East Europeans put pressure on the UK
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UK international hauliers held onto 26% of the cross
Channel market last year. Bridget Carter reports.
THE NUMBER OF East European vehicles coming to the UK continues to surge. according to government figures. Some industry observers now estimate that one in 10 trucks on the UK's roads is now foreign-registered.
The Department for Transport's latest quarterly report, Goods Vehicles Travelling to Mainland Europe: Qtearter 4 2005, shows East European haulage firms have been the big winners since their countries joined the EU in May 2004, mainly at the expense of the older EU states.
In the last year 167,000 trucks from the accession states entered the UK. The majority came from Hungary, Poland and the Czech and Slovak Republics.
Foreign vehicles now make up almost 75% of those leaving Britain for mainland Europe:1.47 million of the 2.02 million trucks travelling from the UK to mainland Europe last year were foreign registered.
Simon Chapman, chief economist at the Freight Transport Association, says East European hauliers' cheaper cost base means that UK hauliers cannot possibly match their rates: "The new figures confirm the problem is worsening.
"With the government ahan doning plans for Lorry Road User Charging last year, there's little prospect of change to this unacceptable situation for the next 10 years at the very least."
However, the report is not all bad news for UK-Continental hauliers:it shows that international journeys by UK hauliers jumped by 5% last year.