Janos:
Carryfast:
Sand Fisher:
Carryfast:
the road sector now needing to be costed by the hour not the mile because there’s no longer enough miles in the job to make it worthwhile otherwise.Anyone who has costed by the mile is a muppet. Costs have always fallen into time and mileage components and one, (contained within maintenance) falls into both. You do periodic maintenance - inspections and services - whether the wheels turn or not.
Yes you have fixed ‘costs’.But revenues can only be earn’t in the form of miles including the revenues earn’t to pay for the fixed costs.Unless you’ve got a customer who is happy to pay by the hour for all the time the truck is sitting going nowhere to meet the government’s aims of minimising the mileage travelled by trucks.When in the real world we know that all costs are factored into the mileage rate.No miles no revenue.Which if I’ve read it right is what everyone is moaning about.IE customers won’t pay by the hour for a truck to be sitting going no where.Who would have thought it.
Some local work may be only a mile or so from the collection/delivery point. The haulier is not going to be paid a couple of quid for the mileage. Most container haulage rates are defined by a ‘local’ rate that extends to a certain pre-defined radius.
The real issue for container hauliers is the battle to be productive and therefore profitable in the face of bottlenecks at railheads and ports etc. This is a real issue, and has been for years. As wages rise, it will become a bigger issue for hauliers, as rates are not moving.
As wages rise, that will hopefully purge the overcapacity of operators in the market, and it should also draw in more workers willing to drive.
When the capacity reaches the right level, operators will then charge the customers what it costs to put up with the bottlenecks, and the ports may then invest in measures to reduce them (because by reducing the bottlenecks, they will be able to capture as profits what is otherwise being wasted on wages).
It might also drive the investment in new ports and railheads, or better systems in existing ones.