I’m writing this on behalf of my good friend Little Enis.
With all the talk of blockades and go slows i thought it was about time to put forward an idea i tried to float in 1995.
The nucleus of this idea is thus.
The goverment should be lobbied on behalf of the hard pressed haulage industry to legislate for the setting up of a fork tarriff system.
The FTS should be overseen and controlled by a Road Transport Board.
The FTS works as thus,
The RTB is a body consisting of members with a vested interest in road haulage, ie; The RHA, The FTA, The CBI, drivers unions, MoT and VOSA.
The board would construct a tarriff system for road haulage that would guarentee a resonable return for funds invested. The board would set a high tarriff for speciallised cargo and a lower tarriff for general cargo.
The board would meet at specific times and all costs would be factored in.
Hauliers proved to be carrying cargo outside the tarriffs would forfeit their O licences. This would also include foreign based hauliers.
The benefits of the FTS are many fold.
The industry would be able to invest in more modern and enviro friendly trucks right accross the whole spectrum rather than as at the moment when only the top firms can afford this privalge.
The industry would be able to attract younger people into road haulage with better working conditions and shorter hours.
The industry could train people better and fleets would be run efficiently and safely.
Drivers would never be pushed to unsafe schedules.
The RTB could also instigate the setting up of a scheme to insure foreign based hauliers pay their way whilst in the UK.
IE; Why not make the ferry companies and tunnel operator responsable for collecting a tarriff, much like they make us responsable for collecting VAT.
THE POSSIBILITIES REGARDING A ROAD TRANSPORT BOARD ARE ENDLESS, SO WHY HAVEN’T WE GOT ONE?
Rob, to me the idea makes sense but like all sensible ideas the goverment are not interested, a few years ago I did a story in truck mag about Vosa taking action against maintenance contactors for not carrying out proper repairs and inspections instead of the hit going against the “O” licence holder. My phone was red hot for about a week I was told VOSA were busy enough !!!
Looks good on paper Rob but my initial suspicion is that EU anti-competition laws would prevent it happening, depsite the fact that similar probably occurs already in other countries.
If the current government did adopt the idea it would end up as another layer of paper-pushing bureaucrats, paid for by our industry but with carte blanche to do what they like to screw our hauliers up whilst letting foreigners off scot-free.
We already have a body like you describe, without the rate levels. Its called the Transport Sub select committee. The chairman is Lord Sainsbury, his co-helpers…Lord Asda…Lord Somerfield…etc…etc…there is no one representing the general haulage area…they have to fight for themselves, whilst the supermarket companies are listened to by the government, and taken notice of. Its the supermarkets who have changed the transport rules of late, and to suit themselves. Moving goods to their own shops doesnt cost them a great deal, for they merely up the price of a tin of beans, fuel cost doesnt upset them, for they up the price of a tin of peas. They have no one to increase their rates to, they owe no one except the suppliers, and they make them wait. They are not reliant on anyone to keep their transport costs at a reasonable level, unlike general haulage, they have enough clout to make the government listen…for everyone needs food, and they dont worry how it gets moved around. If you look at how large the supermarket fleets are, and because i am involved in the distribution side of things, (my company supplies all the fruit to Sainsburys Southern) then i have noticed more and more sainsburys vehicles collecting from the farms i normally collect from. Maybe thats a trend that will continue, then we wont need our own vehicles…as a last statement, Holland has a set of rates that hauliers have to abide by, and the ministry can inspect the books and indeed fine the haulier for breaking the rules.
Well it would appear the spaniards cruise trucknet! They’ve all gone on strike with demands that sound just like little Enis’s RTB proposals. How strange. How we need to do the same thing? Don’t we? Or are we to do the typically british thing and do bog all ?
this idea is nothing new, we’ve been there, done it and thrown the t shirt away.
Under the Transport Act 1947 the railways, long-distance road haulage and various other types of transport were acquired by the state and handed over to a British Transport Commission for operation. The commission was responsible to the Ministry of Transport for general transport policy, which it exercised principally through financial control of a number of executives set up to manage specified sections of the industry under schemes of delegation.
The Act was part of the nationalisation agenda of Clement Attlee’s Labour government, and took effect from 1 January 1948. In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Transport Authority acted in a similar manner.The also nationalised other means of transport such as canals, sea and shipping ports, bus companies, and eventually amidst much opposition, road haulage. All of these transport modes including British Rail were brought under the control of a body called the British Transport Commission (BTC).
The BTC was a part of a highly ambitious scheme to create a publicly owned, centrally planned, integrated transport system. In theory the BTC was to coordinate different modes of transport, to co-operate and supplement each other instead of competing.
This was to be achieved by means of fare and rate adjustments.
nationalisation is the only way to have set rates for everybody,
I see that a comment has been made about a similar body to the one I proposed, the big difference is the only way my system will work is for the govenment to pass statute laws supporting our Road Transport Board.
The only way we will achieve this is for sacrifices to be made.
Park all trucks up get out on the streets and tell Joe Public why we can not operate any more. This is not a strike it is common sence. When will we start to act together. This is our swan song. Many of us are now drinking in the last chance salon what have we got to loose .
Little enis
little enis:
Park all trucks up get out on the streets and tell Joe Public why we can not operate any more.
I don’t get this bit? Lets look logically at it. When it becomes to expensive to operate, a truck stops, therefore no goods get delivered. Only thing is, before it reaches that stage someone will put up their haulage fee and someone will pay it so it can be done. Thats supply and demand. As an individual using fuel i feel 80% tax on it is to high. For a buisness i don’t understand it, its the end users that pay. I feel the issue here is that hauliers are not getting enough money for their runs? Thats hardly the governments fault if the market is so competitive? Plenty of companies are booming.
little enis:
Park all trucks up get out on the streets and tell Joe Public why we can not operate any more.
I don’t get this bit? Lets look logically at it. When it becomes to expensive to operate, a truck stops, therefore no goods get delivered. Only thing is, before it reaches that stage someone will put up their haulage fee and someone will pay it so it can be done. Thats supply and demand. As an individual using fuel i feel 80% tax on it is to high. For a buisness i don’t understand it, its the end users that pay. I feel the issue here is that hauliers are not getting enough money for their runs? Thats hardly the governments fault if the market is so competitive? Plenty of companies are booming.
The truth is, there are far too many trucks on the road for the amount of paying work around. However the government and agencies have perpetuated this myth that there is a driver shortage, hence the reason for every man and his dog taking LGV tests & signing up with multiple agencies.
I will use the quote from Fuse, WTD, dont make me laugh
The more trucks on the road, the cheaper the haulage becomes thus keeping the governments inflation figures low. Never mind that inflation is actually much higher than these figures.
Mike C said that “companies are not getting enough money for their runs” Well that is the same as too many trucks chasing too little work. If you got rid of non essential JIT and concentrate on proper transport managment and planning, the prices would fall naturely but the transport industry would be booming again.
MR VAIN:
THE POSSIBILITIES REGARDING A ROAD TRANSPORT BOARD ARE ENDLESS, SO WHY HAVEN’T WE GOT ONE?
Simple. Owner driver’s such as yourself prefer to come out with comments like “I’m afraid I won’t be participating in the go-slow because I don’t want to lose my contract with Bartrums” instead of looking at the big picture.
You’ve only got yourself to blame. No sympathy whatsoever.
In response to some of the negative replys and views concerning the implimentation of a Road Transport Board, I feel that some people are missing the piont by a country mile. This industry is now systematicly being dismantled by not only our own govenment but by unfair foriegn competition. I have been an operator for 28 years and a HGV driver for 36 years so you may say that I have spilled more deisel than many of you have burned. In all of that time I have never known it so hard to eek a livings out of transport. So please do not tell me that business is booming and that I should find alternative employement because it is that kind of attitude and indiffernce that has seen a definite decline in Road Haulage. Yes I agree that there are to many trucks chasing the same work and the greater number of them have plates with P or CZ or E or Rom or KS on them. A proper body would try to turn back the clock as regards the unfair, unsafe and down right unsavory foreign competition.
One day it could be your loved ones underneath that cowboy foreign operator
So come on Guys wake up and smell the coffee
Unfortunately we are part of the EU and no matter what kind of support there may be in this country, they will ignore it anyway. In fact they are already looking to widen the definition of cabotage to allow any haulier to do what amounts to contract work in any other member state - so those Polish etc trucks over here on one run at the moment will be here all week running around with their 1400 litre tanks full of cheap foreign diesel. Wage rates and fuel prices are rising everywhe, though, not just in the UK.
little enis:
So please do not tell me that business is booming and that I should find alternative employement because it is that kind of attitude and indiffernce that has seen a definite decline in Road Haulage.
Yes I agree that there are to many trucks chasing the same work and the greater number of them have plates with P or CZ or E or Rom or KS on them.
Guys wake up and smell the coffee
Im not sure if you meant me when you wrote this, because what I actually wrote was slightly different.
Well that is the same as too many trucks chasing too little work. If you got rid of non essential JIT and concentrate on proper transport managment and planning, the prices would fall naturely but the transport industry would be booming again.
By non essential JIT I mean 5 lorries turning up at a city centre warehouse at 9am because the 17 year old in the office planned it that way. These lorries are all carrying paper reels. A farmer ordering 26 tonne of tillage to be delivered at 1400 on a Sunday afternoon. The GKN Chep pallets that must be delivered between 8.15 and 8.30 regardless and then the receiver keeps you waiting 2 hours to count them.
It is these things that must be addressed first and foremost whether that is using your FTS - RTB or taking to the streets. Do you really expect the RHA, The FTA, The CBI, driver unions? Ministry of Transport and VOSA to support your ideas when the current dog eat dog situation suits them better, it keeps inflation low, it keeps profits high and large profits mean large tax revenue.
The foreign trucks that you mention are also bringing in scrap metal from Europe, empty pallets from the Balkans, collecting waste cardboard from Durham and taking it to be recycled in France. The value of these goods is almost nil, but the buyers still want them delivered in rush hour and quite willing to hold a truck and driver up for several hours because they do not have the storage space.
JIT may be necessary for hygiene in the dairy industry, it may be necessary for safety in the chemical industry but it certainly isnt needed to organise a delivery of plastic jewelery from China to a market trader in Market Deeping.
little enis:
In response to some of the negative replys and views concerning the implimentation of a Road Transport Board, I feel that some people are missing the piont by a country mile.
Maybe they’re not missing the point. Maybe they understand what you are saying but just don’t agree with you.
little enis:
This industry is now systematicly being dismantled by not only our own govenment but by unfair foriegn competition.
Agreed. And they’re just about to make the unfair foreign competition even unfairer by making the UK markets more accesible to them. Its been done to farmers, call centre workers,manufacturing plants,miners the list goes on. But government is not going to curtail free trade with Europe. After all we’re ruled by the EU in part.
little enis:
I have been an operator for 28 years and a HGV driver for 36 years so you may say that I have spilled more deisel than many of you have burned. In all of that time I have never known it so hard to eek a livings out of transport.
Thats really a euphimism for “you know more than us as you’ve ben doing it longer” ?
little enis:
So please do not tell me that business is booming and that I should find alternative employement because it is that kind of attitude and indiffernce that has seen a definite decline in Road Haulage.
Plenty of companies are booming whether you like it or not. Whether you seek alternative employment is up to you. I’m not sure what you mean by a decline in Road Haulage, there’s certainley been a lot of changes based on the demands of it from consumers, but a decline?
little enis:
Yes I agree that there are to many trucks chasing the same work and the greater number of them have plates with P or CZ or E or Rom or KS on them. A proper body would try to turn back the clock as regards the unfair, unsafe and down right unsavory foreign competition.
One day it could be your loved ones underneath that cowboy foreign operator
So come on Guys wake up and smell the coffee
Well i’d guess that your audience here is mostly employed drivers and not operators . Given that fact and also the fact that Operator organisations like the RHA where activeley looking at importing drivers from the EU themselves (only they where beaten to it by the plethora of driving agencies already doing it) why would you think employed drivers might back your idea to keep out ‘unfair competition’ for operators while the rest of us have to fight it out in the jobs market with them?
MR VAIN:
THE POSSIBILITIES REGARDING A ROAD TRANSPORT BOARD ARE ENDLESS, SO WHY HAVEN’T WE GOT ONE?
Simple. Owner driver’s such as yourself prefer to come out with comments like “I’m afraid I won’t be participating in the go-slow because I don’t want to lose my contract with Bartrums” instead of looking at the big picture.
You’ve only got yourself to blame. No sympathy whatsoever.
Well done Rob, you’ve managed to have a pop at me. Firstly, if you care to read at the very top of this post i quite clearly state that i was posting this on behalf of my colleague, i may agree with his thoughts but none of it was my statement, so thats one mis quote. Secondly, my statement about not taking part in the go slow wasn’t one of fear of losing contract. It was purely based on the fact that i felt that i could ill afford to upset Bartrums customers or bartrums themselves. Had i have had a plain white tractor unit i would of been there. Now go away and bother someone else, there’s a good lad.
I hear there’s an [zb] shortage in dubai at the moment, try not to leave them short for too long.
