Ravenscraig: no warning
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• The decision to bring forward the closure of the Scottish steel works at Ravenscraig to September has sent hauliers throughout the UK scrambling for new customers.
It had been thought that the plant would remain open at least until 1994; its strip mill was shut last year but since then it has been manufacturing steel slabs.
However, Ravenscraig hauliers, who have constantly complained about low rates, say that they received no warning of the closure of the strip mill or the premature closure of the whole plant. They are currently employed to haul raw materials, including coal from Hunterston docks in West Scotland and lime from British Steel quarries in Shap, Cumbria.
They also carry finished slabs into England and to the docks for export. More hauliers are needed at Ravenscraig to haul plant and slag.
Newport-based Cardiff Transport carries slab from Ravenscraig to the strip mills of Llanwern and Port Talbot in South Wales, and backloads with strip for Scottish manufacturers. Managing director Carleton Hobbs says: "We would have been able to plan better if we had more warning, but now the work will be lost, probably before we are able to replace it."
He thinks that his Motherwell depot might "have to be drastically cut back".
Cumbrian-based haulier Barnett and Graham is only halfway through a two-year contract hauling lime into the RavensCraig plant: "I'd like to them to pay me from September till March 1993," he says.
Other operators have already eased up on the amount of work they do for Ravenscraig, Adrian Walker of Billy Walker Transport, Glasgow says that he has cut back on working for the plant over the past year: "The main problem is that there are going to be all those trucks looking for work on the streets of Glasgow, which are currently busy delivering loads of steel south of the border."
Yuill and Dodds, which hauls coal into the plant, has also cut back. Transport manager Brian Yuill says he only sees "doom and gloom" for the Scottish haulage industry.
Glasgow-based haulier WH Malcolm has 30 trucks moving coal into the plant from Hunterston docks arid backloading with slab for export. It expects to be badly hit and admits there is a possibility of redundancies.