'We are not even play ing the same game as our EC counterparts'
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I,,ave just returned after nearly a month of
I Continental driving and at last found time to browse through the issues of Commercial Motor that arrived while twos away.
In one issue, heavy haulier John Golding complains about Dutch hauliers able to undercut his rates in the UK because of our high road fund licence (CM 4-10 November). He is quite right—and Dutch operators have told me they can claim an income fax refund on money earnt outside Holland.
The same issue reported that the French authorities are fining British operators for carrying more than 1,000 litres of fuel in belly tanks. As the cost of fuel in France is about the same pre-Budget as in the UK (possibly less when VAT is deducted), why does any operator need so much fuel unless it is red diesel?
I support your editorial (CM 14-20 October) demanding a level playing field with other European operators for the road fund licence but the argument can be extended to other areas. I have just been Forced to spend a Sunday and Monday sitting in France because it was All Saints Day, a public holiday. The cargo was urgent and had to be in Italy on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile any French, Italian or German truck that was not in either of these countries would be free to operate—literally so in the case of Britain.
I pay road tax in the UK and an average of 31:21-40 a day in France and Italy. From next year I will also have to pay similar taxes in the Benelux countries. At least overseas operators will soon have to pay motorway tolls here following the Bucget. But the freight forwarder I work for opens on a Sunday morning just to discharge Austrian trucks. Any chance of getting
Austrian permission to drive on Sunday there? During my last trip to Greece I met a Danish driver carrying 27 tonnes on five axles who claimed that he regularly carries up to 29 tonnes. I have also met Dutch and Italian drivers who claim to carry 29 tonnes in Germany without any problems. In almost 20 years of international operation I have never been axle weighed in the EC. I hove my gross weight checked each time entering Germany from Austria and once in Spain—that is all. Meanwhile our regulations in Britain seem to be getting stricter and stricter and more petty. I do not object to obeying the law but level playing Field does not come into it-we are not even playing the same game as our EC counterparts.