NEWS\\\
Issue 8 2014 - Freight Business Journal
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Letters to the Editor Fed up with freight journalism
Sir
I remember when the trade press was at the heart of the freight community. The good publications broke news, contained well-researched, thorough and balanced features and hard-hitting analysis; in short, everything anyone in the industry wanted to know about. Freight journalists could call up their contacts - oſten by-passing the PR department altogether - and ask a question, get their views on a burning issue, find out what’s new. How things have changed. The growth of the Internet and the desire of companies to control
every word that’s written about them have combined to make trade journalists’ jobs much, much harder. People want emailed questions, but there is no way any journalist, however knowledgeable and experienced, can know exactly what they want to ask until they start talking to the freight professional: our questions depend on what you tell us. We really need a two-way conversation to get a proper understanding of the subject we are writing about and to be able to present your company in the most professional light. Increasingly, companies want to vet what’s written before publication
- and have the right to change it. But however much they insist it’s to check for factual accuracies, the ‘vetter’s’ idea of factual accuracy is very different from mine: they want me to re-write everything in marketing speak. I have had people tell me they don’t need to talk to the press because
‘everything is on the web’ - yet what does a website provide apart from an electronic corporate brochure, schedule or price changes, and maybe a self-promoting blog? A good journalist’s job is to provide accurate, topical information and comment that is NOT available on the Internet. In any case, you can’t believe everything that’s written on the web! For all the reasons outlined above, my column in this issue of
Freight Business Journal is the last piece I will ever write for any freight publication. It’s a job I used to love, but, as I said, how things change. Marcia Macleod Former IT editor, Freight Business Journal
Truck levy: a flop, not a success Sir
Aſter years of campaigning by the British haulage industry for a “level playing field” with Europe the Government finally caved in on 1 April by introducing the HGV road user levy. The levy is paid by all trucks running on British roads but is effectively only paid by foreign registered vehicles as UK trucks have their vehicle excise duty rebated by the same amount. The Government is hailing the new tax as a great success as it
has raised £23.4million in six months, more than expected for the entire first year. What does that tell us? First, ministers got their sums horribly wrong and secondly that once you take into account the costs of administration, this tax raises very little money indeed. In reality, the levy is nothing more than a sop to UK hauliers who
have long felt at a disadvantage to their European counterparts. The introduction of new EU members from Eastern Europe has only exacerbated this view. But the reasons behind this sentiment are complex and this tax hasn’t done much, if anything, to address them. The truth is the vast majority of UK registered trucks carry out UK
domestic work and are not involved in international transport. Freight between the UK and Europe is almost entirely carried by European trucks because there are twice as many loads coming to the UK as export loads leaving the country due to our physical trade deficit with Europe. Consequently, import freight rates are roughly twice UK export rates. So it’s perfectly natural that vehicle round trips start in Europe where the higher paying in-bound loads are found rather than from here where many trucks leave without a load at all. The levy hasn’t impacted this position one iota. In other words, I believe UK registered trucks haven’t done a single additional trip to the continent because of this tax. I challenge any haulier out there, as well as the FTA and RHA who supported the levy, to prove me wrong. It is fair to note that some other countries like Germany, Austria and Switzerland charge similar levies but their rationale is different. Their
aim is to charge trucks that are merely transiting their countries and thus provide no economic benefit while using their roads for free. Apart from a relatively small amount of Irish cargo this issue does not affect the UK. So what about cheap foreign trucks pinching all the domestic work?
The involvement of foreign trucks in UK domestic work is negligible currently, not least because EU ‘cabotage’ rules restrict their ability to do it. I’m against these rules as they restrict free trade and are bad for my customers. They cause empty running which is both economically inefficient and harmful to the environment. But even when they are eventually scrapped (the EU is currently consulting on this) I don’t believe foreign trucks will take a big slice of our domestic market. It’s difficult for foreign hauliers to build relationships with UK customers unless they have a set-up here. If they’re not local they cannot offer the quick responses and flexible capacity UK customers require. In reality, foreign hauliers just want to get home to pick up another
well-paid inbound load. If they do want to pitch for UK work for less than £50 per week the new levy makes next to no impact on their ability to do so. So I’m confident the levy has done nothing to reduce the amount of UK domestic work being done by foreign hauliers. Again, I’d challenge anyone to present evidence I’m wrong. It’s true that certain European countries have cheaper labour costs
(although many do not). Fuel is much cheaper in some countries than in the UK because of our high rates of duty. In the UK, hauliers have to pay VED (and now the levy) which other countries don’t have. These may be reasons for our hauliers to feel fed up. But they aren’t addressed by the levy. The truth is that while foreign hauliers are physically paying the
levy in reality they are just passing it on to the UK importers and British manufacturers who use them. If they’re able they are sticking this cost increase onto the prices their customers – that’s you and me - pay. Ian Baxter
Chairman, Baxter Freight
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