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Chunnel strategy sparks outrage
Page 7
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BELEAGUEREDAnglo-French firm Eurotunnel has run into fresh controversy with the launch of its new truck freight strategy A handful of UK-based operators have threatened to boycott the service in response to "unacceptable" service conditions.
The new freight strategy, implemented as part of Eurotunnel's revival plan, Project Dare, will require tunnel users to predict their month-by-month freight volumes.Eurotunnel's new freight director, Dirk Brock, says too many operators are using the tunnel as free insurance against problems with the ferries.
"We saw that traditional ferry customers, when they had problems with stormy days or other delays like an avalanche in Switzerland, then they turned to the tunnel," he adds."We had so much capacity that we never thought about it.The tunnel had become a commodity — an insurance policy for those using the ferries. If you are sending 90% of your traffic on the ferries then you are in a more competitive position than sending 100% through the tunnel. Our pricing was not reflecting the added value of the tunnel."
In future operators sending trucks to the tunnel in an emergency and hoping to get onto the next available service will be in for a shock:"non-quota traffic" will be restricted to four services a day, at a one-way cost of £750. Regular users will pay about £200.
Eurotunnel says that its top 50 accounts, which represent around 70% of it's annual 1.2 million truck journeys.have signed up to the deal.
However the new strategy has outraged UK haulage firms. Mike Beer, who runs Dover-based Mike Beer Transport,was sending about 150 trucks a month through the tunnel. He says: -We have closed our account with Eurotunnel. They wanted us to give a volume forecast but we couldn't do that, particularly as so much of our work is seasonal and unpredictable. It's ridiculous."