Encouraging words from Chris Grayling, the shadow secretary of state for transport, last week as he called on truck operators to link up with him and sidekick Owen Paterson in formulating future transport policy for the party.

I've met with Grayling a few times now and he seems to genuinely have an empathy with this industry, which is something we should all get behind. The Tories are ahead in the polls and look like having every chance of forming the next government. No matter what colour of politics you prefer, for us to have a special invitation to get involved in shaping future policy is a chance not many will get and I for one intend to use it. To get involved, either leave a comment here and i'll be in touch or contact Grayling and Paterson direct.

The ever-increasing cost of fuel is causing UK hauliers to search for ways to reduce their trucks’ thirst – but just how much of a saving can be made?

Let’s start with aerodynamics, which according to the government’s free help booklet entitled The Streamlined Guide to Truck Aerodynamic Styling, can improve fuel economy by some 12%. Then what about the Concept Truck (pictured) that Iveco had towering over its stand at Hanover?

Apparently by adopting a Ferrari-inspired air kit on the tractor and trailer you can reduce fuel consumption by some 15%.

Interesting to read over at dcvelocity.com that both UPS and DHL are moving ahead with significant hybrid fleet trials. UPS is looking at what is claimed to be the first hydraulic hybrid diesel urban delivery truck, billed as the world's most fuel-efficient and cost-effective delivery vehicle. This was developed through a partnership between the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Army, UPS, International Truck and Engine Corp. and Eaton Corp.

DHL, on the other hand, has been using a veritable panoply of low emissions machinery. It launched its "Green Logistics" environmental initiative in Japan earlier this year, with the net result that DHL’s Japanese drivers find themselves at the wheel of anything from the new Fuso Canter Hybrid, through to a fuel cell-powered Mercedes A Class through to – a bicycle. Hybrids were a big deal at this year's IAA. Big fleet interest may yet serve to drive their acceptance within Europe.

Comical Ali might have pulled it off, but it’s difficult to think of anyone else who could talk up the prospects for the US truck industry in 2007. Now it seems that the mainstream US media has suddenly awoken to the fact that there are bad times ahead. This article refers to Freightliner, but it would apply - we think - to the rest as well.

There’s been an awful lot of smoke blown over the previous months about how things are going to be not so bad, the landing soft and that the darkest hour is before dawn. We think that this is a crock. The US Economy is a worrying place at the moment. Political uncertainty in the run up to the November Midterms is growing, and the likelihood of people getting out and spending next year seems remote.

Add to this the EPA 07 emissions shift, and we doubt very much whether a US truck salesman will be able get arrested next year, let alone get an appointment with a truck buyer. In blunt terms, we’ll predict a market downturn of 40 per cent during 2007.

VOSA shows off new mobile checking technology. I've just returned from one of the FTA's fleet management conferences at Warrington today where Mike Smith, senior examiner at VOSA was demonstrating the new hand-held monitoring device the agency is set to roll out to its team of roadside and test station officials. It's a nifty piece of kit which will ensure the roadside checkers have all the information literally to hand when they pull trucks over. This single device can check digital tachos, draw on VOSA's database of intelligence and will hand out fixed penalty notices when the legislation is passed - possibly first quarter next year.

Yes you've read it right. According to an article in yesterday's Observer lorry driver Ieuan James claims to prefer Commercial Motor and Back Street Heroes to porn.

The article's all about artist, Sarah Lucas, who's taken a clapped out old Leyland and plastered the innards with pictures of naked women. The truck is on display in Regents Park if you're interested. As the four drivers who The Observer collared at South Mimms confirmed, truck drivers are not interested in porn...

Honest...

Technorati Tags: art, Commercial Motor, porn, sarah lucas, truckers

It looks like the Freight Transport Association is still rather keen on the idea of road pricing.
Deputy Chief Executive James Hookham spoke today at the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress, telling the audience that road users would be hard to convince of road pricing - or the 'Toll Tax', as Motor Transport called the now-defunct Lorry Road User Charge.

Word on the street is that the Royal Mail may be on the verge of breaking its long-standing supply deal with Daf for tractor units as it puts the next order out to tender. Sources close to the mail provider indicate that a change in supplier may be in the offing for its Euro-4 tractors and I'll be surprised if all the makers don't throw their hats into the ring.

Following the last tender process - which took somewhere in the region of seven months from start to finish - for car-derived delivery vans the Royal Mail split the deal between Ford, Fiat and Vauxhall with the former getting the lion's share of the order. Don't be surprised if they do the same for their next batch of tractors, but who will they choose? MAN and Mercedes must fancy their chances on the basis of the recent Euro-4 group test in Commercial Motor.

A little bird tells me - a little bird with a very senior position in a major High Street retailer - that he is expecting a rather flat Christmas. As he points out, skyrocketing house price inflation is bound to mean a rise in interest rates in November. Add to that the fact that Sony's Playstation 3 has been delayed until well into next year, and you have the makings of a bleak Christmas for retailers.
You have been warned...

I chaired Don-Bur's lifting deck forum last week at the Brittania Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent and a couple of presentations - from the fleet engineer's at John Lewis and Argos - captured the spirit of the day indicating that, if the business requirements are right, then lifting deck trailers can represent some massive efficiency gains.

But as the guy from John Lewis, Ray Collington, explained if the operational requirements of the business change then investment in some fairly expensive and niche kit, can leave the operation a bit exposed. John Lewis trucks are now being expected to backload for sister company Waitrose, which requires a different type of trailer to the high-tech lifting deck variety the firm has bought from Don-Bur in the past.

This conflict between making efficiency savings in a very specific operation through the detailed specification of product, versus retaining a more standard build which can be run across all parts of the business is an issue which has taxed fleet engineers for years and seems to swing with the fashion of the day and debates are likely to rage for a good few year's yet.

I've been to numerous transport events in the past few weeks and digital tachographs is a recurring theme which doesn't seem to be going away. The legislation was introduced back in April and to be honest I thought it had been taken on board by the industry and was going fairly smoothly - how wrong I was.

Take up of driver cards has been less than 30% of the driver pool and talking to the rental companies you get the distinct impression truck operators, big and small, really don't want to know. There's national fleets speccing their current rental needs as "non-Euro4, non-digital" and many have deferred their purchasing and operational decisions until well into next year.This would seem to be prudent practice, but the big rental firms are raising the alarm regarding spot hire, particularly in the event of breakdown of or damage to a truck, when without a driver or operator card operators won't be able to use the replacement truck.

Those that have gone digi are reporting many problems in operation with the downloading and management of the data, so you can't blame operators for taking a sceptical view of the new technology.

The Scottish Parliament debated a report this week into the Scottish freight industry which had been produced by one of its sub-committees, but you could be forgiven for missing it. As it happens so did most of the MSPs - there were perhaps a dozen in attendance, 15 at a push, which probably gives you some idea of the interest that it provoked.

The Highways Agency website is the best site around for travel news and anyone running a transport company or spending a lot of time on the road would be well advised to get this site added to your favourites - what's more it's free.

As you'd expect, given the fact we're about to launch a new website for the market, I've been browsing the web looking for the most useful and interesting sites for our market and the Highways Agency website is full of excellent, free information aimed at tackling congestion. There's an internet radio station with traffic updates, RSS feeds to you desktop as well as a site giving traffic information on all the trunk routes managed by the Highways Agency.

If there's any sites you recommend we need to check out as we continue to develop the site, post a comment now...

An ancient copy of Commercial Motor has been discovered supporting a window frame in the house of Roger Stokes.

We always knew Commercial Motor had a number of uses, but this has to be the most unusual.

Roger contacted me on Saturday:

"Hello, sorry to bother you but I just had my windows replaced (4/11/6) and stuffed in the top of the window recess was a copy of 'The Commercial Motor' dated Friday 29th July 1938. Just wondering how long this paper has been going on for, if it's still threepence and is it still 'The largest and most influential Circulation?'"

Sadly the price has had to go up a bit since the threepence days, but it's still exceptional value at £2.00. We'll leave the CM readers to be the judge of its influence!

Freight Transport Association chief executive Richard Turner warned on Tuesday that the mistake of the fuel escalator that saw fuel taxes increasing well above inflation should not be repeated by the proposed "green" taxes. "We must not repeat this error in response to the Stern report. If taxation has a role to pay it must be different taxation and not more taxation," he said.

He added that transport is responsible for only one seventh of the problem for the problem and the UK as a whole is only one fiftieth of the global problem.

Turner, who was speaking at his last FTA dinner as chief executive, also called for tougher enforcement against overseas trucks.

South London operator PF Whitehead has announced its determination to run a retail consolidation centre for South London.
Consolidation centres take deliveries for a number of retailers in a given area and consolidate them onto one vehicle. This reduces congestion and provides smoother deliveries for hauliers.
The firm, which already handles home delivery work for retailers Ikea and B&Q as well as being a member of Palletways, believes it has the expertise and capability to run the consolidation centre.

The all-new RoadTransport.com website is beginning to take shape ahead of our December launch.

I said when we first started this blog that we'd try to keep users posted about the development of our new website for the road transport sector. With the launch now a matter of weeks away i thought i'd kick off with a sneak preview of some of the main elements you can expect to see when we go live.

Strange times at Eurotunnel - the company that runs the Channel Tunnel and the truck shuttles through it.
As well as facing up to the imminent threat of liquidation if a meeting of its creditors on 27 November doesn't go to plan, it's also threatening to open a new front in its on-going battle with the UK government over rail freight subsidies.

Richrd Turner, the chief executive of the Freight Transport Association, was summoned to Geneva last week by the International Road Transport Union to answer charges of xenophobia.
This stems from a joint campaign by the FTA and the Road Haulage Association to get foreign trucks to provide a number of details as they enter the country - the "Tell us who you are" campaign.
This was prompted by the level of offending that seems rife amongst foreign haulage firms with the Romanians and Irish amongst the worst offenders according to VOSA figures.

The next few days are reported as being the peak time for ordering Christmas goods online. Tomorrow (Friday) is the first day in December and it is expect that customers will suddently realise that they have to put their Christmas order in soon if they are to be delivered before the big day.
Motor Transport recently held a round-table discussion on the problems of home delivery. They come down to the fact that web site operators are reluctant to pay a realistic amount for the delivery and customers are rarely at home. This is not helped by the recent move by Tesco to deliver beds and sofas in two hour delivery slots for £10.
Home delivery is growing rapidly with Tesco adding a big catalogue of non-food items to its already strong food home delivery service. Even Ikea is to offer home delivery in Nottingham in the new year..

Sir Rod Eddington's much-hyped report into transport congestion is published today, a week earlier than originally intended.

Analysts and economists aren't known as media-centric folk but nonetheless a lot of scrabbling and jostling can be heard from the transport consultants' back rooms. A year ago Alistair Darling commissioned Sir Rod Eddington to look at the future of transport.

The Vehicle and Operator Services Agency's (VOSA's) recent survey of its employees was indeed carried out at a difficult time for the Agency. Not only is it going through internal changes and redundancies, in line with Gordon Brown's promise to cut civil service jobs, but the consultation into outsourcing has everyone jumpy.
But, although staff have a distinctly under-whelming belief in their management, the employee survey did produce some very reassuring results for the road transport operator and the agency itself.

The Chancellor has rejected industry hopes for a reduction in duty for hauliers. But he may allow a “vignette” daily charge on overseas hauliers in the UK. He has also increased fuel duty by 1.25p to 58.35p.
Gordon Brown rejected the proposals from the industry to reduce duty by 25ppl on fuel used by the operators most directly affected by foreign competition. "After carefully considering fully the implications these policies would have on revenue, fraud and the environment, and the analysis of costs and competitive differentials set out in the Task Group report, the Government does not believe that there is a case for duty rate reductions. Quantative restrictions on fuel carried on incoming vehicles where also suggested. However, these would contravene Europe single market
He said that further work is being done to explore ways to driving more targeted enforcement on foreign vehicles. “One way this could have been achieved would be via a Vignette – a time based charge for the use of UK roads. This would be designed to make foreign hauliers pay for some of the damage that they cause on UK roads. If it was introduced it would very likely to be administered through the VED registration process. The Government is undertaking a detailed feasibility study.
The Chancellor published a report from the Road Haulage Industry Task Force summarising the evidence gathered. Gordon Brown said that "The Government recognises the important role that road haulage plays in a successful and high-productivity economy.

The Chancellor said "It is the Government's police that fuel duty rates should rise each year at least in line with inflation as the UK seeks to reduce polluting emissions and funds public services." What is worrying about this comment is that it says at least in line with inflation and opens the possiblity of it being increased to fund public services.
But You can see the full speech and press releases at the HM Treasury's web site once the Chancellor has finished his speech.

You can see the full speech and press releases at the HM Treasury's web site .

Transport associations are beyond disappointed with chancellor Gordon Brown's decision to increase fuel duty by 1.25 pence per litre, with the general feeling being that road haulage remains low in the pecking order despite its vital contribution to the economy.

The FTA says Brown has "broken faith" with the industry, adding that £170m in cost rises will have to be swallowed by the UK's hauliers. Chief economist Simon Chapman says: "The Chancellor himself is on record as saying that the logistics sector is a vital part of delivering future economic success. Yet his decision today suggests he sees the industry as no more than a source of tax revenue that he can plunder with impunity."

Meanwhile the RHA is "devastated" by the decision, with chief executive Roger King predicting that the rise "will, for many operators, signal the end of the road".

UK hauliers are already financially disadvantaged compared with their European counterparts, and this latest announcement will be a blow, King says.

The CBI has acknowledged the road haulage industry's feelings of the increase:

"Hauliers in particular will be disappointed by the increase in fuel duty in line with inflation, given they are already at a disadvantage with competitors based on the continent," it says.

We report on the Chancellor's original announcement

Government rejects many of complaints by the haulage industry in the Burns report

Scania has confirmed it will meet the Euro-5 exhaust emissions legislation - mandatory on new truck types from October 2008 - using exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) technology, confounding the critics who have said Euro-5 can only be met using selective catalytic reduction (SCR).

The debate regarding emissions legislation and the required technology to meet those emissions has been raging for the past three years as the two rival camps have pushed claim and counter-claim into the market, espousing the benefits of each technology.

French investment group Eurazeo is to sell its 55 per cent stake in Fraikin to CVC Capital Partners.

Eurazeo said it expects the final deal to be signed in the next few days and that it is cancelling the planned Fraikin IPO.

The deal – with an enterprise value of €1.25 / $1.79 / £0.91 billion – will see the Contract Hire operation which acquired Lex Transfleet a year ago, change hands of the third time in four years. In 2002, Eurazeo paid I€805 / £545 million ($1.07 billion) for the business during its acquisition from Iveco.

CVC Capital Partners is increasing its automotive business at present, and Fraikin joins both Kwik Fit and the AA as CVC Group companies.

There was a time when people, seeking unison and consequence, would meet in a common place, say the pub or at work, and conversed forming attachments based on common ground, ambition or sheer stimulation.
Perhaps it’s sad the motor industry has gone the way of youth culture, not to mention the singleton generation who believe live starts at 40, and staged a bypass to all that flannel and rubbish that people do when seeking said ‘unison and consequence’.
Yes, my friends, speed dating has arrived. This time it was the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders acting as the dating agency, manufacturers taking the role of single ladies looking for a suitable match, and the journalists as sad, desperate men trying to take any short cut they can to get…‘unison and consequence’.
All sounds a bit sceptical? Don’t you believe it; one day spent talking to the industry saved this journalist endless calls, surfing and research trying to put together a hastily commissioned CV Show preview.

This week's Commercial Motor investigation asks the question as to whether the UK should introduce a system to tax foreign vehicles entering the UK.

The Department for Transport is still considering all options, though is not ruling out the possibility of a vignette.
Belgium, Luxemburg, Sweden, The Netherlands and Denmark have the Eurovignette system, whereas Germany and Austria have gone electronic.
Should the UK adopt either of these systems or follow the French and Italian example and introduce copious amounts of tolls on the motorways.

We would be very interested in your views on this matter, so please comment below or email me at dylan.gray@rbi.co.uk

Weinmann: going for growth

For most of the annual MAN press, conference in Germany this week you would never have guessed that MAN had only recently made an audacious move to take-over Scania, it's more profitable rival. MAN trucks boss Anton Weinmann seemed almost to succeed in not mentioning the S(Scania) word.
But Europe's press would not allow him to get away with that. He repeatedly questioned on the issue and finally conceded that he is optimistic that the two companies come under the same ownership, although the two brands would remain separate.
Would the move come in the autumn? No comment, but there was also a clear implication that talks would start in earnest again in the autumn.Scania may have beaten off the bid last year but round two will start after the "cooling off" period comes to an end. He reckons that at stake is Euro500 million of savings in overheads, parts and development and that such a merger is inevitable.
What was clear at the press conference is that MAN is going for growth. It has to or it will die or be itself a take over target. The planned growth rate is sharp. Back in 2003 it sold 55,849 trucks; by 2010 it plans to almost double that to make 100,000. Already last year it sold 80,000.

London Mayor Ken Livingstone is to announce that the London Low Emission Zone is going ahead with fines of £200 a day for operators who dare to enter London with non-complying vehicles. No surprise there as when Ken consults, the decision is as good as made.

He will call it an environmental measure, but it is curious way to help the environment. For the scheme solely rates trucks on their output of particulates. Ken strangely ignores nitrogen oxides (NOx) and carbon dioxide (CO2) output.

But we have to be careful here. If you criticise the scheme as inadequate, it invites Ken to think of an even harsher regime.

The real problem is not the fines or the zone, it is the piece-meal approach. Europe has tough emission rules that have forced truck makers to dramatically clean up their vehicles. What he should be doing is giving an incentive to take old trucks off the road and replaced with the most modern vehicles. It is incentives that are needed, not fines.

London is getting a bad deal. It will cost huge amounts of money because the zone goes out to cover almost all the M25. The cost of putting enforcement cameras over such a large zone will be huge. And even if it is effective, it will only reduce particulates, which do nothing about the greenhouse gases. This is more about posing and votes than health and the environment.

Also see FTA

What the Mayor says

The RHA conference in Portugal this week is a focused and fairly spirited affair, with plenty of hot topics arousing debate. Notably Owen Paterson, Shadow Transport Minister, managed to dismay or enrage most sections of the room with his brutal dismissal of a reduction in fuel duty or an essential user rebate. His argument is that £28bn in sterling into the Treasury is not a sum any Chancellor of any colour is going to be prepared to give up.

The use of that money has also caused questions to be asked amongst RHA members: why more of it isn't poured into road building to ease congestion was pushed hard inside and outside the conference room. Some members feel strongly that both the Road Transport Association and the Freight Transport Association, represented this weekend by outgoing chief executve Richard Turner, have accepted the argument that road building cannot help congestion without a sufficient fight.

For more on the full road pricing\congestion debate at the conference see news in Roadtransport.com and next week's Commercial Motor.

The RHA conference also heard a stimulating little chat from Daf's marketing director Tony Pain with the theme that nothing really changes. Examining Disraeli's famous statement that "Change is inevitable and change is constant" Pain pointed out that while the technology behind trucks has changed remarkably, the problems facing the industry haven't shifted significantly in decades. He quoted a Commercial Motor editorial from 70 years ago, which complained of insufficient investment in the road network, a lack of understanding of the benefits the road transport industry brings to the economy and a lack of real solutions from a government which offered only short term palliatives.

I really should read our archive issues more often - it seems we could rerun old material without anyone noticing...

Owen Paterson MP trod the party line faithfully at the RHA conference when he explained that he had no policies at all at the moment. Tory leader David Cameron's blank canvas approach to a manifesto puts the emphasis on listening to the voters - but in transport at least Paterson feels it has more to do with not wanting Stephen Ladyman to steal his ideas. "It's like an eighteenth century battle - we must wait and wait and wait." His arguments become a little less credible however when you consider that he had just boasted of backing three ideas for transport which Ladyman had steadfastly refused to buy into - quite why he thinks the others should prove more popular with the DfT I am unsure. But get him onto road pricing and the boot appears to be on the other foot: "Road pricing wouldn't be the total thing," he says. "It would just be part of a much wider package of policies." Strange, that's almost word for word what Stephen Ladyman told the Freight Transport Summit in March...

Twenty years ago Labour and the Conservatives were polarised in the UK. One was socialist, left wing and for government regulation. The other was monetarst, right wing and for deregulation and the entrepeneurial spirit. Frankly these days if you shut your eyes it is sometimes hard to know which party you are listening to. Beware come the election, for while the conservatives may be road transport's traditional friend, I think all bets are off as to what they will deliver this time. It is scary and dangerous to democracy to have two main parties equally opportunistic and vague in their plans.

It is a fitting time for the road transport industry to pay tribute to chief executive of the Freight Transport Association Richard Turner - now OBE - who has undoubtedly been an eloquent and committed voice on behalf of transport operators and freight customers. He steps down on 30 June and we have no doubt that if his new yacht seems a little too tame to fill a whole retirement, plenty of doors will open to invite him back in.

60 weeks wait for a new truck? It sounds absurd But that is the situation, and there are also long waits for trailers and other equipment such as lifts. And the used truck market is being affected as demand for Euro 3 vehicles soars.
The UK truck market is in chaos. It was started when everyone rushed to buy trucks before digital tachographs and Euro 4 engines became compulsory. This meant that the truck market in the UK slumped at the start of the year. But continental European markets have boomed for the last year. So the production slots for UK vehicles were diverted to produce those for Russia and the eastern Europe. And now we are ready to order more vehicles, few vehicles are available.
It is a terrible mess. It would be easy to blame the truck manufacturers or the EU. But the reality is that we only have ourselves to blame. We rushed to buy pre-digital tachograph vehicles. We rushed to buy pre Euro4 trucks. We caused the fall in the market and we cannot complain now when there is a very limited supply of new trucks.

What with foot and mouth continuing to cause problems for the farming community in Surrey we thought it was time to look at the Defra web site to find out exactly where the current exclusion and observation zones are.

Tuesday is going to be an exciting day, because of the (very boring-sounding) Comprehensive Spending Review.

Contained in that are the forecasts for public spending for years to come. So we should find out how much money is available for new roads, for example. The answer is probably not much. The Sunday Times recently published an excellent article on the state of the finances that shows there is going to hardly be any money for anything new.

This will also be a mini budget (also known as a pre-Budget report or autumn statement), so we will be looking to see what, if anything the Chancellor (not Gordon) says about fuel duty and VED.

Also only last Tuesday the Government issued a press statement saying that a document on charging overseas trucks will be published with the pre-budget report. As that is now on Tuesday, we should know what the Government is planning. Or maybe not, as the word is that the document is not ready.
It is going to be an exciting day, and you can see all the reports on its effect on our industry on Tuesday afternoon by visiting Roadtransport.com's special Budget page.

You may think that the opening of the new high speed rail line from St Pancras to continental Europe opens up a new age of the train.
But actually this week has shown rails serious weaknesses, particularly for freight operators.
As the new high speed trains from St Pancras arrived in Paris, normal lines in both France and Germany were paralysed by two different rail strikes.According to reports from Germany, major manufactures, suppliers and mail order companies are unable to move goods because so a high proportion of goods travel by train. Audi has had to reduce shifts in Belgium as a result. BMW is reported to have moved cars by road instead of rail. This highlights the vulnerability of rail to strikes and should be a factor when deciding whether to move to rail. It is a factor that Freight on Rail does not mention. Incidentally it is perhaps not the best timing for UK rail freight operator to be purchased by Deutsche Bahn!
It is also worth noting that moving freight by train through the Channel Tunnel has been a disaster. In theory the best way to move heavy goods from Italy, Spain, France or further, should be through the tunnel. But it just does not work, partly because of the lack of cooperation between the various European rail operators.
It is far from being the age of the European freight train.

The FTA and the RHA met Chancellor Alistair Darling today to try to persuade him to scrap the planned 2p/lit rise in fuel duty due in April.
The message that's come back to CM is that Darling was sympathetic to the problems and understands why hauliers see fuel duty as such an issue.
However sympathy is not going to help the honest operator make ends meet in the face of tough competition from a foreign haulier able to cut prices because their fuel bill isn't so big.
The government's budget is clearly already allocated and it will be a tough call to make, but there is no reason why operators that are working hard to make a living and keep this country moving should subsidise inefficiencies in the health service or in education or anywhere else for that matter. It wouldn't be so bad if there was evidence that the cash was being invested in the transport infrastructure in the UK, but this isn't happening either.
So come on, be the Darling of the road haulage industry and make the decision that could be the difference between making ends meet and going to the wall for many operators.

Today's prize for patronising codswallop is headed to Weybridge, and the RHA's trophy case.

In its press release titled Fuel Duty: Now it's Time for Real Action, the Association asserts that:

"Earlier this week protesters certainly captured the media's attention for what is an absolutely just cause, but handing yet another letter to No. 10 does not move us any further forward," said RHA Chief Executive Roger King.  "To have an impact we need to get directly involved with a parliamentary process that will confront government face to face so that they have to answer publicly as to what they propose to do.  Fortunately this amendment promises to do just that".

The RHA will be putting in motion what is intended to be one of the biggest parliamentary lobby's of recent times.  "Once we have the date on which the Scottish National Party amendment is to be debated we will advise members accordingly and urge them to attend to lobby their MP's.  In addition to the amendment we will also be campaigning for the October 2ppl fuel duty increase to be abandoned," concluded Mr King.

I'm intrigued by the notion that direct involvement is necessary now, not least because the RHA claims to do have been doing just this anyway. To the website we go, and to this claim:

"The RHA continually negotiates on behalf of Members. Not just in the high profile discussions that go on with the government over the national issues, but every day of the week, every week of the year with everyone from local planning committees and regional transport groups to the European Commission.

Their discussions take in everything from Fuel and VED rates to the Working Time Directive and changes in EC regulations on the transport of goods. There is no administrative or legislative area that concerns the industry that is not carefully scrutinised and actively pursued on behalf of Members."

Which implies some degree of active as opposed to passive involvement to me. And much good has it achieved.

The simple, stark fact remains that the RHA got this wrong, and it should be thus called to account. That it now seeks to climb on board a protest organized by others, and appears to be claiming leadership of the same is both duplicitous and disingenuous.

Yesterday, we heard news that a US Senator is to bring a bill before the Senate that will raise GVW on Federal Highways after diesel reaches an agreed trigger point; $3.50 per gallon. That is real action; the work of the fuel protestors over the last few weeks has been real action. The words of the RHA are mere platitudinous drivel.

The global commercial vehicle market grew by 6% to 11.7 million units last year says Matthias Wissmann, president of the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). Wissmann was talking at the pre-IAA press conference, promoting the Hannover Truck Show, and said that while the markets in North Amercia and Japan were struggling (the heavy truck Class 8 market in the USA is down 25% for the first six months of 2008 compared to the same period last year) there was better news in China (market up 37% to the year to May) and Russia (the market is expected to rise 14% this year).

Check out Wissmann's speech and his presentations

Apologies for cutting short my blogging threads from the pre-IAA event at Frankfurt yesterday, the power went on my laptop and I couldn't find a power socket in the press conference to allow me to continue.

Anyhow,the great and the good of the truck industry were assembled for a day of activity and while one of the presentations was nothing more than a blatant plug for the company's products - no names, no pack drill, but it begins with V - many of the presenters gave some interesting insights into the business.

While the elephant sat in the room was clearly that the market in Europe is slowing very quickly, all the presenters were keen not to overplay the rate of decline, insisting the market is just returning to a "normal" level after years of unprecedented growth.

Here's a selection of the presentations

Kamaz speech.pdf

Renschler speech.pdf

VW speech - schaller.pdf

International department has learnt that a second strike by workers at the Port of Dover is due to commence at 07.00am tomorrow morning. Union members have indicated that the action will continue until 12.00 on Saturday 29 November.

Management says the Port will remain open for business but the strike is likely to cause some disruption and delay to ferry traffic between Dover and the Continent at peak times. Police are expected to implement Operation Stack as and when necessary during the strike period.

Members are advised to contact their service providers for the latest situation report.

 
P&O FERRIES:             01304 86 33 40

SEAFRANCE                01304 20 30 30

NORFOLKLINE              01304 21 84 00

According to ESMT Competition Analysis:

"It is reported that General Motors and Magna have reached an agreement to provide €1.5bn ($2.1bn) worth of emergency financing to save Opel - the GM owned carmaker - from insolvency. This follows hot on the heels of Fiat pulling out of financing talks earlier today, and in the wake of heated discussions between Berlin and Washington after the revelation that a shock $415m was required to keep the European business afloat."
 
Dr. Rainer Nitsche, Managing Director of ESMT Competition Analysis, the Competition arm of the Berlin-based international business school, says:
 
"The handling of negotiations only confirms the need for a pan-European bankruptcy procedure to match that of the US, to take the politics out of the negotiating room. The web of bankruptcy frameworks currently in place on national lines is no longer fit for purpose. While these are intended to enable the workable rehabilitation of a distressed company, overall these do not give the level of support of Chapter 11, nor do they take account of the emergence of global businesses which require more cohesive support.
 
"Until this is changed, the stigma of bankruptcy and fear of insolvency will lead to politicised, protectionist action on the part of European governments, making it difficult to judge the effective and rightful deployment of state aid. The extent of the positive assurances we have seen from Europe's nations in fighting for their national champions, has left them little room to manoeuvre even before discussion talks had begun. European governments needed to keep their cards close to their chest. Instead, the Ace of Spades was handed to Washington long before they even reached the bargaining table."

Interesting views in a rapidly developing story.

Royal Mail has picked up a crucial contract win with the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) worth a whopping £19.5m. The job entails transporting approximately 960k packages of unmarked exam scripts fro 5,500 centres throughout England and then delivered to +- 50,000 examiners. Hopefully they can pass this test without a third strike...

The news couldn't have come at a better time for Royal Mail who are experiencing difficulties with existing clients like Amazon, eBay and the DVLA as a result of the of the impending industrial  action and fears over reliable service delivery -- especially now during the run-up to Christmas.

Teh QCA was looking for five bidders, but Royal Mail was the only one who submitted a propsal...naturally being the only company tendering they sealed teh deal. Good on them!

We'll bring you the full story tomorrow with all the juicy comment from the top execs.