ECONOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT PARIS 1991 ECONOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE REPORT OF THE EIGHTY-FOURTH ROUND TABLE ON TRANSPORT ECONOMICS held in Paris on 1st-2nd February 1990 on the following topic: DEREGULATION OF FREIGHT TRANSPORT EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT THE EUROPEAN CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS OF TRANSPORT (ECMT) The European Conference of Ministers of Transport (ECMT), an inter-governmental organisationestablishedbyaProtocolsignedinBrusselson17thOctober1953,constitutesaforumfor theMinistersofTransportof19Europeancountries1. TheworkoftheCouncilofMinistersisprepared byaCommitteeofDeputies. ThepurposesoftheConferenceare: a) totakewhatevermeasuresmaybenecessaryto achieve, atgeneralorregionallevel, the mostefficientuseandrationaldevelopmentofEuropeaninlandtransportofinternational importance; b) to co-ordinate and promote the activities of international organisations concerned with Europeaninlandtransport,takingintoaccounttheworkofsupranationalauthoritiesinthis field. The matters generally studied by ECMT include: the general lines of transport policy; investmentsinthesector;trendsininternationaltrafficandtherelevantinfrastructuralneeds;specific aspectsofthedevelopmentofrail,road andinlandwaterwaystransport;combinedtransportissues; urban travel; road safety and traffic signs and signals; access to transport for people with mobility handicaps. Twoothersubjectsonwhichattentionisnowbeingfocusedarethefutureapplicationsof newtechnologiesandprotectionoftheenvironment,whilestatisticalanalysesarealsomadeoftrends intrafficandinvestmentandarepublishedeachyear. The ECMTorganisesRoundTables and Symposia. Theirconclusionsareconsideredby the competentorgansoftheConference,undertheauthorityoftheCommitteeofDeputies,sothatthelatter mayformulateproposalsforpolicydecisionstobesubmittedtotheMinisters. The ECMT Documentation Centre maintains the TRANSDOC database, available on-line throughtelecommunicationnetworks. For administrative purposes, the ECMT Secretariat is attached to the Secretariat of the Organisation forEconomicCo-operationandDevelopment(OECD). 1. Austria,Belgium,Denmark,Finland,France,Germany,Greece,Ireland,Italy,Luxembourg,theNetherlands,Norway,Portugal,Spain, Sweden,Switzerland,Turkey,theUnitedKingdomandYugoslavia.(Associatedcountries: Australia,Canada,Japan,theUnitedStates. Observer countries: Hungary,Morocco,Poland.) Public"enfrancaissouslelitre: LADEREGLEMENTATION DESTRANSPORTSDEMARCHANDISES © ECMT, 1991 ECMTpublicationsaredistributedby theOECD PublicationsService, 2, rueAndre-Pascal, 75775 PARIS CEDEX 16, France Applicationforpermissiontoreproduceortranslate allorpartofthispublicationshouldbemadeto: ECMT 2, rueAndre-Pascal,75775 PARISCEDEX 16, France TABLE OF CONTENTS FRANCE BERNADET, M(cid:9) 5 ITALY BOLOGNA, S(cid:9) (cid:9) ........ 41 GERMANY SEIDENFUS, H. St(cid:9) 63 SUMMARY OF DISCUSSIONS (Round Table debate on reports) (cid:9) 113 LIST OF PARTICIPANTS (cid:9) 129 ECMT - ECONOMIC RESEARCH CENTRE Forthcoming publications ....,, (cid:9) 133 ALSO AVAILABLE ECMT Prospects for East-West European Transport (1991) (75 91 02 1) ISBN 92-821-1153-9 FF350 £42.00 US$74.00 DM136 ECMT- Round Tables 80th - Systems of Road Infrastructure Cost Coverage (1990) (75 89 12 1) ISBN 92-821-1144-X FF130 £16.00 US$28.00 DM54 81st - Private and Public Investment in Transport (1990) (75 90 03 1) ISBN 92-821-1146-6 FF80 £10.00 US$17.00 DM32 82nd - Promoting Regional Transport (1990) (75 90 05 1) ISBN 92-821-1149-0 FF80 £10.00 US$17.00 DM32 83rd - The Role ofthe State in a Deregulated Transport Market (1991) (75 90 09 1) ISBN 92-821-1151-2 FF135 £16.00 US$28.00 DM52 Cutalongdottedline ORDER FORM Please enter my order for: Qty- Title Price Total: Payment is enclosed Charge my VISA card Numberofcard (cid:9) (Note: You willbechargedtheFrenchfrancprice.) Expiration ofcard (cid:9) Signature Sendinvoice. Apurchaseorderisattached __\ Send publications to (pleaseprint): Name (cid:9) Address (cid:9) SendthisOrderFormtoOECDPublicationsService,2,rueAndrt-Pascal,75775PARISCEDEX 16,France,ortoOECD Publicationsand InformationCentreorDistributorinyourcountry (seelastpageofthebookforaddresses). Priceschargedat the OECDBookshop. THE OECD CATALOGUE OFPUBLICATIONSandsupplements willbesentfreeofcharge onrequestaddressedeitherto OECDPublicationsService, ortothe OECDDistributorinyourcountry. FRANCE Maurice BERNADET Laboratoire d'Economie des Transports MRASH Lyons France SUMMARY INTRODUCTION (cid:9) 9 1. DEREGULATION OF INLAND FREIGHT TRANSPORT IN VARIOUS EUROPEAN COUNTRIES (cid:9) 10 1.1. Liberalisation in France (cid:9) 10 1.2. Liberalisation in the Netherlands (cid:9) 13 2. THE PROBLEM OF DEREGULATION AT EUROPEAN LEVEL (cid:9) 20 2.1. Access to markets (cid:9) 21 2.2. Harmonization of the conditions of cost formation (cid:9) 23 2.3. Liberalisation and harmonization: effects on modal split (cid:9) 25 3. LIMITATIONS OF ANY ANALYSIS OF COMPETITION IN TERMS OF (DE)REGULATION (cid:9) 28 3.1. Limitations of the regulatory approach (cid:9) 28 3.2. The other factors in competition (cid:9) 30 3.3. A market segmentation approach (cid:9) 33 NOTES AND REFERENCES (cid:9) 36 Lyons, July 1989 INTRODUCTION ECMT Round Table 62, held on 29th and 30th September 1983, was entitled "Possibilities and limits ofregulation in transport policy". This title and thatofRound Table 84 are almost symmetrical: regulation then, deregulation now. Comparison ofthe two titles might leadone to think that between 1983 and 1990 there has been a radical change in dominant ideas and concepts: in 1983, attention focusedonthejustificationforregulationpolicies, whichwerenotinthemselvescalled into question, but which might need modifying; in 1990, the emphasis is on deregulation, how it can best be implemented and what the consequences will be. A closer look at Professor Baum's report to Round Table 62 and at the conclusions reached at that time show, however, that such an interpretation would be false: the report was largely devoted to a critique of regulation policy, refuting a number ofobjections to liberalisation and presenting an outline ofandjustificationfor a programme of deregulation. One of the conclusions of the Round Table reads as follows: "It appears possible to direct transport policy even more effectively ... by making deregulation a general goal". Thus, deregulation was already seriously being considered in 1983, and our concerns today are not markedly different from those expressed then. We shall not adopt the same approach as that usedfor Round Table 62, since we should on many points simply be repeating the same theoretical or factual arguments and would arrive at similar conclusions. It seems more sensible to examine the changes which have taken place since the early 1980s, to try and determine what progress has been made on the path outlined in Round Table 62 and to analyse the conditions under which progress has been made in some countries. We shall seek to do this initially by examining the domestic regulations of the main European countries.