Hauliers’ 600-truck protest set to cause traffic chaos

A PROTEST by up to 600 trucks, which will cause traffic chaos on the M50 in Dublin from 5am on Tuesday, will continue indefinitely unless the participants’ complaints are listened to by road authorities.

The protest is being held by the newly formed Road Transport Association in, what it says, is hauliers’ frustration at the heavy goods vehicle management strategy implemented by Dublin City Council and the Government. The hauliers affiliated to the group also want tolls abolished for the HGVs on the M50.

The protest does not have the backing of the mainstream Irish Road Hauliers Association (IRHA), which says not enough thought has been put into it and that it will only be inconveniencing the innocent motorists already suffering gridlock on the reduced-lane M50.

“We have met with Dublin City Council and Transport Minister Martin Cullen but have got no recognition,” said Michael McMahon of the Road Transport Association who added it was about time someone took a stand. “People are sitting on the M50, where it is now taking longer to get through, it is costing more money to get through and people are sitting taking the treatment that is being drilled down to them.

“The solution is to put proper traffic management in place to get the traffic to flow on the M50 to let the trucks through on designated lanes.

“We are staying at the protest until we make progress. We could be staying there all day. We have no finishing time.”

He said they had met with gardaí who had asked them not to proceed with the protest and had been told they would be breaking the law if they parked on the M50.

Jimmy Quinn, President of the IRHA, said they were not backing the protest.

“We do not see there is anything to be gained. If violence is the last resort of the incompetent, this kind of behaviour is the last resort of the frustrated and we do not believe we have exhausted every avenue at this stage,” he said.

Mr Quinn said the other hauliers need to show “some modicum of intelligence”.

“The French tried this and got stuck in the grass. It is going to cause widespread hardship to people who we really do not have an axe to grind with us hauliers.

“We are stakeholders in the economy and we don’t want to see the economy disrupted.”