Harry Monk:
Ex Haulier:
Never really understood how the container transport business works. Are the shipping lines the client ?. Does the importer of the goods have a say in who delivers the box ?. Is it all on a flat mileage rate paid back to the dock ?. Always seemed a bit odd time that they all seem to run top of the range motors and do 4 or 5 nights out per week which seem to say they have pretty high labour costs yet the rates I have heard quoted didn’t seem that clever. Anyone care to educate me.It’s all included in the cost of the sea freight. If you are an importer and you ship a container from China to Felixstowe then it will cost the same whether the eventual destination of the container is Ipswich or Aberdeen.
Harry Monk:
Ex Haulier:
Never really understood how the container transport business works. Are the shipping lines the client ?. Does the importer of the goods have a say in who delivers the box ?. Is it all on a flat mileage rate paid back to the dock ?. Always seemed a bit odd time that they all seem to run top of the range motors and do 4 or 5 nights out per week which seem to say they have pretty high labour costs yet the rates I have heard quoted didn’t seem that clever. Anyone care to educate me.It’s all included in the cost of the sea freight. If you are an importer and you ship a container from China to Felixstowe then it will cost the same whether the eventual destination of the container is Ipswich or Aberdeen.
Total nonsense. You can ship a 20ft box from China to Felixstowe for about 700 dollars. The road freight to Aberdeen would cost more than that.
You can get freight rates that are paid to door and include the inland leg or you can pay to Port and go Merchant Own Haulage or convert to Carrier, both additional cost to the freight rate
Ex Haulier:
Harry Monk:
Ex Haulier:
Never really understood how the container transport business works. Are the shipping lines the client ?. Does the importer of the goods have a say in who delivers the box ?. Is it all on a flat mileage rate paid back to the dock ?. Always seemed a bit odd time that they all seem to run top of the range motors and do 4 or 5 nights out per week which seem to say they have pretty high labour costs yet the rates I have heard quoted didn’t seem that clever. Anyone care to educate me.It’s all included in the cost of the sea freight. If you are an importer and you ship a container from China to Felixstowe then it will cost the same whether the eventual destination of the container is Ipswich or Aberdeen.
Total nonsense. You can ship a 20ft box from China to Felixstowe for about 700 dollars. The road freight to Aberdeen would cost more than that.
Ultimately it is the customer who pays - but who does the haulier invoice, and who decides who gets the work?
As far as I can see, putting boxes on trains seems a far better way to shift them out of the ports than using trucks.
Santa:
Ex Haulier:
Harry Monk:
Ex Haulier:
Never really understood how the container transport business works. Are the shipping lines the client ?. Does the importer of the goods have a say in who delivers the box ?. Is it all on a flat mileage rate paid back to the dock ?. Always seemed a bit odd time that they all seem to run top of the range motors and do 4 or 5 nights out per week which seem to say they have pretty high labour costs yet the rates I have heard quoted didn’t seem that clever. Anyone care to educate me.It’s all included in the cost of the sea freight. If you are an importer and you ship a container from China to Felixstowe then it will cost the same whether the eventual destination of the container is Ipswich or Aberdeen.
Total nonsense. You can ship a 20ft box from China to Felixstowe for about 700 dollars. The road freight to Aberdeen would cost more than that.
Ultimately it is the customer who pays - but who does the haulier invoice, and who decides who gets the work?
As far as I can see, putting boxes on trains seems a far better way to shift them out of the ports than using trucks.
the haulier, such as Maritime, Elite, Roadways, and the like, will invoice the shipping line directly, as it is the shipping line that have given the haulier the task of carrying the container from the port/railhead to the customer
the shipping line is the one who predominantly decides who is given the work, BUT, in some circumstances, the end customer can stipulate a different carrier
EG, a while ago, Maritime had the contract from Hyundai for all container movements within England, however, some customers told Hyundai that they wanted Elite or DHL (before the Maritime takeover) to move the container from the port to the delivery address, and as such, Elite or DHL did the job
Santa:
Ex Haulier:
Harry Monk:
Ex Haulier:
Never really understood how the container transport business works. Are the shipping lines the client ?. Does the importer of the goods have a say in who delivers the box ?. Is it all on a flat mileage rate paid back to the dock ?. Always seemed a bit odd time that they all seem to run top of the range motors and do 4 or 5 nights out per week which seem to say they have pretty high labour costs yet the rates I have heard quoted didn’t seem that clever. Anyone care to educate me.It’s all included in the cost of the sea freight. If you are an importer and you ship a container from China to Felixstowe then it will cost the same whether the eventual destination of the container is Ipswich or Aberdeen.
Total nonsense. You can ship a 20ft box from China to Felixstowe for about 700 dollars. The road freight to Aberdeen would cost more than that.
Ultimately it is the customer who pays - but who does the haulier invoice, and who decides who gets the work?
As far as I can see, putting boxes on trains seems a far better way to shift them out of the ports than using trucks.
It’s a far better way for anyone employed in the rail freight industry but it’s suicide for those employed in the road transport industry when added to the loss of international work.
But no it’s not ‘far better’ assuming a level playing field on fuel costs and de regulation of gross weights and length limits.Especially if you also factor in intermodal short distance truck journeys in addition to the long distance rail sector of the job considering the fixed costs you’ll need to factor in for those short distance truck journeys.
The fact is anyone in the road transport industry supporting co operation with the rail freight industry and the shift of freight from road to rail is just a case of turkeys voting for christmas.
Carryfast:
roadrunner:
Harry Monk:
I’m hearing now that two other container hauliers are planning mass redundancies next week.Seems you may be correct, a lot more containers being shifted by train apparently according to this article m.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10130785. … uit_city_/, some interesting comments at the bottom too.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=94094&start=30#p1360531
A lot of the blame for the situation can be placed on the complacency and naivety shown by those in the road transport industry having allowed it to be shafted by the rail freight industry,helped by government policies,which are obviously biased in favour of big business rail operators at the expense of small haulage businesses.All of which has been accepted without a word of protest and even calls for co operation between the two modes when they should be at each other’s throats in view of the fact that it’s in the national interest of the economy to have a strong road transport industry that can compete on more equal terms with rail at least in terms of fuel costs/taxation and more de regulation of gross weight and truck length restrictions.
As for the newspaper report no surprise that the hypocrites in the media seem to be moaning about job losses in the road transport industry while at the same time usually supporting the the shift in freight from road to rail.
QUICK, MEDIC MEDIC. DIAL 999 SOMEONE. There was no blame on Thatcher in this post. 
Carryfast:
The fact is anyone in the road transport industry supporting co operation with the rail freight industry and the shift of freight from road to rail is just a case of turkeys voting for christmas.
To paraphase Many Rice Davis [youngsters may need to Google that] Well you would say that, wouldn’t you.
Santa:
Carryfast:
The fact is anyone in the road transport industry supporting co operation with the rail freight industry and the shift of freight from road to rail is just a case of turkeys voting for christmas.To paraphase Many Rice Davis [youngsters may need to Google that] Well you would say that, wouldn’t you.
i’m not that young, but, who■■? 
ironstipper:
Carryfast:
roadrunner:
Harry Monk:
I’m hearing now that two other container hauliers are planning mass redundancies next week.Seems you may be correct, a lot more containers being shifted by train apparently according to this article m.dailyecho.co.uk/news/10130785. … uit_city_/, some interesting comments at the bottom too.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=94094&start=30#p1360531
A lot of the blame for the situation can be placed on the complacency and naivety shown by those in the road transport industry having allowed it to be shafted by the rail freight industry,helped by government policies,which are obviously biased in favour of big business rail operators at the expense of small haulage businesses.All of which has been accepted without a word of protest and even calls for co operation between the two modes when they should be at each other’s throats in view of the fact that it’s in the national interest of the economy to have a strong road transport industry that can compete on more equal terms with rail at least in terms of fuel costs/taxation and more de regulation of gross weight and truck length restrictions.
As for the newspaper report no surprise that the hypocrites in the media seem to be moaning about job losses in the road transport industry while at the same time usually supporting the the shift in freight from road to rail.
QUICK, MEDIC MEDIC. DIAL 999 SOMEONE. There was no blame on Thatcher in this post.
No need because the clue was government policy in favour of big business rail freight operators at the expense of small haulage businesses using policies such as the road fuel duty escalator etc etc. 
Santa:
Carryfast:
The fact is anyone in the road transport industry supporting co operation with the rail freight industry and the shift of freight from road to rail is just a case of turkeys voting for christmas.To paraphase Many Rice Davis [youngsters may need to Google that] Well you would say that, wouldn’t you.
The irony is that the idea of containerisation was dreamt up by the US road transport industry. 
Mmmm…someone started this thread the other day and I posted the exact same link…and then it was gone!
Even containers that leave the port by rail still need a truck to get it to the customer in 99% of cases.
More a case of rates just been unsustainable to run trucks on that kind of work in the long term.
kr79:
Even containers that leave the port by rail still need a truck to get it to the customer in 99% of cases.
More a case of rates just been unsustainable to run trucks on that kind of work in the long term.
Rail accounts for around 11% of uk freight movement and take off bulk commoditys like coal and aggregates its not much and the rail network is pretty much capacity and passenger rail expansion comes first. It’s not a major problem for hauliers. What’s the difference for running a truck on containers out of felixstowe or tilbury or from the rail terminal in the midlands.
kr79:
Even containers that leave the port by rail still need a truck to get it to the customer in 99% of cases.
More a case of rates just been unsustainable to run trucks on that kind of work in the long term.
The problem is the lost truck/miles being run which means less trucks required to shift the equivalent amount of boxes.It’s the issue of loads of trucks only needed to be run over short distances which causes overcapacity and unsustainable rates because no one with any sense is going to pay the same money for a truck to run a few miles between the rail heads and delivery points as they would for it to run the whole journey between dockside and end customer.
In which case the revenues won’t cover the fixed costs of running the truck and in most cases it’s effectively using an expensive piece of kit,designed for running long distances,as a glorified shunter and to add insult to injury needing less of them to do it.
The whole thing is just a rail freight scam in which truck operators are being artificially prevented from carrying out the part of the job which the rail freight lot want without which those rail freight operators would (rightly) be out of business but who of course have the backing of their big business orientated cronies in the world’s government’s behind them.Unlike small business road transport firms.Ironically the rail freight industry is being helped to wipe out the road transport industry,in many cases,by the road transport industry itself which seems hell bent on it’s own demise instead of fighting it’s corner.
kr79:
kr79:
Even containers that leave the port by rail still need a truck to get it to the customer in 99% of cases.
More a case of rates just been unsustainable to run trucks on that kind of work in the long term.Rail accounts for around 11% of uk freight movement and take off bulk commoditys like coal and aggregates its not much and the rail network is pretty much capacity and passenger rail expansion comes first. It’s not a major problem for hauliers. What’s the difference for running a truck on containers out of felixstowe or tilbury or from the rail terminal in the midlands.
Suggest you read the news report again concerning the facts behind the reasons for the loss of those jobs.It’s not a case of coal or aggregates it’s a deliberate government policy of shifting freight from road to rail and there’s no way they can do that without a direct reduction in the amount of container/miles being run by road which reflects the increase in container/miles being run by rail instead.The fact is,in any other type of industry,such government intervention in free markets and private industry in order to favour one type over another,would result in court action concerning unfair subsidies and interference to create a non competitive trading environment and monopoly situation.
There’s more in running them local i used to get £130 of cobrlfret for doing a purfleet to basildon and could do 4 a day and not much fuel or 200 quid for Hemel Hempstead. Don’t take much working out where the money is.
It’s the ee invasion that’s the long distance problem along with we don’t export as much as we did even 20 years ago.
And a lot of what we export now is specialist stuff that doesn’t necerceraly mean chucking it in the back of a curtainsider.
Do you believe everything you read in the paper. We are in the middle of a massive recession this Christmas has been one if the quietest for retailers in years which means less stuff for trucks to move.
Containers are a known low margin sector. So a slight dip is enough to make or break a firm. This is where your ownr driver argument is right. A bloke with a truck can keep costs down as you can just rent a ■■■■■■■■■■■■ from someone do your paperwork at home possibly do some maintence on the truck.
These big firms have to employ office staff possibly have there own workshops some nice shiney offices hot and cold running range rovers for the management.
All that don’t come cheap and even a few percent drop in turnover is all it takes.
kr79:
There’s more in running them local i used to get £130 of cobrlfret for doing a purfleet to basildon and could do 4 a day and not much fuel or 200 quid for Hemel Hempstead. Don’t take much working out where the money is.
It’s the ee invasion that’s the long distance problem along with we don’t export as much as we did even 20 years ago.
And a lot of what we export now is specialist stuff that doesn’t necerceraly mean chucking it in the back of a curtainsider.
The ee invasion affects the international freight sector more than the long distance domestic container sector.Although international rail freight capacity needs to be added to that ee competition for that international work.The fact is the biggest threat to the long distance domestic sector is that stated as being stated as the reason for the issue in this case which is all about the shift in container traffic from road to rail. 
It doesn’t take a genius to realise that the uk road transport industry is being gradually intentionally wiped out by the uk government in order to provide a trading advantage to both ee road transport operations and rail freight operators.
I’d love to see a train roll up outside a house and start craning off goods from the local Travis Perkins