A seminar dubbed Lowering Transport Costs for Businesses organised by the York and North Yorkshire Business Environmental Forum could hardly be more timely - nor fall so short of the mark.

Timely, because the event which takes place at the Guildhall in St Helen's Square, York, on Tuesday, June 30, comes as details of the Government's Integrated Transport Bill are about to be announced.

And short of the mark because few of the questions raised by a survey this week of more than 480 firms in Yorkshire will be answered at this seminar.

The survey, conducted by the British Chambers of Commerce and business finance specialists Alex Lawrie, comes to some startling and disturbingly conflicting conclusions.

It seems that nearly every business in Yorkshire - 91 per cent - is suffering as a direct result of road congestion, yet are prepared to do little about it.

Most are opposed to motorway tolls or measures to increase fuel costs, vehicle excise duty and company car tax.Of these, more than half (57 per cent) have been forced to increase costs and prices and a quarter have lost business opportunities due to road congestion.

Yet the survey also shows that these suffering Yorkshire business people would find restrictive fiscal measures to discourage the use of roads as unacceptable.

Proposals, for instance, to raise vehicle excise duty would be opposed by 61 per cent. More than two-thirds were against raising company car taxes. And 75 per cent were against another hike in the cost of fuel.

More than half (56 per cent) did not support the possibility of motorway tolls, while 66 per cent opposed urban road pricing, although the majority of businesses in London (55 per cent) supported the introduction of motorway tolls.

Yes, there is an indication that Yorkshire businesses are concerned about the effects of congestion on the environment and would back moves to lower vehicle emission levels (86 per cent) and to reduce speed limits (45 per cent).

Nine out of ten Yorkshire businesses are using the British road network to transport goods. Almost three-quarters (74 per cent) of employees travel to work in cars and 83 per cent of them use their cars for business journeys. Only 14 per cent use public transport to travel to work and two per cent use the railways.

Yet only 21 per cent of Yorkshire businesses are prepared to overcome the traffic congestion by staggering their starting times, only 25 per cent change times and frequencies of deliveries and a mere ten per cent encourage staff to travel to work by train.

Worst of all, though tempered by availability, a titchy two per cent of businesses have switched transporting freight from road to rail.

The forthcoming seminar in York, however, is likely to concentrate on ways of cutting transport costs for businesses, rather than tackle long term the thorny issue of cutting road transport.

Speakers will be from Asda, GA Life, the Royal Mail and Standish National Car & Van Rental.

Between them they will come up with a number of suggestions including:

Putting regular fleet drivers through advanced driver training, which can improve fuel economy by up to 25 per cent, reduce wear and tear on vehicles and lead to fewer accidents.

Employing mature drivers who are more "sedate and experienced" which can lead to the same improvements.

Careful route planning which not only cuts fuel costs but increases staff time available for productive work, reducing congestion and thereby lowering driver stress.

This last suggestion goes part of the way to tackling the problems of congestion and the real costs to businesses but could hardly be described as a long-term solution to the problem.

Which is disappointing considering that organisers of the York and North Yorkshire Business Environmental Forum are keen to link their seminar with the Government's forthcoming attempts to encourage firms to switch emphasis on moving goods from tarmac to track.

But Lynne Ceeney, of the City of York Council, who is a member of the steering group organising the seminar, stressed that the forum was not a pressure group. She realised that some people thought traffic calming was a good idea only because it helped them get more quickly from A to B - "the NIMBR factor - Not In My Back Road".

But she said: "My aim is to give smaller businesses as well as the larger ones something practical to take away with them to reduce costs and the impact on the environment."

The seminar, no doubt useful within the terms of its own limited agenda, will be free to environment forum members, cost £15 for up to two places for associate members and £25 for up to two places for non-members.

Anyone interested should phone 01904 552036.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.