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With three cases of foot and mouth disease discovered in the past couple of weeks, Dylan Gray and Louise Cole investigate the impact it has on hauliers carrying anything from livestock to ice cream.

The foot and mouth (FMD) outbreak has been devastating for farmers who lost herds of cattle that took decades to develop. But the ban on livestock transport and tough restrictions on exports of food products have also been a body blow for the hauliers who specialise in this work.

One  of these is Cheltenham-based Gordon Gilder Transport which runs 10 trucks on livestock work and has another 20 reefers for hanging-meat exports to the Continent. Transport manager Sean Gilder reports: "The restrictions stopped three-quarters of our business overnight. We've had the double whammy of the UK livestock movement ban which took 10 vehicles out then we also export hanging meat so that was another 20 vehicles.

"It is very difficult to have a contingency [plan] because suddenly you are looking on the general market for general haulage work with very expensive, very specialised vehicles. It really isn't viable. We are always the last to be thought of in terms of compensation. We've investigated it and we will speak to the trade associations but I'm not hopeful. It isn't the sort of thing you can insure yourself against.

"For the 10 vehicles which transport livestock I would say we lose £50,000 a week in lost revenue if they can't work for the fridges it's about  £100,000 in lost revenue," he adds. "In total we have been out of action now for five days with the UK movements, and [even when they resume] indefinitely with the fridges - I would expect about one month."

The ban on exporting meats and livestock from England, Scotland and Wales will not be lifted until 25 August at the earliest EU vets are due to review the situation on the 23 August.

Gilder remembers the last FMD outbreak: "There are in the region of 10 or 15 big regional hauliers which export hanging meat in the UK. Last time it was about six months that we couldn't take hanging meat abroad. But we had fully recovered from that - we were flying along, confident, expanding the business and very pleased by the amount of work we had."

He has mixed feelings about the way the outbreak has been handled by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra): "Defra has contained this quickly, but I believe that's a mixture of luck and experience gained last time round. I think the restrictions could be lifted quicker, but Defra is terrified of being held accountable."

Mark Payne, MD of Plymouth-based Armoric Freight International, whose reefers carries meat throughout Europe, heading as far south as Spain and Portugal, admits that the crisis could not have happened at a worse time: "The situation has just got back on its feet - now is the busiest six months of the year. Then all of the sudden everything is completely wiped out. We've not done a one single export this week. At the moment we are just doing UK work.

"This is the third time we have been in this situation and it's still pretty devastating."

Like Gilder, Payne believes Defra has done what it can but hopes things will be resolved soon: "If the EU can agree that the FMD is contained in one area maybe exports can resume on a local level."

Hauliers carrying dairy products have also taken a hit. Neville Brooker, operations director for Dover-based Heritage International Transport, says: "We do a lot of dairy products and have therefore lost a lot of our work. We now have to run empty from the UK to collect our EU shipments."

Defra has been criticised for failing to supply the correct health certificate in time - this allows the export of goods which are exempt from the ban. A Defra spokesman confirms: "The certificate was available from 8 August." He was unable to explain why the certificate had not been issued earlier.

Brooker adds: "We are looking for other work to do and are currently in the process of getting certification [to let through products which are legal under Defra rules]. "From Monday [6 August] morning they wouldn't let anything shift. Their knee-jerk reaction was too quick. We will lose thousands of pounds because of this."

The emergency rules have stopped a lot of exports but that doesn't mean ferries are running empty. A P&O spokesman points out: "In the grand scheme of things it doesn't register. The vehicles affected make up less than 1% of our business. Of course we want all the business we can get, though looking at the statistics it doesn't have much of an impact at all."

The European Commission has made an effort to minimise the damage caused by the export ban: "In order to reduce the economic impact of this outbreak, the Commission has included a derogation whereby certain safe products will still be allowed to be exported. These include animal products produced before 15 July 2007, those treated in a way which would inactivate any possible virus (such as heat treatment), or those which were manufactured in Great Britain but derived from animals reared outside its territory.

"Live animals and animal products will still be allowed to be dispatched from Northern Ireland to other [EU] member states, so long as they carry the appropriate health certificate and the responsible veterinary authority in the country of destination is given three days' advance warning."