I t's the whole sad story of road haulage in 10
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words. "We screw ourselves. We're the world's worst for sticking together." And the man who said it—an owner-driver--is right. Road hauliers have an appalling record when it comes to acting for the greater benefit of the industry. You only have to look at the number of operators who don't belong to any trade association. Everyone's looking after number one. As our old friend Joe Soap haulier says: "T'buggers are hell-bent an putting me out of business—but I'll see them rot before I go under." So in order to preserve his inefficient, old-fashioned business our Joe cheats on maintenance, turns a blind eye on tacho infringements and generally knocks 21 a tonne off the quote of his nearest rivals in order to keep his wheels turning. Sounds familiar? Of course he's not the only one who's been busy sacrificing a decent margin for more volume. Despite all the mutterings of large operators, owner-drivers aren't the only ones who know a thing or Iwo about rate cutting. When the big boys want to cut rates they're more than capable of getting into the gutter with the rest. You only have to witness the criticism fired at the likes of NFC and TDG by various city analysts who reckon they need to make more profit from their contracts.
Even Eddie Stobart admits to charging less for his work than many of his rivals. Back in March he told CM: "If Stobart has cut rates for the past 20 years, they have obviously needed cutting." No doubt someone will take issue with that. So what's the answer? Put simply it's better financial management, keeping a far tighter rein on cashflow than is the accepted industry norm. If you don't like the payment terms a customer's offering, why take on the business in the first place? And keep trading margin for volume and you'll end up the busiest loss-maker on the road. If some hauliers are offering 1 80 days' credit, let them. Do their bank managers know what they're doing? It's also time that the 0-licence requirements were changed so that would-be operators were required to demonstrate far greater business skills, and provide more money per vehicle, than they currently are. If you can't run a business, the last thing you should be running is a truck.