Return line goes under • Returnline, the computerised return load service
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which was launched last month, has crashed owing thousands of pounds (CM 13-19 June) — but staff and suppliers, rather than hauliers, are the main victims.
Brian Kelly, the company's former development manager, says that Returnline has ceased trading and will apply to go into formal liquidation. He says he is owed more than £3,000 in salary and that the other five staff members are also owed money.
Returnline launched a major advertising campaign in May claiming that hauliers who joined would be offered information on some 5,000 return loads and the list would be updated continually. Operators would be able to talk to consignors directly.
It cost £365 a year to become a member and hauliers paid 50p for every load they carried. The loads had to be picked up on return trips only. Last month Smith claimed that 900 hauliers were using the service on a free trial basis, though Kelly now maintains that the number of recruits was "minimal".
Smith recruited Kelly, a former newspaper sales executive, in April. Many of his staff had a background in transport.
Kelly says that no hauliers are owed money following Returnline's collapse.