Examination of Witnesses (Questions 140
- 153)
WEDNESDAY 8 MARCH 2000
MR ANDREW
MALCOLM, MR
DERRICK POTTER
AND MR
KEITH BOARDALL
140. Have I understood correctly that if there
is a two-tonne advantage to road by introducing the 44-tonne lorry,
you would encourage more goods to travel by road?
(Mr Potter) I come back to what I said earlier and
that was services first, prices next and people would automatically
say they are sorry, but if road is cheaper they are going to use
road.
Chairman
141. That is very helpful. What particular changes
to the freight facilities, in particular in relation to grants,
do you think ought to be made in order to encourage freight onto
the railways?
(Mr Potter) Looking at the grants which are being
madeand that is a useful thing for everyone to doit
tends to favour the larger companies. I am not saying they should
not be favoured, but it is the smaller operator which we have
to attract and the smaller bits of freight because they as a total
make up a larger volume. They also help fill in the gap. My own
personal thoughts are, remember that even when the grants are
up and running we will probably still only get 20 per cent of
freight back from road to rail but at least we shall have achieved
something.
142. Do you think that the pressure on our hauliers
of things like rising prices has been to make them more efficient?
(Mr Potter) Yes, hauliers have become more efficient.
143. That is a very interesting use of the English
language.
(Mr Potter) Exactly.
144. If they have to pay more for their fuel
and they have to look at their overheads, has it forced them to
become more efficient?
(Mr Potter) Part of that is to do with IT too. The
control of information enables them to advance, in other words
there are fewer people.
145. So they are more efficient but there are
several different reasons.
(Mr Potter) There are several different reasons.
146. Do you think vehicle manufacturers are
doing all they could to develop more fuel efficient vehicles?
(Mr Boardall) We have had significant improvements
in that area. We have to realise that we have a conflict coming
along. As we are trying to clean up the engine, I understand from
the manufacturers that we are at the point where we are now going
to get miles/gallon declining. When we go to Euro-3 we will not
be getting the same miles/gallon as we are currently getting.
That will increase our costs still further, whilst up to now,
the improvements have also been giving us improvement in miles/gallon,
engine management systems.
147. Are you affected in any way by a shortage
of drivers and are you satisfied that you are going to have access
to highly qualified drivers?
(Mr Malcolm) There certainly is a shortage of skilled
HGV drivers. We as a company are currently not seeing an issue
with shortage; we do a lot of in-house training. Where the real
problem is coming is that the older generation of drivers are
now coming up to retirement. Trying to get the same quality in
the new breed we are actually encouraging into the industry is
getting harder.
148. Finally, what is the one thing which Government
could do which would make a massive difference? After all, forgive
me saying so, several times today all three of you have said that
what you really want is to be able to compete fairly. You have
said that in order to do that you would like the fuel escalator
dealt with, but none of you started from the same base as your
continental opposite numbers, did you? Before the fuel escalator
was imposed, none of you were operating under an identical regime,
were you?
(Mr Boardall) No. I remember when we ran vehicles
into Europe and when you got to the French side they had a look
in the tank to make sure you were bringing no fuel into France,
because if you were they had a little siphon to take it out.
149. Is that what we want? Little siphons.
(Mr Boardall) No, the boot is on the other foot. We
were buying it in England and we were buying it in our cars to
go to France because it was expensive in France. Now it is the
other way round.
150. What are you suggesting?
(Mr Boardall) I should like to see the Brit-disc.
I should like to see the current hours legislation maintained
and I should like to see something to get the stress down on our
drivers when they are trying to get from A to B. As an industry,
we have a very bad image unfortunately. We have a very bad image
but in our case we are delivering the food. Mr Malcolm is delivering
the bottles to put the food in. It is an essential thing and if
you want to go to the supermarket on Sunday afternoon to get a
fresh chicken off the shelf
151. I do not.
(Mr Boardall) They do; people do. We have to be there
delivering the goods and we do it every day, night and day, Saturdays
and Sundays. We only close on Christmas Day morning.
Mr Olner
152. I understand the difference between the
excise duty on fuel in the UK as opposed to France. Is there any
difference in the price that the petrol companies charge or levy
in the UK to that which they levy on the continent? You have no
knowledge on that at all.
(Mr Boardall) No.
Chairman
153. You have been extremely patient. May I
just send you away with one other little duty. It may be that
before this report is completed you will come across facts and
figures which will be very useful. The Committee would be grateful
for a copy of those. We are very grateful to you for coming. Thank
you very much.
(Mr Boardall) In my letter I have extended an invitation
to the Committee to visit our location in north Yorkshire, which
is the most efficient and the largest distribution centre of course,
to see how it works. I think you would find it interesting.
Chairman: We did understand that. I shall not
quote you to the one in my constituency which thinks it has that
ability. It is very kind of you to invite us and we shall certainly
consider it but I offer no promises. Thank you very much indeed.
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