News

The truck is an easy scapegoat and alternatives are easily found, especially when elections are coming up, as they are in France next year. But trucks are not disembodied monsters threatening our planet. They serve consumers and keep the economy competitive. The trouble is, while our industry may be good at making trucks and moving freight, it has been less efficient in communicating what our profession has really been doing over the past decade or so. Take the following recent survey results  in France:

74% of people believe that pollution generated by trucks has increased or remained constant for the past ten years the facts are that, although road haulage traffic has increased by almost 40% in Europe over the past 15 years, polluting emissions have dropped by half. n 62% of people think that the proportion of accidents involving trucks has remained constant or increased over the past ten years. In fact, since 1980, trucks' involvement in accidents has been cut by 80%. And noise levels have been divided by 12 over the past 30 years.

Worse, opinion formers such as local elected representatives, journalists and experts have an even poorer image of trucks than the general public. While 53% of people think that our sector contributes to improving road safety, only 25% of opinion formers share this view. Road haulage has so much that is positive and that it is failing to get across. Engine power ratings have tripled since 1960 and yet average consumption of fuel  has halved. They account for just 7% of France's CO2 emissions, against 10% generated by cars.

But there are paradoxes on the near horizon. We cannot go on reducing both CO2 emissions and NOx. Which should we aim for - reducing NOx or CO2? The idea of using other modes of transport than trucks only raises false hopes. Instead, we need to use alternative energies. Diesel still remains the most relevant for long distance haulage. But natural gas solutions, using dimethlyether should be developed for short and medium distance haulage, despite needing significant investments in trucks and infrastructure. And hybrids will be relevant in urban cities.

These technologies are expensive to develop. It would be appropriate to allocate revenue from road transport taxes to research and development into reducing nuisance levels. Other incentives and initiatives are needed if we are to have an adult approach to reducing the impact of trucks including:

• Provide direct aid to manufacturers to support their research efforts.
• Encouragement to replace ageing vehicles, such as tax credits, or special bonuses.
• An easing of the pressure to reduce NOx, which would benefit fuel consumption and emissions of CO2.
• An increase in truck weights and dimensions, certainly to 44 tonnes in France. 60-tonners would significantly reduction traffic.
• Less-restricted working hours for logistics operations.

Trucks have enabled an economy based on stocks to be transformed into an economy which is based on flow, reducing volumes of goods immobilised and therefore their capital value. Truck makers and road hauliers cannot be held responsible for the way society plans cities and travel. It is time to drop the clichés and the caricatures of lorries and dreams of miraculous solutions to moving goods. Industrialists, the government, hauliers and the general public must enter a responsible dialogue.