ROC delays outrage hauliers
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IK by Dominic Perry
Hauliers faced with horrendous delays at supermarket Regional Distribution Centres (RDCs) are demanding action over a problem they say is costing them money.
Particularly affected are hauliers operating express deliveries who might have to wait up to three hours to drop off a handful of pallets. The knock-on affects are hampering their businesses—but the supermarkets deny there is a problem.
Mathew Parry, director of Pembrokeshire-based Frenni Transport, says the problem is now so serious it refuses to deliver to certain RDCs: "On about 80% of our deliveries to RDCs we will get a call from the driver telling us he is stuck in a two-hour queue. The guys running them are obviously in a different world of their own...there seems to be no interest in getting the load tipped on time."
Haverhill-based Turbo Express has similar problems. Director Mark Goodman says: -You can sit there for two to three hours at a time waiting to be unloaded. Obviously this limits the number of deliveries you can make in the course of a day."
Now the Road Haulage Association is calling for a shake-up of the industry. Chief executive Roger King says: "With the likely introduction of the Working Time Directive you cannot afford to have trucks waiting around for two to three hours or you are going to run out of hours and costs are going to skyrocket."
A spokesman for supermarket chain Waitrose says that as long as hauliers stick to their allotted delivery times they should not have to queue. A spokeswoman for Safeway claims that queues are only a problem at this time of year.