Associations split over the latest Forum
Page 6
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• by Melanie Hammond
The Road Haulage and Freight Transport Associations are divided this week after coming out of the latest Transport Forum talking as though they had been to different meetings.
Following two hours of talks with new Transport Minister
Lord MacDonald, FTA directorgeneral David Green described the meeting as "very encouraging". He presented ministers and officials from the Department of Trade and Industry and the Treasury with figures showing European operators enjoy a 14% cost advantage over UK hauliers.
Green claimed "broad agreement on a double-digit discrepancy between UK and European transport costs" while conceding there is "still a long way to go".
However, RHA national chairman John Bridge was very disappointed, commenting: "We can talk about figures forever but when will something be done?". He described the meeting as "frankly very little use at all", adding that Treasury offidals were "totally failing to recognise the problems".
Almost the only thing the associations did agree on was that MacDonald seemed more interested in the industry's plight than his two predecessors.
Before the Forum four owners of small haulage firms met with the ministers and officials and came out equally disillusioned (see box).
Among them was Kentbased Frank Stears of TransAction; he is frustrated by the lack of co-operation between the two major trade associations: 'The FTA and RHA seem to be working against each other," he says. "We're not going to get anywhere unless they put spa united front."
The rift is set to widen further as the RHA plans more "friendly" regional demonstrations while the FTA relies on an advertising campaign to get its message across (see page 8).
The next Industry Forum is scheduled for early November.
• See Comment, page 6,