Memorandum by Denby Transport (RH 10)
THE ROLE
1. It is necessary to look at the total movement
of freight in the UK, to and from the UK, and also in transit
through the UK. Based on tonnage lifted, road haulage is the dominant
player handling some 81 per cent of the market. Second equal are
water (canal and coast) seven per cent and pipeline seven per
cent. Finally, rail handles five per cent.
THE ROLE
OF DENBY
TRANSPORT
The Company's activity concerns 95 per cent
international journeys across the English Channel of which over
80 per cent involves hauling goods between the UK and France in
both directions.
Our customer base includes Caterpillar, JCB,
Renault Agriculture and John Deere for machinery and parts and
also ICI Zenica, Elf Atochem, Solvay, Millenium, Courtaulds and
Dupont for Chemicals and man-made fibres. We cross the English
Channel about 750 times a month.
THE OPERATION
1b. Road haulage operates from a near monopoly
position in regard to short haulage (under 100 Kilometres) and
to the haulage, regardless of distance, of many categories of
cargo, ie livestock, certain chemicals, temperature controlled
cargo, and seasonal items to and from farm and forest.
ITS CONTRIBUTION
TO THE
ECONOMY
1c. Whilst having made a very positive,
essential and growing contribution to the economy since 1918 and
indeed enabled many industries to flourish in regions experiencing
surpluses of labour released from agriculture and later from mining
and others, it is time to re-assess the negative/positive calculation.
But this rightly comes under item 2.
IMPACT ON
ENVIRONMENT
1d. It is necessary to assume that in a
healthy economy goods need to be moved in increasing quantities.
First we must focus on the rail network. Constructed in the nineteenth
century to supplement or replace canals, rivers and coastal shipping
for freight movement they did more than that. They enabled, as
we have seen above, industries to appear in new regions. Their
original Raison D'être was freight but they discovered,
partly thanks to Mr Thomas Cook, that there was also a market
for moving people. Today in the year 2000 the railway companies
throughout Europe are focused first on people, second on freight.
Lorries generally make an intrusive and unwelcome
impact on the environment but this should be viewed in a wider
context. First, gradually factories are being located or re-located
beside suitable roads and away from town and city centres but
equally important the popular support to send "more goods
by rail" has been overtaken by an even louder chorus to improve
quality and quantity of rail passenger services. The rail network
is heavily stretched and likely to remain so. I have assumed here
that even if some of our two track main lines are to be increased
to four track, the planning, environmental impact assessments,
financing and construction will take 15 to 20 years.
If we recognise the current rail priority of
people first, freight second as being the correct one then the
intrusive impact of the lorry looks rather different. A stream
of heavy lorries on long distance journeys becomes a means of
releasing precious, finite rail track capacity to passenger services,
to move many hundreds more passengers.
IMPACT OF
RATES OF
VED AND FUEL
DUTY
2. The attached comparison of fuel duties
in Europe and the United States highlights what Europe generally
has got wrong and the UK got very wrong indeed. During the 1975
referendum campaign we were told that objective of creating a
market of 250 million people was in order to make possible bigger
factories, bigger production runs and to serve this market from
one source in order "to compete with the United States".
Free movement of people, capital and goods was a foundation stone
of the treaty of Rome. I voted forthat.
But, as the table shows the tax on diesel in
the USA varies from state to state but the trucker on long haul
can pick up where it is most advantageous to him. (four and a
half pence per litre tax). Compared with this French/German tax
is five fold, the UK is over 10 fold. The USA is the world's biggest
and most successful economy. But free movement of goods in Europe
is being eroded.
VED is an additional British mistake. The enormous
increase in lorry traffic through Kent to France and Belgium since
1995 (73 per cent) has been serviced exclusively by non-British
trucks. British carried tonnage is static. The standard European
40 tonner must pay £5,750 if UK based even if it spends 90
per cent of its time outside the UK. It will also pay up to £3,000
a year on French motorway tolls. The French competitor will spend
£450 on VED (4,588FF) and the same £3,000 on tolls.
British market share continues to fall.
To refer back to item one the contribution to
the economy of the British Road Haulage is important but the potential
contribution if we get our tax structure right is incalculably
more important. More important because this will invigorate plant
modernisation in areas heavily hit by the cost of transport. If
we get this right examples like the Goodyear/Dunlop group closing
fort Dunlop Birmingham and the Continental rubber group closing
Edinburgh rather than other facilities world wide would not happen.
REGULATORY IMPACT
ON SAFETY
AND PROFITABILITY
3. Broadly speaking current regulations
for Tachograph control and vehicle maintenance and testing work
well in the interests of road safety, and are not an intolerable
burden on the industry.
However, the French clamp down on lorries returning
to their home base or exit frontier post between 2200 Saturday
and 2200 Sunday since 1998 expensively disrupts journeys between
say Northern England and Northern Spain. A Frenchman can normally
get round and home by Saturday night or at worst park his truck
and get a lift home. A Britisher is stuck 24 hours at motorway
services in company of Danes, Swedes, Greek, Portuguese etc this
erodes profitability and driver morale.
CHANGES
4a. Recognise that rail policy of people
first, freight second is probably right.
4b. Recognise that the 40 tonne articulated
tractor unit is the European standard vehicle and that British
truckers exposed to direct mainland competition should be allowed
to compete on level terms.
4c. The current 41 tonner (six axles) should
be allowed to operate at the weights for which our National road
network was designed, in order to use the carrot of higher weight
rather than financial whip to draw some operators, where appropriate,
from the more damaging 40 tonner (five axles). Our roads are designed
to accept the six-axle vehicle at 44 tonnes.
4d. VED for 40 tonner or 44 tonner should
be between £500 and £1,000.
4e. If further carrot is felt necessary
two year tax holiday from new for the six-axle outfit could be
considered.
DIESEL TAX
This should be reduced to the French/German
levels very quickly, but do not lose sight of our objective to
develop a British economy as robust and competitive as the best
in the developed world not just France/Germany. Finally cash has
to be found to modernise our road network and modernise it fast.
COST
1. To lower diesel tax to the Franco/German
rate will cost £1.5 billion in crude terms but this will
be compensated by:
(a) increased purchases in UK by all nationality
of user; and
(b) increased viability of factory investment
in UK.
2. The more realistic VED rates could affect
35,000 vehicles thus to treasury perhaps £70 million.
February 2000
| 
