Eurotunnel follows P&O with fare hike
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by Miles Brignall • International hauliers will have to pay more to cross the Channel following a decision by Eurotunnel to raise its prices and end its policy of cutting fares to boost volumes.
Coming hot on the heels of a fare increase by P&O, Eurotunnel's truck-carrying division Le Shuttle Freight says it plans to raise prices over the first half of 1998".
According to Le Freight's general manager, William MacKenzie, the price currently paid by hauliers to cross the Channel is unsustainably low.
However, MacKenzie, who claims 35% of the crossChannel market, is promising "a highly competitive price" to hauliers who regularly use the tunnel and stick to planned traffic volumes.
He is also planning a single pan-European price. This will offer operators who send the same number of vehicles through the tunnel each year a fixed price, no matter where they are based and in which currency they pay. Fixed-price deals will be reviewed every three months.
P&O angered hauliers last November by raising its fares within hours of receiving Government permission to merge with cross-Channel rival Stena. That was P&O's first rate rise for four years.