Trunkers are digging their heels in
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CONFIDENCE and independence in the face of a difficult year that will sort the men from the, boys: that is my impression of the mood of the longiistance haulage industry after talking with some who operate services to many Darts of the country.
One thing is certain. The hauliers I ;poke to are determined not to lower :heir rates to try to attract more )usiness. They firmly believe that their lrices are fair and any reduction would nean an unacceptable cut in profits vhich were, they said, already barely sufficient.
But the present situation has made them even more hitter about "unfair competition". Many hauliers complained to me of one-man operators undercutting them on rates. They claimed that unrealistic haulage prices were being charged without consideration for maintenance or true running costs.
One haulier, based near London Airport, said that where a consignment from his depot to Gatwick Airport would cost his customers £60, a small perator with negligible overheads may large £30. Although this operator light provide a similar service he would economizing on insurance and main-• mance and taking a risk on his vehicles reaking down.
It would be impossible for a larger eet operator to compete on these irms; most of the hauliers to whom I yoke had 40 or 50 vehicles, many of iem 32-tonners used on trunking to cotland and Northern England.
These hauliers agreed that cornetition was as fierce now as it has ever een. They felt their market had been ooded by too many people offering !..rvices to too few customers. An perator in the Hounslow area cornlamed that that it was too easy to obain an Iperator's licence these days. He ..ckoned that more emphasis should be put on maintenance facilities and available capital. I heard familiar criticism of "council house" transport operators with very limited working capital.
Another particularly relevant problem encountered by some of the companies I contacted was delay in payment of bills, although most operators felt this was an old grumble that had simply assumed new' importance. Few seemed to be burning to remedy it.
Saving grace
A long-distance haulier in Ashford, Middlesex, who handles both national and international consignments, believed that business had never recovered from the effects of the threeday week, last year. Since then he had had numerous haulage drivers come to him, for work, yet before that period there was always a shortage of hgv drivers.
He felt that the haulage market in the UK had reached saturation level, providing no opportunities to expand services. His company has 10 32-ton Scanias on order, mainly for operations to Hungary, Holland, East Germany and Belgium. He regards his expansion into this market as his "saving grace".
Even without this diversification, hauliers I spoke to were unanimously confident that they were fit enough to survive. As one haulier put it: "The man who provides the best service will survive".
M .M.