Without major investment in infrastructure, the rail network will never cope with the movements required. There just isn’t sufficient capacity on the current system!
And whatever happened to more utilization of the canal network for non urgent movements particularly in bulk product??
Suppose it all depends on what is flavor of the month and where or who’s board of directors the ruling crop of politicians sit on or work for!?
Rates is just what the job will stand - its choice whether to do the work or not.
I can’t see how there can be a noticeable increase before then because rail paths in most directions are saturated, you only have to see how they struggle to move a train that’s been delayed due to an incident, My understanding is that any additional trains must be run of a weekend to get permission from Network Rail
stringy:
I guess the next push for rail freight will come as HS2 project releases rail capacity from passenger to freight: rfg.org.uk/news/freight-will … peed-2-hs2
I can’t see how there can be a noticeable increase before then because rail paths in most directions are saturated, you only have to see how they struggle to move a train that’s been delayed due to an incident, My understanding is that any additional trains must be run of a weekend to get permission from Network Rail
Regardless of all that the fact is intermodal rail freight operations have grown by 21% in the past 4 years and as the rail freight industry itself says ‘despite the recession’.There’s no way that current and projected intermodal rail freight growth could take place without the effects being seen in loss of demand and resulting pressure on rates in the long haul road transport sector together with the lose lose situation of overtaxed road fuel magnifying and making that situation even worse.Which is an exact reflection of government transport policy.
Rail capacity is a total red herring being that the rail freight industry already has the capacity to ■■■■■■■ ( the long haul ) container type etc haulage sector of uk the road transport industry,just on current capacity levels and having the benefit of government transport policy behind it.That’s even before the proposed improvements in rail capacity take place.
If you speak to Freightliner, DB Schenker et al they’ll tell you there’s no money in rail freight due to low rates, makes you wonder how we manage to move anything in this country!
No one will ever pay more than they should when there is someone willing to do it cheaper, we will always have competition so I guess it’s down to survival of the smartest!!
stringy:
If you speak to Freightliner, DB Schenker et al they’ll tell you there’s no money in rail freight due to low rates, makes you wonder how we manage to move anything in this country!
No one will ever pay more than they should when there is someone willing to do it cheaper, we will always have competition so I guess it’s down to survival of the smartest!!
If it’s all about being smart and fair competition the trucks should be allowed to use red diesel and LHV’s allowed for anyone who wants to run them.
Elite are the architects of their own demise.
They don’t always make a profit on each individual job, instead they have a target for each vehicle. Low paying high volumes of container traffic.
Some of you may remember bergan transport of Trafford park Manchester.
They were preferred hauliers on container traffic for the likes of Kellogg’s Trafford park, Guinness in Runcorn not to mention some other major contracts, elite went into all of the above and under cut the rates by silly amounts, thus winning the work, bergan which owened it’s own units, trailers, etc so it had smaller operating costs, could have quite easily have gone lower than elite, chose not to, and sadly closed the haulage side of the business.
The above is just one small example of elites business tactics, in theory can work but in practice seldome does.
if elite are cutting rates to get work then in my opinion the sooner there gone the better!
running newish trucks on low rates will never last in the long run
DonutUK:
When i worked there i always thought it a little OTT that the planners had company cars…mainly brand new Golf’s.
Its standard in container haulage, all of the bigger companies in Felixstowe, Southampton etc provide the planners with company cars, been that way since Russel Davies and Brain days!
While I worked there it was common practice for the planners to run you so far behind that you would often be refused by customers, they’ve lost so much work over the last couple of year’s because you was always late, they managed to get Hyundai off maritime but lost it due to bad time keeping, in one week they were given four jobs. They were late on three of them and never made the fourth!!! Not a good way to run a transport business. I read that someone said that Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham were ok. They’ve closed all other depots unles you count the Mathews depot! Also they haven’t had fuel cards in Birmingham for around a month!!! One driver was told not to put ad-blue in and having done a long drive had to try and find a sympathetic fuel station who would take a credit card payment over the phone. Don’t look to promising for the guys there…
Thereal-john:
Elite are the architects of their own demise.
They don’t always make a profit on each individual job, instead they have a target for each vehicle. Low paying high volumes of container traffic.
Thats not correct.
Thereal-john:
Some of you may remember bergan transport of Trafford park Manchester.
They were preferred hauliers on container traffic for the likes of Kellogg’s Trafford park, Guinness in Runcorn not to mention some other major contracts, elite went into all of the above and under cut the rates by silly amounts, thus winning the work, bergan which owened it’s own units, trailers, etc so it had smaller operating costs, could have quite easily have gone lower than elite, chose not to, and sadly closed the haulage side of the business.
This is not correct either. It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just go into Kellogs, Guiness etc. and offer a lower price. Any container haulier’s customers is the shipping line, not the end user. Shipping lines are a law unto themselves true.But they don;t generally award work to someone who can’t sustain it leaving them out in the cold looking for more hauliers, they do look towards a partnership where it will work. For mutual benefit. I suspect you’re maaking most of this up because someone you think is reliable has told you, its complete rubbish unfortunatley. Not that i have a vested interest other than to point out bollox when i see it.
Thereal-john:
The above is just one small example of elites business tactics, in theory can work but in practice seldome does.
Makes you wonder how they ever got subbys, and even after stopping some of their own trucks they kept subbys on? And going by what you said above (which i said is bollox) they would have been runing subbys at a loss. So unfortunatley this has to go in the bin with carryfasts rubbish. If we where to take notice of either of you, the containers are running more by rail so there’s no volume of traffic and thats where the loss is, and not only that Elite are running them round for less than it costs and thats the bit you’ve sussed?
I think i just need to go and smash my head into the wall for a few mins before i read this thread again.
Kellogg’s & Guinness are both customer preferred haulage, as its still carrier the customer can only nominate and not insist that certain hauliers are but the Lines give in to big customers such as them. A lot of preferred work is requested so the customer has direct contact with the haulier although line haul must go via the Line, other is requested due to personal friendships
Thereal-john:
Elite are the architects of their own demise.
They don’t always make a profit on each individual job, instead they have a target for each vehicle. Low paying high volumes of container traffic.
Thats not correct.
Thereal-john:
Some of you may remember bergan transport of Trafford park Manchester.
They were preferred hauliers on container traffic for the likes of Kellogg’s Trafford park, Guinness in Runcorn not to mention some other major contracts, elite went into all of the above and under cut the rates by silly amounts, thus winning the work, bergan which owened it’s own units, trailers, etc so it had smaller operating costs, could have quite easily have gone lower than elite, chose not to, and sadly closed the haulage side of the business.
This is not correct either. It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just go into Kellogs, Guiness etc. and offer a lower price. Any container haulier’s customers is the shipping line, not the end user. Shipping lines are a law unto themselves true.But they don;t generally award work to someone who can’t sustain it leaving them out in the cold looking for more hauliers, they do look towards a partnership where it will work. For mutual benefit. I suspect you’re maaking most of this up because someone you think is reliable has told you, its complete rubbish unfortunatley. Not that i have a vested interest other than to point out bollox when i see it.
Thereal-john:
The above is just one small example of elites business tactics, in theory can work but in practice seldome does.
Makes you wonder how they ever got subbys, and even after stopping some of their own trucks they kept subbys on? And going by what you said above (which i said is bollox) they would have been runing subbys at a loss. So unfortunatley this has to go in the bin with carryfasts rubbish. If we where to take notice of either of you, the containers are running more by rail so there’s no volume of traffic and thats where the loss is, and not only that Elite are running them round for less than it costs and thats the bit you’ve sussed?
I think i just need to go and smash my head into the wall for a few mins before i read this thread again.
You can indeed go direct to a company and miss the shipper out
Eg shipper charges blue chip company £250 from Trafford park to seaforth, they then pay haulier £180 for the job, all sides are fully aware of this.so when a haulier approaches said blue chip company and offers same inland transport service for a reduced cost, all the company do is tell the shipper that they will take controll of all their own inland transport movements, saving them thousands in costs.
Also in addition to the above no one shipping line service guiness Kellogg’s etc, so they wernt upsetting the shipping line too much.
As for me talking bollox I’ve forgoton more about this job than you’ll ever know both as a driver and an owener. It wasn’t to long ago when you run a window cleaning business into the ground, I suggest you stick to things you know instead of coming across as all knowledgable about a subject you know very little about mike.
What your are referring to is MOH (merchant own haulage) that tends to only be on imports because exports are heavily subsidised by the Lines and very few would go MOH for exports
Both Kellogg’s and Guinness are Carrier not MOH and the haulier connection is usually via the Forwarder (I.e. DHL)
