Wheels, deals and the future of haulage
Could the Brexit vote affect the future of the UK’s transport industry? Anthony Harrington finds out from the experts
BREXIT has created a real dilemma and, potentially, a major opportunity, for the road haulage and freight sectors. As Anderson Strathern Associate Tom Docherty points out, legislation in the UK that bears on transport is predicated on a whole raft of European Union directives and regulations.
As Docherty explains, across the UK the operations of haulage businesses are governed by legislation that has emanated, one way or another, from Brussels. Directives from Brussels that bear on the sector either end up being enacted in UK legislation or they become part of the Senior Traffic Commissioner Guidance. In Scotland, haulage companies operate under the Scottish Traffic Commissioner, and transport is not a devolved issue.
With Brexit, the UK is free to rethink how the industry is regulated. However, in Docherty’s view, because so much of current road policy legislation is all about road safety and the promotion of fair competition, it is likely that things will stay more or less the same once the divorce from Europe is final.
“We could see some tweaking by government in some areas, but I don’t see that the Senior Traffic Commissioner or new Secretary of State would want to overhaul the current legislative framework,” he comments.
Part of what gives such weight to existing transport law is the jurisprudence that has emanated from the Upper Tribunal, which is the Appeal Court that hears disputes about decisions made by the Traffic Commissioners.
“We have a lot of judge-made law that has become part of our legal framework.
“There is also the fact that as a general rule you do not want legislation that bears on haulage to be strikingly different from one jurisdiction to the next.
“You really do not want the business of connecting A to B to become hampered by jurisdictional difficulties,” he notes.
Docherty points out that one of the issues that could blow up into a major concern with Brexit involves the status of foreign drivers.
The road haulage industry has a huge and endemic problem with an ageing driver workforce. There has just not been a sufficient throughput of new, younger drivers coming into the sector.
Some of the shortfall is being taken up by foreign drivers coming into the UK, largely from the former Soviet republics.
However, Docherty argues that if the current strength of public feeling against immigration into Britain – spurred and intensified by the refugee crisis across Europe – should lead the government to pass legislation that makes it difficult for anyone with an EU license to be hired by UK firms, the shortage of drivers would become much more acute.
Driver shortages have also tended to alter the balance of power, as it were, between firms and drivers, he points out, before adding: “It is very difficult for a haulage firm to discipline a driver for not obeying the regulations, driving excessive hours and so on, when the driver can always find another job just around the corner.”
Drivers who are paid by the hour have an obvious interest in extending their hours and cutting corners on rest periods, downtime and the like.
That can cause real problems for haulage firm who are regarded as responsible for any breaches by their drivers. Docherty comments: “Ultimately, if drivers are not doing what they should be doing then the haulage business has to answer to the Traffic Commissioner.”.
Brian Kenny, Operations Director at the Road Haulage Association, says that the problem with driver shortages and the ageing driver workforce is in reality a problem about funding.
“It only takes a month to take someone with a car licence and move them through the rigid truck licence and from there to a full LGV licence for articulated vehicles,” he points out. A major campaign could generate more drivers for the sector very rapidly. However, the real stumbling block is the cost. Training costs vary by provider, but the training will set a candidate back by some £3500 at the lowest end, to £6000 at higher end. The goal at the end of the process is that a young man or woman with a car license and no particular career prospects, could acquire a skill in a month that would see them able to take up a £30,000 a year job in an industry that is crying out for drivers. The RHA would dearly like to see government funding made available to offset this cost, which it sees as the major stumbling block to new entrants to logistics. “We have been and are talking to the Scottish government and Skills Development Scotland about funding for training for LGV drivers. “We are also working very closely with the charity, Care After Combat, UK-wide as we look to find placements for people leaving the army with LGV driving experience – or who have an interest in joining the sector,” he comments. “Being a lorry driver is a fantastic job. No one is going to give up being a brain surgeon for it, but it is a tremendous career for anyone who doesn’t have glittering academic or professional prospects.
“You have some of the most fantastic machinery in the world at your disposal. The trucks these days look like starships inside and they are still going strong a million miles later.
“They are much cleaner and less polluting than we ever thought they could be and to take the same load as a large articulated vehicle you’d need a small army of white vans, which are far more polluting,” he points out.
What the RHA would really like to see, with the stresses of Brexit coming up, is the government having a complete rethink about fuel duty.
“Ireland has a rebate policy for essential users and that makes a great deal of sense. This whole industry runs on exceptionally tight margins.
“Reducing the duty on diesel would be a huge step towards brightening the future for this sector,” says Kenny.
As a general rule you do not want legislation that bears on haulage to be strikingly different from one jurisdiction to the next