Bell Lines crisis hits container hauliers
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by Derren Hayes • Hundreds of Irish and British container hauliers face losses of thousands of pounds after transport and shipping company Bell Lines was placed into examinership by the Irish High Court.
The ruling means that payments for work carried out since November 1996 by around 300 subcontractors on both sides of the Irish Sea have been frozen.
An examinership enables all company liabilities to be frozen for 90 days to see if it can be saved—Bell hopes to sort out its cashflow problems. The company has debts of around £20m, of which some £5m is owed to hauliers.
The Irish Road Haulage Association held an emergency meeting of members on Sunday and has set up a committee to coordinate talks with Bell. Around 160 hauliers working out of Waterford port are currently claiming £1.8m, but that is expected to nearly double once all the invoices are in.
Bells' financial crisis has been raised in the Dail (the Irish Parliament); the IRHA may sue Bell for interest payments on the money owed and consequent difficulties suffered by hauliers. It is calling on the RHA and FTA to help UK hauliers.
IRHA director-general Chris McCormack fears that many owner-drivers and small operators will now suffer financial problems of their own: "There is pain in this for everyone and it is costing Irish hauliers £150,000 a week," he says. "We are not talking about trucks being repossessed but people's livelihoods at risk."
British and Irish hauliers are continuing to work for Bell on a week-to-week basis, for which they are being paid.
The company, which has depots at Waterford, Avonmouth, Tilbury and Teeside, blames its problems on competition from Le-Shuttle and the ferry companies. It is confident that restructuring and additional funding will secure its future.