Snap election prompts RHA manifesto
The Road Haulage Association (RHA) has called on the UK’s political parties to use the forthcoming general election as an opportunity to pledge their support for hauliers, and re-examine the key issues facing the sector in the light of impending Brexit.
Still processing prime minister Theresa May’s surprise announcement of an early poll, the main political parties had yet to release their official election manifestos as Transport Operator‘s printed edition went to press this month.
But the RHA had beaten them to it, publishing its own programme of policies designed to safeguard the haulage industry, entitled Moving the Economy Forward, on 1 May.
In the introduction to the document, the association warned that the transport sector would be “placed in jeopardy” if the challenges facing it were not immediately confronted.
The RHA highlighted five key policy areas that it said needed to be addressed. Firstly, it called on the government to invest sufficiently in roads to create a “congestion-free” network, as well as to invest in the “last mile” of delivery (local roads).
Technology should be deployed to ensure more efficient use of available road space, it added – while rest facilities for drivers required improvement, and improved provision should be made for secure facilities for their vehicles.
Secondly, it advocated a reduction in the differential between fuel duty rates in the UK and the rest of the EU, and a rebalancing of the “uncompetitive advantage that EU hauliers currently exploit” by bringing vehicles into the UK with full tanks of cheaper fuel.
The third policy area was emissions and local air quality. Proposals included reducing congestion through improved traffic management; the removal of restrictions that force HGVs to use congested roads during peak hours; and the implementation of a realistic scrappage scheme for pre-Euro 6 vehicles.
RHA also called for the next government to ensure that low emission schemes placing restrictions on HGVs around the country should be simple and uniform in their application, ensure businesses had time to adapt, and not penalise hauliers that had followed the advice of previous governments.
Skills and the driver shortage formed the fourth pillar of the RHA’s manifesto. It said the next government should work with the sector to deliver the funding required for the Trailblazer apprenticeship, implement a mechanism to help fund HGV licence acquisition, and support industry employment schemes and awareness campaigns.
Finally, the association set out key measures to ensure the safeguarding of the industry post-Brexit.
It called for the current Le Touquet agreement with France, which places UK immigrations controls at Calais, rather than Dover, to be retained.
It also said frictionless customs procedures should be ensured to allow easy movement of goods across Europe, but especially at Calais and on the Irish border.
“Failure will result in chaos on either side of the Dover Strait as ports and officials are overwhelmed by the 10,000 goods vehicles that cross the English Channel each day,” said RHA.
“Beyond that, approach roads will be paralysed by HGVs awaiting processing, and all supply chains, from supermarket supplies to parts for the automotive sector, will face major disruption.”
It added that the current licensing system for HGVs on international journeys between the UK and EU should be retained, and that the industry should continue to be able to recruit HGV drivers and other workers from abroad.
“There are 60,000 drivers currently working in the UK who are from other EU member states,” said the manifesto.
“While improved efforts to train drivers in the UK will help ease the shortage there will be continuing a need to recruit from outside the UK.
“With a current driver shortage of 45,000 these workers are critical for the competitiveness of the UK economy and the smooth running of the supply chain.”