Haulage grinds LXVX
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
CM on
to holiday halt show at
Brussels
:HRISTMAS and New Year tolidays brought havoc to laulage firms up and down the :ountry — and many opera,ors have lost thousands of pounds worth of business.
As the holiday stretched on ind on freezing fog, drifting ;now and ice-rink like roads nade it hard going for the :raffle that was running.
But there were not many trucks to be seen. According to John Midgley, chairman of the Yorkshire area of the Road Haulage Association, the 10-day break was "disastrous for operators."
Mr Midgley went on: "Just about every haulier in my area lost a minimum of a fortnight's work. Although the December figures for my own firm have not been finally worked out, we will certainly have made a loss."
Chairman for the Hull subarea of the RHA, Peter Donnison, believed that his firm would be about £10,000 down on the same period for last year. "The ridiculously long holiday has hit nearly everyone badly, but now the Christmas period is over, we do see a slightly happier trend approaching. So long as this continues, the year ahead should be a better one."
But this was not the feeling of all hauliers. Harold Russett, 44 Premier Transport Bristol, &scribed the situation during and after the holiday as "a graveyard." He said: "We just sit and live in hope that something will turn up."
It was the same the country over. Hauliers in the agricultural and animal foodstuffs industry were especially hit.
Barry Hempsall, chairman of the East Midlands RHA area, a specialist in this field, said: "Over the holiday period just about everything was shut down. Traditionally this is the most important time of the year for us, but what with the holiday and the way things are looking anyway we are going to be in for a tough year.
"At the moment things seem suspiciously quiet, and we are not as busy as anticipated. Come next June, the situation is going to be horrifying."
Because many industrial firms closed down for the whole two-week period many hauliers are finding there is an initial burst of work after the break. The problem as most hauliers see it is how long this will last.
The long holiday has created a great deal of anger among hauliers. Jim Evans, md of M and M Storage and Distribution, Manchester, said his firm must have lost at least £2,000 "and probably a lot more" "All our standing charges continue while the lorries stand idle, and where can we pass these costs on to? Customers will put up with increases due to fuel and vehicles cost rises, but who will accept holiday costs on top of everything else?"
Both the RAC and the AA claim to have had one of the busiest Christmases for many years. The RAC says the number of calls it has received over the two-week period were 25 per cent up on the same period last year.