Irish operators hit the ceiling over tunnel
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THE IRISH Road Haulage "backward step, economically and misinformed about the height of Association has blasted the Irish government's decision not to raise the height of the Dublin Port Tunnel, warning it will rob Irish hauliers of their competitive edge.
As predicted the Irish government has confirmed that it will keep the height of the tunnel at 4.65m, after its designers were apparently misinformed about the height of many trucks (CM 2 September).
New Transport Minister Martin Cullen says the decision was based "primarily on safety grounds" but the costs and delays to the opening of the project were also factors.
The IRHA's Eamonn Morrissey says the decision, which will ban the use of high-cube vehicles, is a environmentally".
He warns that an outright ban on larger vehicles to"cover up"the mistake would be impossible to enforce and would cause extreme hardship to those operators who have already invested in them: "Despite all of our protests, we were ignored and now industry will have to carry the cost of increased transport costs while consumers will see a knock-on effect of more expensive products.
"One high-cube vehicle is the equivalent of two normal trucks. This means transport costs are less, therefore products cost less and the environment wins by having fewer trucks on the road."