Tougher terms for quicker payment
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by Rob Willock • Many hauliers are powerless against late or non-payers and face cash-flow crises simply because they have failed to agree basic trading terms with their customers, according to a debt recovery agent.
James Campbell, who specialises in haulage, says: "I regularly encounter smaller contractors who are carrying on in business with no trading terms, no useful knowledge of their customers' financial standing and little idea of how to go about pursuing customers who have not paid their account."
He adds that hauliers wrongly believe drawing up terms and conditions will cost thousands of pounds in legal fees. Other reasons for neglecting to publish trading conditions include a lack of guidance on where to publish and how to implement terms, and a fear that customers will be scared off by the existence of such terms.
But without proper trading conditions, Campbell warns, hauliers face a courts system which allows non-payers to delay matters time and again. Useful terms and conditions for hauliers include clauses on damage, insurance and liability; the power to retain freight for previous outstanding accounts; and repayment in case of insolvency.
Campbell advises hauliers to print terms and conditions on the back of all their headed paper, and to distribute them to all new customers. L Commercial Motor dated 27 November-3 December will feature a 22clause guideline document of terms and con ditions for hauliers to reproduce for their own use.
• 'We're much hotter on terms and conditions than in the past and we now check people's credit records more religiously," says Jim Welch, of Welch's Transport in Cambridge, which uses the Road Haulage Association's recommended terms and conditions. "They're handy to fall back on if trouble starts," he adds.
The RHA is revising its 1991 terms and conditions; the new document will be available to members next spring.
• Ron Boyies of RW Boyles in Brackley says his RHA conditions of carriage cover him for insurance purposes, but he has nothing in writing to enforce his company's 30-day payment terms. "It would be a good idea," he says, "but some companies might then refuse to use you."
In the past Boyles has had to fight for payment in court. "But it's like anything with payment," he adds. "There are some people you have to chase."