FRENCH HAVE A BELLY LAUGH
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Here we go again, and again. The French don't like belly tanks and whack large fines on any haulier that has the temerity to use them. Why are we pussy-footing around the problem? When can we see some action to get rid of this belly ache?
"We will continue to press the French but we are not going to carry on waiting." Your starter for 10 is who said that? Was it a)The Duke of Wellington b) Lord Nelson or c) Winston Churchill? We'll have to hurry you....sorry, time's up. The answer is Roger Smith, head of the Department of Transport's international freight and road haulage division. It seems as if Mr Smith is running out of patience with the French over belly tanks. So are a lot of British international hauliers.
French authorities have always applied a certain Gallic Je re sais quo; to road transport regulations— not least when it comes to those C&U rules dealing with auxiliary fuel tanks set by the European Commission As a result the story has been rumbling on in the pages of CM with regular reports of British TIR operators being stopped and fined for running with belly tanks.
Now the French appear to have raised the temperature by declaring that they will not allow auxiliary tanks because of the risk of accidents to other road users. This follows their attempts to get such tanks covered by the ADR hazardous goods convention and flies in the face of what appeared to be a previous agreement with British officials that tanks carrying less than 1,000 litres would be unaffected.
It all smacks of: "It's my ball and you're not going to play." Unfortunately for the international operators being fined large sums and having trucks impounded, it's anything but a game. The French clearly have the whip hand when it comes to belly tanks. All they have to do is seize a British operator's truck, slap on a large fine and wait. Sooner or later he'll have to cough up the cash in order to carry on. What we can't understand is why this dispute has been allowed to drag on for so long. While British officials have been busy negotiating, French customs have continued to act unilaterally. Once again its road hauliers who are left to pick up the pieces. Yet to complain is to somehow appear "Un-European". We also can't see why a British operator should have to invoice the French Customs after suffering operational losses at its hands. Or why a British MEP should be attempting to serve an injunction against the French via the European Commission. Aren't both these the Department of Transport's job? Either way British hauliers hit by unfair fines must be compensated without delay. It took years for those caught up in the Lamb War to get any redress and more importantly money. If the DOT is really keen to fight the French over belly tanks, then it has to fight for hauliers'wallets as well as their rights.