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IT'S A LONG WEIGHT...
Page 5
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. . . to truck harmony. Ten years to be precise. And no-one can afford to wait that long.
Transport Secretary Paul Charmon has a rather lolloping approach to the road transport industry. His much-vaunted road-bulding scheme to take us into the 1990s is laudable in its aims to reduce congestion and help industry, but pointless as long as he insists on forcing an unnecessary number of top-weight trucks onto our roads.
Despite statistical evidence furnished by his own department on the way the 38-tonnes limit reduced the number of lorries on our roads, Channon has extended the Government's absurd ban on a harmonised truckweight across Europe until virtually the end of this century. He revealed his true colours on radio this week, saying that the "British public are dreading the arrival of 40-tonne lorries. They are a disagreeable necessity". How many members of the great British public has he canvassed to conclude they all hate the idea of 40-tonne trucks? How many of them know or care what our lorries weigh, just so long as the food is on the supermarket shelf, their milk is on the doorstep and their petrol is available on the forecourt every morning?
When Eduardo Pena arrived at the Freight Transport Association's national conference in Stratford-upon-Avon two years ago, he was in fighting mood. As the then newly appointed director-general of transport in the EC, he told reporters after his address that the UK's 40-tonne derogation would soon disappear and that our Government, like it or not, would have to accept higher truck weights in line with the rest of Europe.
He was right; the derogation was in its dying throes. He was wrong; nothing was going to happen "soon". Channon's "victory for common sense" by delaying our harmonisation with the EC 40-tonne limit until 1 January 1999 is a defeat for British industry, adding billions of pounds in unjustifiable costs to the nation's transport bill. Pena certainly won't see the further delay as a "victory for commonsense" — it will only serve to further isolate Britain from our European partners. Ministers and officials meeting in Brussels must frequently wonder why we bother attending the talks at all when the UK either disagrees outright or is as obstructive as possible about so many issues of common interest.
British hauliers will have to struggle on as best they can as the oportunities the Single European Market will undoubtedly bring in 1993 pass them by. Companies with bases on the Continent will probably shift business from the UK to France, West Germany or the Netherlands to employ higher weights and to exploit a more progressive national outlook to road transport.
When the UK finally limps up to 40 tonnes GVW at the beginning of 1999, where will the rest of the EEC be? At 44 tonnes, 46 tonnes or more? What lame excuses will our politicians use then as we continue to lose haulage contracts to Continental competitors? All because ten years is too long to wait.