RHA wage plea
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ROAD HAULAGE ASSOCIATION national chairman John Silbermann has sounded an early warning against "substantial" wage increases being awarded to lorry drivers. Addressing the RHA's East Midlands area, Mr Silbermann said the industry is in genuine difficulty: "On the one hand we must make sure that the skilled men to whom we entrust our lorries and loads are properly rewarded but on the other we have a duty to ourselves and to our customers to ensure that pay rises are not simply accepted and agreed as an expedient way of overcoming a possible difficulty.
"All such costs have to be passed on to the customer and through him to the ultimate consumer. We could therefore be party to assisting inflation in this process." Mr Silbermann believes the picture in the autumn and winter of 1980/81 could be vastly different. "Our members and drivers will be well advised to start preparing for a more realistic and reasonable approach when the annual wage review negotiations start," he said.
Mr Silbermann again called for a reduction in lorry fleets because too many vehicles are chasing too few loads: "I know it will create some new problems for operators, but overall in the haulage industry, it is the only way forward to protect our position."
He stressed that only then would it be possible again to obtain a fair price for carrying loads and he urged hauliers to reduce their fleets "sooner rather than later."