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drivers' co-op
OWNER-DRIVERS in South Wales are banding together to form a company which will eventually operate as forwarding agents and provide servicing and insurance services for the 25 trucks involved.
• Chairman of the Self-Employed Transport Association (SETA) Mr Tony Sharpe told CM this week that he now had authority from the 20 founding members of the association to go ahead and look for premises as well as to set up the cooperative which will be in the form of a company limited by guarantee.
He hopes that the new company will be able to provide workshop services so that a system of programmed maintenance can be started for the members. "This represents a group of hauliers getting together to fight for trade from a position of strength," he said.
"In the past we have suffered from being taken for a ride by some forwarding agents and this is one of the ways in which we are hoping to get some benefit. We are also hoping for a blanket insurance for our members and to do bulk buying of ferry transport and spare parts."
The South Wales based group held their first meeting in Cardiff at the weekend at which Mr Sharpe got the support he had been hoping for. "This must be sound economic sense," he said.
Mr Sharpe has a personal interest in the insurance aspects of the venture. His son lost a leg when he was involved in an accident in Belgium recently and Mr Sharpe aims to make sure that drivers will get a back-up service that was lacking when his son was injured.
Most of the members of the new venture are involved in Continental work with about a fifth of them doing the long run to Saudi Arabia—and the association aims to help these drivers who are finding difficulty in getting paid for their runs.
The next meeting of SETA is to be in Cardiff on February 13,