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Eddie Stobart bosses and the RHA have clashed over who is in touch with reality over cabotage. Stobart chairman Andrew Tinkler told DfT minister Stephen Ladyman that on cabotage: "We're telling you as it is." He had assured Ladyman "resoundingly" that the firm wasn't affected by cabotage and suggested it's a good thing that foreign firms are taking loads out of England  cheaply.

"That's a very different way of looking at things than the RHA would tell me," Ladyman said. Tinkler bought Eddie Stobart, one of the largest UK and international haulage fleets in 2004. His comments were reported in Commercial Motor last week, in an issue edited by Tinkler and co-director William Stobart. Ladyman will have welcomed his view as the government has been keen to play down the significance of continental fuel duties in UK domestic haulage in the face of pressure from the RHA and the FTA.

RHA chief executive Roger King was less impressed: "One person's comment (ie Tinkler's) doesn't make a case. Hundreds of our members are saying something else everybody is agreed, including VOSA, that there's an issue with  cabotage. No-body's saying anything about foreign trucks taking backloads out of the country. The issues are with cabotage, cheap fuel and violation of the regulations."

Asked if Eddie Stobart was an RHA member, King said the firm was but left well before the new owners took control. Tinkler and Stobart have cautioned against truck operators buying Euro 4 trucks. "Hang fire on hasty decision," they argue, "because Euro 4 has yet to prove itself Not only may they cost you more, "every O.1mpg you lose on fuel economy costs you £35 a month". Volvo, Scania and MAN, all major suppliers to Eddie Stobart, declined to comment.