The lorry drivers at the heart of last week’s fuel protests are blaming a reclusive East German businessman for the crisis in the British haulage trade. The lorry drivers at the heart of last week’s fuel protests are blaming a reclusive East German businessman for the crisis in the British haulage trade.
Willie Betz, they say, is as much to blame as Tony Blair and the leaders of the Opec oil producing nations.Betz is known as the “German Eddie Stobart” and his lorries are as familiar on British motorways as they are on continental highways.But while drivers here earn £550 a week, they say Betz has crippled British lorry firms by using cheap East European labour at less than half the cost, paying drivers as little as £165 for a full week’s work.Last week the pickets had nothing but angry words for their fellow haulier, a wealthy East German who has shunned publicity ever since an earlier assassination attempt.British haulage was already in trouble before the recent rises in the price of fuel. Figures released last week show that 1,850 British haulage companies have failed in the last two years, more than in the rest of the 1990s put together.In contrast, Willi Betz is doing very well, picking up 20 per cent of all export loads offered on the British haulage market.The business tactics of the ageing Herr Betz and the haulage dynasty he has created with his sons are being investigated by European transport commissioners. But so far, their conclusion is that he is legally exploiting loopholes with the help of skillful employment lawyers.His empire, which boasts subsidiaries across Europe, was founded on early business links with Russia then, when the Berlin Wall came down, he set his sights on Western Europe.The Conservative party has suggested that foreign operators should be charged for using British roads in the same way that British drivers have to pay tolls on abroad. Labour has yet to respond to these proposals.For British drivers, Willi Betz is a reminder of how uneven the market is for them.”All we asking for is a level playing field,” said Terry Johncocks who spent much of this week protesting outside the oil terminal at Coryton in Essex. He owns and drives a seven-week-old £58,000 DAF unit.Lou Thurgood, a 68-year-old owner driver, agreed. “Willi Betz people are basing themselves here and undercutting the market because their overheads are lower.”The foreign drivers fill up with 1500 litres of cheap fuel over the other side and they can work for a week to ten days.

Then they back over to Belgium or France and refill,” said Martin Husk, a Dover based haulier.According to the hauliers, derv in Belgium costs 28p a litre compared to 72 per litre here.Ian Gordon, another Kent haulier, bitterly complained about the growing number of European drivers coming over to Britain each week to work.”They can come on the ferry at Dover with a full tank of derv and drive all over the place before going back to the Continent for a refill,” he said.The hauliers say that adverse British laws and taxes make it easy for Europeans to compete against British hauliers in the UK.”Last week I was in a motorway services area and I counted 64 lorries parked there Only 17 were British,” said Mr Johncock.. Brussels is secretly planning to scrap “green” policies devised to promote renewable energy as an alternative to petrol. Brussels is secretly planning to scrap “green” policies devised to promote renewable energy as an alternative to petrol.
The proposals contained in confidential documents obtained by The Independent on Sunday reveal that the European Commission wants to abandon its attempt at energy conservation and dump the only European programme designed to find renewable sources of fuels.The revelation, which has sparked a furious row, comes as the worst of the British petrol crisis seems to be over.Thousands of tankers were delivering fuel supplies yesterday and most filling stations were back in business, although heavy demand left large queues at garages.But last night energy experts warned that the Brussels plans, which have been roundly condemned by environmentalists, will pave the way for further petrol crises.Mark Johnson, Friends of the Earth energy campaigner, described the abolition of the conservation programmes as “absolutely potty”.”Energy efficiency and the development of renewable sources are essential for providing secure supplies of fuel and for fighting the climate of change,” he said.”So long as we continue to rely on fossil fuels we will always be vulnerable, as we have seen, to a few large companies and demonstrators.”Despite the chaos, Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, yesterday insisted there would be no short-term reduction in fuel duty. Ministers wish to avoid appearing to give in to the demonstrators and any future price reductions are likely to coincide with measures ensuring that the crisis will not be repeated.The internal Brussels document proposes the “discontinuation of the Save and Altener programmes.”Save is the only EU programme promoting energy conservation – with the task of stabilising the use of fuels by 2010 – and Altener is the only one supporting the development of renewable sources.The proposal to abolish the programmes has come from the office of the Commissioner for Energy and Transport, Loyola Depallacio, a Spanish conservative who is accused by critics of being primarily interested in promoting the continued use of fossil fuels and the building of new nuclear power stations.MEPs are now angrily planning to ask her to justify her plans before the European parliament’s Committee of Trade, Industry and Energy this week.The two programmes draw up and prepare legislation to be applied by all member states.Andrew Warren, director of the Association for the Conservation of Energy, who chairs an EU energy conservation committee, said yesterday: “These plans would be ludicrous at any time, but are particularly so now. Energy conservation and renewable sources are a solution to the disruption that has hit Britain and many European countries over the last week.

Scrapping these programmes would pave the way for a new crisis.”He pointed out that Europe is already well on the way to exceeding its energy conservation targets. Eleven years ago it undertook to be using no more energy in 2010 than it did in 1988. Consumption has already risen by 11 per cent.Nuala Ahern, the vice chairman of the Trade, Industry and Energy Committee of the European parliament told The Independent on Sunday that the commissioner would be taken to task for her proposals on Tuesday when she meets the committee to talk about the oil crisis She said: “The parliament is not going to accept this It is absolutely extraordinary.”. Motorists are today still facing long queues at the pumps as the long haul to restock the country’s petrol stations gathers pace today. Motorists are today still facing long queues at the pumps as the long haul to restock the country’s petrol stations gathers pace today.
More than half of major oil companies’ outlets had been stocked by the start of today after increasing deliveries to cope with the fuel crisis.But many motorists have been staying at home to conserve fuel, according to the RAC Foundation, the motoring organisation’s campaigning wing.It reported that weekend traffic was down 50 per cent as drivers conserved fuel for work use.An Esso spokesman said just over 850 of their 1,500 outlets had been stocked and tankers were making more than 700 deliveries on average every 24 hours.Shell said it expects to make nearly 700 deliveries today and 487 of its 1,100 forecourts were selling petrol.And Texaco said half of its 1,500 forecourts were open and 373 tankers would be heading out to outlets today.BP said it would be making 719 deliveries and a spokesman said more than 900 of its 1,500 garages were serving drivers.Jet had 316 or 58% of its 547 filling stations open this morning and said it aimed to have 70% of its garages refuelled by tonight.A company spokesman said 391 deliveries would be made today.. Dashboard warning systems allowing motorists to outwit roadside cameras and police speed guns are to be outlawed by the end of the year.