I would say it’s the prospect of possibly being sued rather than the fact of actually being sued that drives most regulation on all forums that are based on the internet.
In this day and age of ‘easy money’ via the courts, I am not at all surprised TN take the view they do. You cannot go around saying damaging things about a company or business unless you can substantiate your remarks pretty thoroughly. It isn’t fair and it isn’t right to do so and TN (and there like) have to err on the side of caution.
And I agree, ‘my mate told me’ is about as reliable as Chinese Whispers.
back to elite i have been told by one of there drivers in manchester there is a staff meeting on saturday morning to let them know whats going on just hope its good news for the drivers
I don’t think you (or RBI) have had to spend “a lot of money” fighting lawsuits at all,
If you dont get it Rob. we dont care what you “think you know” You seem to “know” a lot of things- about many subjects but are some what reticient on how you gained such expert knowledge- wouild you care to enlighten us all?
The only people I have to justify our outlay on legal expenses to are the directors of the company- who are aware of what we have spent over the years, and are also aware of the policies we have in place to minimise that spend.
When you become a director you will get the full ledger sheet, in the mean time respectfully its non of your business
End of they day we can moan all we want as it isn’t our arse on the line. Whereas it is rikkis and the owners of the site.
AFrost4747:
They’ve offered 37p in the pound to unsecured creditors. They owe HMRC £1.5 million which in part is money they’ve deducted from staff ad drivers pay for tax and national insurance but haven’t paid over to the taxman. If the CVA is accepted they will pay back £555,000 to the taxman over a proposed 5 year period…taxpayer looses £945,000 of our money…nice work if you can get it
I know any business can be unlucky but how many in haulage seem to do this and the pre pack thing it comes across as good for saving jobs but in haulage a lot of it is down to the job been done to cheaply.
AFrost4747:
They’ve offered 37p in the pound to unsecured creditors. They owe HMRC £1.5 million which in part is money they’ve deducted from staff ad drivers pay for tax and national insurance but haven’t paid over to the taxman. If the CVA is accepted they will pay back £555,000 to the taxman over a proposed 5 year period…taxpayer looses £945,000 of our money…nice work if you can get it
I know any business can be unlucky but how many in haulage seem to do this and the pre pack thing it comes across as good for saving jobs but in haulage a lot of it is down to the job been done to cheaply.
Its all down to living outside your means, quite simple 10 trucks at £700 per month each owe you £7000 before any drivers wages ect… And it quickly adds up to more than the company can turn over!
More like not enough demand for the service being offered even at current rates because of artificially high road fuel costs which is all part of government transport policy for reasons as discussed previously.Thereby making the job economically unviable for even owner drivers to do let alone big fleets with big fleet overheads to cover.Putting up rates isn’t going to solve that problem.
When i worked there i always thought it a little OTT that the planners had company cars…mainly brand new Golf’s.
Especially considering that there were only a minority who could actually plan…the others were just mistakes waiting to happen.
Like the driver who got told to reload his box out of a recycling plant in Milton Keynes and take it to Southampton…half way to Southampton gets a phone call to find out why he hasn’t dropped his empty off and picked up his new box ready to load with waster paper…got told to go back to MK and get them to unload the box so he could get the right box on…got back there to be told by the recycling firm “tough, not our problem, we’re not unloading it”.
Box sat for weeks in one of our depots while they argued over who was going to pay for the mistake…driver was covered, he had the text message from the planner telling him to reload!
Just one of many many similar ■■■■ ups that occurred almost weekly!
glekay:
back to elite i have been told by one of there drivers in manchester there is a staff meeting on saturday morning to let them know whats going on just hope its good news for the drivers
I hope this morning brings good news for the drivers
It doesn’t neccesarily. There’s been loads of cases where the TC has let directors set up companies again. Generally after having inside info as to the finances. Not all failure to meet debts is a result of incompetence.
kr79:
With that logic every haulage firm in Britain would be bust.
Or,if not,at present road fuel costs,at least running closer to that point than they’d ideally need to be.Especially in the case of any haulage firm that’s involved with work in direct competition with rail freight.Such as long distance container haulage.
Bearing in mind the reasons for the problem,as reported,in this case,how would putting up rates have created more demand for the service being that it was loss of demand,not running at a loss,that was the reason given for the closure .It seems obvious in that case that putting up rates wasn’t an option even if costs were outrunning revenues.
Well how comes every over big container firm hasn’t gone skint then. They all do essentially the same thing in moving boxes for shipping lines.
The fact is a big company running on a 2 to 3 percent profit margin is on a sticky wicket if anything slightly goes wrong. How many firms go to the wall because they can’t ride out a cash flow problem or customer going skint.
Your the only one who seems to think lorrys need to do big miles to make money whereas everyone who has actualy experienced running them seems to think the opposite.
kr79:
Well how comes every over big container firm hasn’t gone skint then. They all do essentially the same thing in moving boxes for shipping lines.
The fact is a big company running on a 2 to 3 percent profit margin is on a sticky wicket if anything slightly goes wrong. How many firms go to the wall because they can’t ride out a cash flow problem or customer going skint.
Your the only one who seems to think lorrys need to do big miles to make money whereas everyone who has actualy experienced running them seems to think the opposite.
If I read the report right it actually said that other container haulage firms are also at risk and it also seems to confirm my view of the situation that it’s all about loss of work to rail ( because rail has an obvious trading advantage ) not haulage firms needing to put their rates up.Which in that trading environment would be suicide.If the loss of the long distance sector isn’t a problem and assuming that the short haul intermodal sector is so lucrative as you seem to think,then it’s obvious that the trucks and redundant drivers in this case would have all been employed doing that at higher rates than they were getting on longer haul work and obviously problem solved.
Hauliers are going skint as they are not getting paid enough to do the job. It doesn’t matter if you do 100 miles a day or 1000 miles a day if you don’t cover the costs you will end up skint.
Say your truck costs 200quid a day to cover the drivers wages ni contributions tax insurance finance etc plus fuel on top you use £100 of fuel on locals and earn 400 quid your doing ok
Same truck goes up the road uses 300 quid of fuel you get 550 you are making less profit and that’s how it is in the low margin sectors like boxes.
Scrap fuel duty the rates will drop. Boxes ferry trailers subbing for forwarders who advertise in the press is a waste of time as there is over capacity as to many people think I want a truck il buy a tractor and maybe a skelly and go into boxes or traction as its easy to get started and are happy to pull a drivers wage if that not a wage plus additional renu,elation to cover there time on paperwork maybe doing some maintenance 4 weeks paid holiday what an employee gets.
Christ I sound like Rob K here.
But what do I know compared to the king of the leatherhead night truckers. Anyway I think I shall retiree from this now before I get dragged in to a pointless arguement about Eastern European haulage contractors the 1970s Labour Party Margaret thatcher and that philpot chap
kr79:
Hauliers are going skint as they are not getting paid enough to do the job. It doesn’t matter if you do 100 miles a day or 1000 miles a day if you don’t cover the costs you will end up skint.
Say your truck costs 200quid a day to cover the drivers wages ni contributions tax insurance finance etc plus fuel on top you use £100 of fuel on locals and earn 400 quid your doing ok
Same truck goes up the road uses 300 quid of fuel you get 550 you are making less profit and that’s how it is in the low margin sectors like boxes.
Scrap fuel duty the rates will drop. Boxes ferry trailers subbing for forwarders who advertise in the press is a waste of time as there is over capacity as to many people think I want a truck il buy a tractor and maybe a skelly and go into boxes or traction as its easy to get started and are happy to pull a drivers wage if that not a wage plus additional renu,elation to cover there time on paperwork maybe doing some maintenance 4 weeks paid holiday what an employee gets.
Christ I sound like Rob K here.
You’re right you do sound just like RobK there.
Here’s an idea.Why don’t you tell those redundant drivers all that having first told them that it doesn’t matter to you because you’ve zb’d off to a place where they have a more road transport friendly government and where diesel costs ( a lot ) less than £1 per litre.Although you’re currently trying to explain to the Canadian government why it should put British levels of road fuel taxation onto the Canadian road transport industry,together with all the other uk/euro type bs regs,in order to make their industry even stronger as long a rates are increased to match.
.It seems obvious in that case that putting up rates wasn’t an option even if costs were outrunning revenues.
