IN YOUR OPINION
Page 68
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The editor Is always pleased to receive letters on all aspects Of the road transport industry. Contributors must Include their names and addresses, though the published letter may appear under a nom dc plume where specifically requested. Views expressed in letters published are not necesoarity those of the editor.
On Haulage Rates
I HAVE just read Mr. Tilsley's feature on haulage rates in The Commercial Motor of April 9. It was a good report on general haulage in this country today. The trouble is that everyone who has the authority to write on :road haulage uses the same words, more or less, every week but nothing is really done afterwards.
Mr. Yeoman's advice was to keep up the complaints.
This is easily said but that is as far as it goes. Two . years ago 1 got two local quarries to amalgamate for
• ' higher haulage rates Our haulageis on a ContractA basis, supplying the new power station that is being built here in North Wales.
We got the RHA member to fight our case, also the MP for Caernarvonshire. After weeks of talking and with everybody joining the RHA, nothing was done.
We found that certain B and open A hauliers were carrying at rates far less than the national level and Underpaying their drivers. This is still being done today and no authority ever tries to get things done. The RHA has lost a lot of its power by not doing anything for general road • haulage.
, An example of rates are as follows: 50 miles, 12s. per ton; 30 miles, 10s.; 20 miles, 6s. 6d.; 10' miles, 4s. 6d.; 5 miles, 3s. 6d. We, in a month, average 150 miles per day, so there is no profit.
The price of all other transport is fixed—train, bus, coach, taxi or aeroplane—but not road haulage. There are too many blacklegs, and until the Government makes a law stating that a price per ton per mile is fixed, nothing will ever be done. We have had no increase in rates since 1961, In fact, some haulage rates have gone down.
Portmadoc, Caerns. EDWARD J. GOFFY.
Congratulations Mr. Fraser
R. TOM FRASER is" to be congratulated On the decision taken to put liner trains into service in spite of union opposition.
The need to promote rail facilities to ease road traffic has been apparent for a long time, whilst the Beeching Plan to introduce speedy means of loading and unloading goods saves time and expense to the manufacturer and consumer alike.
As things are today, transportation costs are too high and delays too frequent because of congestion on already heavily loaded roads.
Birmingham. 5. FRANCIS B. WILLMOTT. [11 is not yet certain that the Minister's decision is as clear cut as many people have assumed. See the comments by
"Janus" in last week's issue—ED.]