of the services of a £35,000 a year mandarin for a whole week. To mix metaphors, they must have regarded the kite he flew in Albufeira as a possible runner.
We know that Jackson is about to put to John Moore the results of the 0-licensing review. Two sets of proposals should be published very soon. The first will deal with environmental controls. Since the law on these seems to become more muddled with every Transport Tribunal judgment, almost any change proposed is likely to be an improvement.
That will probably be the only good news for those who want tighter entry controls. For the Government is still desperately seeking further ways of "lifting the administrative burden on industry', and of reducing the size of the civil service. These are laudable objectives (though they have their price, as the simultaneous reduction in Customs staff and the growth of drug smuggling have shown).
So I would be surprised if in preparing the second set of proposed changes, Jackson does not dangle at least one juicy carrot in front of John Moore's nose. The relevant EEC Directive, No 74/561, allows Governments to exempt from the CPC and other entry requirements hauliers with only a minor impact on the transport market because of the nature of the goods carried of the short distance involved". Ten years ago the Department decided not to make use of this, because it would open so many loopholes as to undermine the whole 0-licensing system, Today the decision might be different.
Additionally, the DTp will certainly propose a whole series of minor "simplifications'. These could collectively undermine the system. And it would be easy to misrepresent predictable RHA objections as selfish, vested interests.
None of this is new. But the hauliers in Sorrento were not interested in future dangers. They were much more concerned to defend their present actions.
When will they ever learn? Only when it is too late, I fear, by Keith Vincent Legal Bulletin is edited by john Durant (tel 01 661 3254) and published as a monthly supplement to Commercial Motor by C) Business Press International Ltd 1986, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5AS. Gavin Howe is publishing director.
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