by 2.5% Nationally. This is after trimming off 2% in January. They’ve also cut the guaranteed payment on 6-wheelers from 17 to 16 tonnes on ashpalt (in our area anywhere).
Apparently due to ‘overwhelming cost pressures on the business’. Good job my wagon runs on fresh air and goodwill otherwise I might be experiencing overwhelming cost pressures… 
More from the carbon footprint brigade Hammer, they are also having a cull down this way,cut rates on some work,also fetch South Wales boys in. You were probably under the same boss,who has just finished when they merged two regions.
But them Super Flash Shiny ones on Halkyn just keep getting Flashier and Shinier… I don’t get it…
A lot of them get a load,they don’t know what the rate is,because the lorry is loaded they think they are making money.The majority haven’t a clue how to work out the cost of running a lorry and make money for wage’s tax etc.
Dave the Renegade:
A lot of them get a load,they don’t know what the rate is,because the lorry is loaded they think they are making money.The majority haven’t a clue how to work out the cost of running a lorry and make money for wage’s tax etc.
To be fair Dave, they must have done their numbers because we’ve been pretty quiet for at least 11months now and not one contract truck has gone. Many have been at it for years. There are a few lads with 3 or 4 and it must pay or why would they continue?
To be fair they have been busy this way,but a lot have got fairly new vehicles and won’t be able to stand if the work goes quiet. I agree about some of them Hammer,they know their running costs,but some of them this way only know, when their accountant tell them.
Cheers Dave.
The trouble is there isnt many options for most of us, the trucks wont fetch any money and most of the quarries are in rural areas so there isnt any other work and the quarry companies can squeeze us and they know it.We just got to soldier on and remember how we have been treated
The same everywhere Pursy,as you know most of these have been pushed into updatingg their vehicles,most are on finance and are in a catch 22 situation. But there are a few that don’t know if the vehicle is making money or not, your mate that you have dealt with will confirm that.
Cheers Dave.
ps Have you got a white Scania eight legger on your fleet.
No Dave,just the ex Griffiths 1 in Hanson livery and the 5 wheeler in our colours thats enough Scania for any body I reckon.
I of the transport managers told a haulier at our place that owner drivers can survive on very little money if they have to, thats why it suits them to have them,its always been feast and famine in the quarry job but the outlay now for an 8 wheeler makes it very difficult to stand around for too long,anything with a nice spec is around £90k. I have friends in general haulage that can’t believe what it costs for an insulated 8 wheeler
Just done a quick calculation. Back in 2005 we had a big road job. 15miles from the quarry.
On a six-wheeler we were guaranteed 17-tonnes no matter what we carried. Therefore every load paid $45.22 (2.66 p/tonne).
The rate now stands at 2.84p/tonne. None of us 6-leggers can get 17-tonne on, the average seems to be around 16tonne dead.
At 16-tonnes, four years on, the load will pay $45.44 - a whole 22p extra or 0.44% increase.
I’m one of the ‘lucky’ ones, my old girl regularly squeezes 16.5tonne on. Even that pays only $46.86 (3.63% increase).
hammer:
Just done a quick calculation. Back in 2005 we had a big road job. 15miles from the quarry.On a six-wheeler we were guaranteed 17-tonnes no matter what we carried. Therefore every load paid $45.22 (2.66 p/tonne).
The rate now stands at 2.84p/tonne. None of us 6-leggers can get 17-tonne on, the average seems to be around 16tonne dead.
At 16-tonnes, four years on, the load will pay $45.44 - a whole 22p extra or 0.44% increase.
I’m one of the ‘lucky’ ones, my old girl regularly squeezes 16.5tonne on. Even that pays only $46.86 (3.63% increase).
Just to really make it a bad day,
what was your diesel price back then 
Big Truck:
hammer:
Just done a quick calculation. Back in 2005 we had a big road job. 15miles from the quarry.On a six-wheeler we were guaranteed 17-tonnes no matter what we carried. Therefore every load paid $45.22 (2.66 p/tonne).
The rate now stands at 2.84p/tonne. None of us 6-leggers can get 17-tonne on, the average seems to be around 16tonne dead.
At 16-tonnes, four years on, the load will pay $45.44 - a whole 22p extra or 0.44% increase.
I’m one of the ‘lucky’ ones, my old girl regularly squeezes 16.5tonne on. Even that pays only $46.86 (3.63% increase).
Just to really make it a bad day,
what was your diesel price back then
Probably not massively different, although certainly more (as a percentage) than the rate ‘increases’ we’ve had.
What takes the ■■■■ more is that when the price of fuel shot up by 30% the rates didn’t increase for ages. They play a clever game. Overall, the rates/fuel ratio Tarmac provide is poor but not horrific but the speed at which they drop rates when fuel drops is lightening when compared with the tortoise speed they adopt when the fuel increases in price.
When we moaned last time they did, in fairness, give us a rise - albeit about 4months too late. I wanted to push for a fuel escalator but there was no appetite for it…
The quarry companies have a lot to answer for they cut their prices to win work then take it from the haulier. I know the rep from our place used to come and say he had lost a job on our door step by £4 a tonne[coated] and the quarry that had won the order was 35/40 miles away,go figure that 1 out.
We do a bit of buying and selling of aggregates, as a lot of us do and the deals that the quarries give to the big stone merchants are hard to work out all they want to do is sell a big volume at a small profit and then moan there are difficult trading conditions
I can never work that one out Pursy,they sell ex quarry and the merchant can sell on at a lower price. Its the same with the utilities,they have the source or the power as in electric etc,yet you can go somewhere else for a better price. In defence of people like yourselve’s who sell stone etc,at least you get some decent stuff,unlike the quarries,they will send anything out.
Heres another thing to ponder over,over the last 5 years or so all the big aggregate suppliers have demanded an EPIC card for their contract/franchise hauliers,mine expired last spring and I had to redo my course. In the 5+ years I have had it its never seen the light of day. As from April as I understand it anyone that hauls for 1 of the Quarry companies has to have a card, but when we are busy they will have any Tom,■■■■ or Harry that has a tipper, don’t know how other quarries operate perhaps they are strict.
Know what you mean Pursy, when a farmer or a builder pulls in for an odd bit of stone,they have no safety gear,helmet,high viz clothing etc. The weighbridge clerk at one of these over this way refused to load one of Stennetts drivers,because he hadn’t got the high viz trousers on,could have warned him,but no,flatly refused.Load of crap.
pursy:
We do a bit of buying and selling of aggregates, as a lot of us do and the deals that the quarries give to the big stone merchants are hard to work out all they want to do is sell a big volume at a small profit and then moan there are difficult trading conditions
And they will deliver the bloody stuff for less than you can buy it for ex-works, before you add your own haulage?
Dont Seem To Be Many Tarmac Boys On Willing To Have Their Say On This Subject .Or Are The Powers To Be Watching/Reading Thank God I Got Out When I Did. (Ex Tarmac Operator From South Wales ).
Hi Sammy Dog,
Got a lot of your artic boys working out of the Kington area quarries now,spending the week up here doing inter plant deliveries. They don’t appear to very happy like everyone else,but have no choice.
Hi Dave I Have Heard About Welsh Boys Also Heard Its Crap Rate But What Can You Do wAs Owner Driver / Haulier In Exess Of 20 Yrs Back In Jan Was Called Into Office And Told I Would Have To Remove 4 Trucks Because They Were Paid For Next Breath I Could Stay If I REeplaced Them On Finance Declined The Offer So Im No Longer A Haulier Best Move I Have Ever Made.