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M6 a toll
Page 26
Page 27
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with a goal
Operators continue to shun the M6 Toll but Tom
Fanning MD of the firm running the motorway,
aims to win them over Jennifer Ball reports.
rjn the journey up the M6 Toll to meet MEL managing director Tom Fanning, I notice one thing: the distinct lack of -ucks using the route. In the five miles before /e turn off for MEL's HQ I spot exactly two, oth on foreign plates. As we settle down for a up of tea! mention this to Fanning. He quickly pens his blinds and points out of the window there, as luck would have it, there are two rucks at the toll booth.
"What time of day you travel determines how aany you will see." he comments. However.staistics suggest you could spend all day on the oad and only see a handful. When the M6 Toll ipened in January 2004 a local newspaper stirey revealed that just one in every 285 trucks vent along the toll motorway instead of the M6, 7anning is the first to admit that initially there vere few trucks using the route but he insists that rIEL got its initial price structure right: -The cocept of pricing was a big risk for us, which is vhy we went in with the £2 price that we did for :ars and £10 for trucks, offering a £1 discount for he first 10 million vehicles to use the route.
"We had spent a lot of time talking to hauliffs and the price structure that we came out vith was sensible, based on the research that ye had done. However, in the beginning a lot )f operators took the view that they would sit )ack and wait to see how much traffic was aken off the M6 before deciding whether to Ise the toll road."
roll was slashed Jut in July, faced with increasing pressure from :he industry, MEL slashed its truck toll from Ell to £6. Fanning claims this has led to a threefold rise in the number of trucks using the M6 Toll. Of course when you're starting from a low point of one in 256 trucks, tripling that figure anly takes it to about one in 85 trucks. Fanning argues: "I said back in December that we will extend the discount until further notice: we still want more operators to use the road. We have an in-house team dedicated to talking to hauliers and answering queries. We want to understand what our customers' patterns are."
However, there is some suspicion about these claims. If the number of trucks using the M6 Toll has tripled why is MEL so reluctant to release a breakdown of its vehicle figures'? We know that the M6 Toll has been a success in getting vehicles, mainly cars., off the congested M6: the number of vehicles using that route has fallen from 144,000 a day to 109,000.
Unless there's hard data on the truck volumes using the M6 Toll the conclusion that many operators reach is that they were initially being priced off the road. But Fanning is unmoved: "We don't break down numbers as there are fairly sensitive reporting lines to the Australian stock exchange.We have never done this and it's unlikely that we ever will."
One thing that reluctant operators say might tempt them to use the toll is staggered pricing along the route dependingon whichjunction they exit at,as is the case with toll motorways in France. This is already available for cars; Fanning says it might be considered for trucks in the future.
The government recently announced plans for the UK's second toll motorway: a 50-mile road joining the existing M6 Toll from Cannock to Manchester between J11A and J19 of the M6. Fanning confirms that MEL's Australian parent company, Macquarie, would be interested in bidding: "This is a question for the government and is currently being debated by the Transport Select Committee which we are giving evidence to.
"Alistair Darling intends to make a decision on this at some point; if our parent company Macquarie sees it as a good investment then I am sure it will want to get involved."
He's also quick to justify MEL's 50-year lease and effective monopoly on the route, particularly given its freedom to set tolls: "Our agreement dates back to the early 1990s concessions arrangement when it was agreed that Macquarie could set the toll rates. We had taken a huge risk in investing in the project and seeing it through to fruition, including construction and the risks of getting the traffic flow.
-Our obligation is that if we want to make any changes to the price we just need to give a month's notice before doing so."
So what are the benefits of a private firm rather than the government running a toll road? Fanning says that firstly the project was up and running ahead of schedule and on budget (although he forgets to mention that just two weeks later it had to be temporarily closed for repairs). "We have a customer focus and do thin; which are not done on the rest of the mote way network," he adds.
"For instance, we have a dedicated row gritter team in winter. The toll road is in pri tine condition; as it's our asset, we will go tI extra mile in maintaining it. We also have recovery team who provide a coat in the wii ter or a cool drink in the summer if a drive breaks down."
Fanning refers to the M6 Toil's customer sa isfaction levels over 90% of people who ha\ used the road say they will use it again.
Reliability is essential
"We want people to come back and say it is rdl able that they can predict their journey time he says. "It's especially important for post; services such asTNT when they have to make delivery in a specific time slot.We now intend t get as many operators as we can onto the ta system. This is convenient for hauliers as th driver does not need money on him."
Overall Fanning feels that the road has bee a success and has brought great benefit to th region: "It's been fantastic being part of histor and opening the UK's first toll motorway. Th way we have been accepted by the local bus ness community and the political spectrum I terribly important to me.
"Our aim was to provide a solution to the te; rible congestion around Birmingham and w have achieved this, becoming a strategic rout through the West Midlands."
However, Fanning seems doubtful as t whether road building is the only answer t congestion: "The government will certainl look and see how successful we have been, bu there are lots of other solutions to congestio: and whether it's feasible to build oneself out c this problem is another question." •