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DEAR
Page 35
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Blind leading the blind?
.VING NOTED all the advice ided out to hauliers, mainly spectators, may I suggest the ly means of fully underinding the position is to beme a haulier and attempt to rvive in what can best be desbed as a Rat Race.
-lauliers are fully exploited by th customer and clearing uses alike, which can be ought to a halt only by uliers en masse simply saying and refusing to be stemded into quoting uneconomic :es blindly, simply to get icks out on to the road regard;s of profit.
He know hauliers have always en their own worst enemies, cause well-meaning hauliers ierating larger fleets are ossly outnumbered by those th one to six vehicles.
The larger hauliers have to )mbat the never-ending leons of new entrants to the ade who have a crippling effect the well-meaning who are exacted to show an example by aiding by all the regulations id operating a properly mainlined fleet.
A well established haulier durig a time like this may at first :fuse to be drawn into the rates attle, but by not doing so, he radually loses contracts. The .)sultant lack of revenue forces im to join in the struggles or lay if his employees, pay redunancy, leave vehicles idle, or in ie end sell his vehicles cheaply ) the people who have the work t low rates.
Therefore customers should iote that we may be losing the :ream of our hauliers hroughout the country only to )e exploited at a later date by he unscrupulous, attempting to live a service with a load of ;crap, which is impossible toiay. The clock has been turned )ack 30 years.
We, the established, cannot :ompete with people buying our cast-offs at £4,000 to £8,000 and ourselves paying £33,000 for new vehicles — hence the reason for lay-offs in the industry.
Bear in mind that £33,000 in the bank at 16 per cent interest is a much better investment than a vehicle at the same price operating 15 to 20 per cent below what can be considered proper rates.
Once again my advice to the backbone of our industry is to cut back, make do and mend, and play these people at their own game. But don't close the doors completely, as your competitors will shed few tears. .
By this means you will gradually cut off the supply of cheap lorries and at least you will have a pound or two in the bank to fall back on when things do pick up, which they will.
In the meantime you are flogging a dead horse should you choose to join the present-day rates fracas, as this will only prolong the agony while the hole in the barrel grows much larger.
Smaller, more compact fleets are the answer and the ability to say enough's enough, as you will get all your thanks in one day from all concerned and none from the guys who have pulled you down to their own level.
Customers should also take note that in future it may be they who will have to purchase the £33,000 vehicles.
This cash would be much better employed producing the goods to be hauled — after all, what's good for the goose is not always good for the gander.
May I suggest the advisers, including your own staff, would on occasions be much better employed publishing, in simple terms, what earnings per day/week per vehicle are required to remain viable and no doubt suppliers to our industry would appreciate your efforts. If they did get the message home it would lead to a much healthier state of affairs.
Yours faithfully ROBERT R. WILSON W. A. Wilson & Son (Haulage) Ltd