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On and off the rails
A PARCELS CARRIER banned from using British Rail's Motorail service because he was seen as an unhealthy source of competition, has since been approached by Freightliner, another BR subsidiary, to carry on his business as usual. TIM COBB reports.
Although he is still using the same overall company (British Rail), and now has an increased turnover, he has taken Motorail to the Office of Fair Trading, believing he was victimised.
Edward Lacoste, who runs Overnight Bag Enterprises, started his parcels business two years ago, taking parcels from London to Edinburgh in vans on the Motorail service. These vans were then collected at either end and their contents distributed.
BR said that Mr Lacoste was using Motorail as a cheaper means than sending the parcels by its own Red Star service.
A spokesman for BR told CM that he was operating illegally by transporting goods in the vans. He was only paying for the transport of his vans, and not their contents.
Motorail, he explained, only carries vans when it has sufficient capacity for them, and only then when they have personal goods carried in them, and not goods for hire or reward.
On the other hand, BR is happy to carry the goods by Freightliner, as it is a tailor-made service for the carriage of hire or reward traffic. He said there is no conflict between accepting goods by one BR subsidiary and not by another.
Mr Lacoste's view of the situation is different. He feels he is operating within the law by transporting the parcels in vans on the Motorail service. "Other companies do it so why couldn't IT' Motorail has a small revenue and so needs as much business as possible, he said. "But the parcels division felt I was competing against it and so threw me out."
A spokesman for Freightliner would not comment on the situation, but agreed it was "sensitive." He told CM: "As part of BR we cannot be seen to comment on another BR subsidiary."
However, he did admit that it was Freightliner who had made the first move in getting Mr Lacoste to use it. "We noticed that he was not using Motorail any more and we got in touch with and offered him our services."
The deal that was arranged was beneficial to both parties. Overnight Bag Enterprises collects enough parcels to fill 20ft containers, which Freightliner supplies free of charge.