UK vehicle operators aren’t generally best-known for their love of the European Union but they still know which side their bread is buttered, judging by a recent survey from Barclays and Moore Stephens.
Their latest UK Logistics Confidence Index survey, undertaken among 100 senior decision-makers in the logistics sector over the summer, suggested that 93% of operators were in favour of the UK remaining in the EU.
Despite continuing financial uncertainty in the Eurozone about Greece’s debt crisis, concerns about foreign operators winning work in the UK under cabotage rules, and all the migrant-related headaches being caused in northern France as a result of the EU’s lack of internal border controls, the survey suggests clear recognition of the importance of the EU as the UK’s largest trading partner.
While smaller operators were slightly less positive about the UK’s membership of Europe than larger ones, showed the survey, there appeared to be some recognition among many respondents of another salient point: given the number of foreign drivers now working for UK firms, any move to leave Europe could exacerbate an already uncomfortable driver shortage.
Czech mate, we’d say…