Busy M25 Watford way_ shutterstock

Heathrow’s third runway is good news for the freight sector but will throw up a range of obstacles for hauliers, according to trade associations.

Earlier this week MPs voted in favour of a new runway, which the DfT said could double the airport’s freight capacity.

While it welcomed the investment in multimodal transportation, the RHA said it had numerous concerns about the effect it will have on the road transport industry.

The association’s policy director Duncan Buchanan said that in order to move more freight through the airport, Heathrow needed to provide better facilities and parking for HGV drivers.

Earlier this month CM reported that drivers delivering to Dnata and Swissport hubs at the airport were expected to walk 20 minutes to the nearest toilets (CM 14 June).

RHA director of public policy and affairs Rod McKenzie said infrastructure and London’s tightening emissions rules pose problems for the sector.

“The infrastructure is not there for Heathrow. The south west quadrant of the M25 is incredibly congested, and a lot of that cargo is coming to and from Heathrow. Just imagine if that was even bigger,” he said.

McKenzie is also concerned that increased pollution from the airport could see more onus on hauliers to run cleaner vehicles.

“Although Heathrow is not part of the London Low Emission Zone, the building of a third runway will probably mean that the air pollution target for places in the path of the runway will be missed,” he said.

“If that happens, my concern is that they will come after lorries again – that the failure to meet emission targets in one part of London will just lead them to clamp down on other vehicles.”

However, the FTA welcomed the vote and said the UK needs the added freight capacity to embrace trade relationships outside of the EU after Brexit.

Ahead of the vote, its deputy chief executive James Hookham said: “Without an expanding global hub airport, with increased capacity for business, the prospects for trading partnerships to be established by importers and exporters with the new world markets we will need to work with are pretty bleak.

“Exporters will need the means of reaching these new markets as quickly and reliably as possible if they are to compete on equal terms with local producers.”

Image: Shutterstock

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