David, i would expect the phrase's " double handling" and security to be used in the argument for lorries doing that sort of haul. I fail to see logic in using lorries to supply components, to factories in GB, that come in daily JIT flows from Europe. To me that just clutters our roads with traffic and must be the sort of flow that should be ideal for rail.
Back in the day, days of steam really, there was a daily parts train that ran from Morris Cowley to Longbridge. Who knows what it carried but there were always forty or so box vans and then it just stopped running!
As an aside last time I was in Ireland, I caught the night ferry back from Dublin to Holyhead. On the motorway from Cork it was very noticeable that trucks and busses were very law abiding regarding speed limits. As soon as the trucks and busses hit the A 55 in GB pedal to the metal and blow the cobwebs out the exhaust pipe. I wonder if that reflects different levels of enforcement?