UK hauliers demand a fair EC deal by Gail Ashton
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• Hauliers have called for a harmonisation of road transport standards and costs across Europe to help Britain compete in the single market.
As the trade barriers went down at midnight on 1 January and the first trucks, including Laser Transport's, rolled through Dover it was clear that significant obstacles to trade continue to hamper British firms operating in Europe.
Two-thirds of operators interviewed in a survey commissioned by Commercial Motor attacked the Government for not doing enough to iron out gaping differences between road operations across the European Community.
Their concerns are echoed by Paul Frampton, chairman of the Road Haulage Association International Group. He says: "We currently have significant disadvantages; for example weight limits, speed limits, taxation and Britain's strict enforcement of laws. Free and fair competition is fine as long as we all start from the same base, obey the same rules and have them enforced to the same standards."
Fifty hauliers were inter viewed in the survey; half of them general haulage companies and half owner-operators. Twothirds thought more should be done to harmonise transport across Europe, especially in the area of road and fuel taxes.
They also criticised the Government for not doing more to help hauliers prepare for the single market. Although they had been sent a number of government leaflets, the operators complained that these publications were written in complicated jargon and were not easy to understand.
Terry George, managing director of Blue Van Distribution of Abergavenny, Gwent, backs the survey's findings: He estimates that a return journey to Spain by one of his trucks costs him up to £300 in tolls, while Spanish companies driving in the UK do not have to pay road tax and are expected to pay very few tolls. "Our road tax is astronomical compared with other countries," he says. "I think they certainly ought to consider reducing it in some way."
Jonathan Jempson, managing director of John Jempson & Son of Rye, East Sussex, suggests replacing road tax with a tax on diesel to help even out costs between European operators.
A spokesman for the Department of Transport says he acknowledges variations between EC countries, but negotiations are continuing to iron out differences: "Each country has its own view on the subjects and we cannot move until everyone agrees," he says.
Operators interviewed in the survey also highlighted the UK's 38-tonne weight limit as a barrier to expansion in Europe. Two-thirds of them felt the UK was hampered by not having a higher weight limit.
Despite their criticisms of the Government, well over threequarters of hauliers admitted they had done nothing themselves to prepare for the possibility of increased competition from the Continent. Only one operator said that his firm was adopting a more aggressive approach to business.