LOOKING FOR ACCEPTANCE BY ALL

Nearly 98 per cent of the overall total spent in the United Kingdom on all modes of the carriage of goods is spent on road transport. Flexibility is the main reason given for its domination. Lorries and vans can travel anywhere where there is a suitable road and can undertake whole journeys or feed and complete those journeys whose major part has been by other transport modes. Road transport does not suffer from 'double handling' or 'routeing' difficulties. Railways do not provide a viable alternative because 70 per cent of all goods journeys in the United Kingdom are less than 30 miles and more than 90 per cent of the origin and destinations of goods are not on a railway. Carriage of goods by professional handlers has increased rapidly over the past ten years, much of the traffic now travels abroad using roll-on/roll-off ferries. A fully liberalised European Community road haulage market is possible from 1992 but there are problems of harmonisation. Individual employee's conditions of work and public safety must be safeguarded by legislation. Profitability of enterprises depends upon the expensive vehicles and facilities being worked to optimum levels. Competition is intense and the low rates offered tend to encourage operations not commercially viable. Sometimes this can lead to cutting back on maintenance and ignoring of rules on drivers' hours and records. More official enforcement is needed. (TRRL)