JonnyRage:
Yeah I have seen their paperwork and it is identicle except for company name, colours on trucks “same!” supplying truck on finance to new subbies “same!” having virtually the “same!” contracts? Yeah they obvoiusly have nothing to do with each other it must just be just lucky I guess or a unbelievable coincidence. Here is two guys that know a shared secret is the only other falable scenerio I can think of.
Some of the paperwork has similarities, and I can tell you the reason why: a former employee who did some work in this area had come from elsewhere and lifted some text from his past. Someone at Maritime seems to have come from the same place and has done likewise! Nonetheless, there are significant differences too - I know, because I have reviewed them objectively recently.
Bear in mind, of course, that they are competing directly in a very small business sector. However, their business models do differ and the companies are not associated. I have known Elite from the standpoint of being a significant customer for many years and I have worked with them directly in a personal capacity in recent months. They are not Maritime, OK??
Another factor to consider about this small sector of haulage (and I am NOT a long term container haualge intern!!) is that those who work in container haulage companies tend to remain within that circle - look how many offshoots there are from the Russell Davies management team: SOCL/DHL, Hanbury Davies, Maritime, Goldstar, Seven Lincs for a start. Elite is privately-owned and Manchester-based, and its owners have never belonged to RD or any of its descendants.
Finally, as Shuttlespanker rightly points out, Elite do not have a scheme to sell lorries to sub-contractors, potential or otherwise, nor to finance sub-contractors’ vehicles.
If you engage in container haulage, then you must accept that it has many quirks and variables imposed upon it by its very association with shipping lines, their customers, and the terminals. I always swore I’d never get involved with it, and then did so only after 25 years in general haulage and contract distribution; even then it was only from the other side of the fence as a buyer of haulage within a shipping line.
I do have sympathy with the ■■■ that container hauliers have heaped upon them quite liberally by these other parties. If it’s too much for you, then go and do some general haulage instead — it’s much more straightforward!