Mushrooming hauliers
Page 31
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May I refer to a statement by Mr Ken Hatcher, chairman of the Road Haulage Association? (CM March 26). I suggest he tests the water again, only this time by jumping in it! Perhaps then he will realise that all he has proved is that it might be cold and wet.
Really, it is about time that people like Mr Hatcher stopped bleating about transport on own-account. Along with a few others they seem to think that they have a God given right to deliver anything and everything that moves by road and can do it so much more cheaply and efficiently. Strange thing, when we deal with them they all in a loud voice tell us that we can't expect to have cheap, efficient service —we must pay and pay in full for their professionalism.
We are all aware that this country is in an economic recession, but the answer is not to go around frightening legitimate users of transport into surrendering their commitment.
Those hauliers who have mushroomed in the past few years have for the best part aimed their sights at the lucrative heavy end of the market, and it is that section of the transport world which probably makes the most noise during these troubled times. However, according to Mr Hatcher, own-account operators would be "over-joyed" and well pleased to divest themselves of vehicle fleets and confine professional drivers to the economical scrap heap, so that such hauliers could take upon themselves such tasks as called for in physical distribution.
I wonder how his prominent industrialists, chairmen of companies, mentioned in his speech will proceed in shedding such tasks as repetitive multi-drop work with large fleets of retail delivery vehicles. I also wonder how many hauliers will jump at the chance to commit their resources to vehicles with 6/7-ton payloads doing anything up to 30 stops in tours and cities, giving a service to customers who want it delivered "yesterday." True, the world of physical distribution is plagued with trials and tribulations, and transport is no exception. But does Mr Hatcher really think they will all disappear if he is given the job?
The situation that Mr Hatcher would like to see is best described as follows: A company should build a factory, and warehouse. The company should have good access roads around the factory to minimise delay to vehicles.
The factory should also have telephones, pallets, covered loading areas, staff to load vehicles, in fact everything except trucks. So that hauliers could live in Utopia and view the world through rose-coloured spectacles.
In closing I would say that my company uses both hauliers and their own transport in areas which seem most suited to one or other of these elements of our common world, that of distributing the finished products, and to those highly placed people approached by Mr Hatcher I would say: Necessity is the mother of invention, and that is how we came by "own-account." JOHN A. RUSSELL.