A tale of two ministers
Page 2
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What a difference a year makes in mainland Britain: it’s warm and sunny as we head into Easter, and we’ve just had a successful CV Show, at which transport minister Mike Penning listened to concerns from the industry and made positive noises in response to questions about lower trailer heights, longer trailer lengths, and incentives for Euro-6.
Nobody is perfect, but it seems to us that Penning is still as much on the industry’s side as he can be.
The second stage of the FairFuelUK campaign kicked off this week (see p6). You saw how successful the first stage of the campaign was, so it’s paramount that you all back the campaign while it has momentum and the government is prepared to listen. And contrast this scenario with that which operators in the Republic of Ireland face: they have had to threaten a nationwide day of action just to get a hearing with the government. Perhaps the only silver lining for the Irish is that at least the government did react swiftly: its transport minister met Irish Road Haulage Association representatives just five days after they issued their ultimatum (see p6).
The key issue remains the same (just varying by degree) in both mainland Britain and the Republic: high fuel prices. The battle is not yet won, so the struggle must continue.
● There’s still time to take part in this month’s Trucking Britain Out Of Recession survey. We want to know how your business performed in Q1 and your expectations for Q2. Go to www.roadtransport/britain to take part. Justin Stanton