• One of the golden rules of running trucks is
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check your bills. The recession means that there is a greater need for scrutiny: money is tight for most hauliers and it is tempting for suppliers to add extra charges.
The bosses of some of the UK's largest operators check their bills every morning and the task is just as essential for owner-drivers.
When the fleet man spots a billing error — usually an inflated charge, or one which is wholly unjustified — he has the muscle to do something about it. The small haulier and one-man band faces a tougher task.
The Road Haulage Association has offered a service to members for many years in which it acts as mediator on disputed bills — but it is seeing an increase in the use of the service this year. Operators are keeping a close watch on every penny they spend. Suppliers, too, are less willing than in the past to reduce bills for the sake of goodwill.
"It's almost always the smaller members who take up the service because they don't have the time, the energy, or the clout to get a result themselves," says Bob Stacey, the RHA's technical officer. "The disputed sums can be quite small, E60 or £100, or they can run to several thousand pounds."
Stacey refuses to name either the suppliers or operators that have been involved in recent billing rows: "We are able to help members largely because we guarantee the confidentiality. A manufacturer or dealer doesn't want to be seen to have made a mistake," he says.
COMPLAINTS
Complaints are still fairly rare, compared to the size of the RHA's membership, but are currently running at more than one a week.
"The latest two are typical," says Stacey. "The core plug at the back of an engine failed and the engine lost its coolant; the gearbox and engine had to come out and, along with the recovery cost, the haulier faced a bill for £1,000.
"Just 10 days later, the core plug went again. The engine seized, the crankshaft broke, and the haulier, having got nowhere with direct approaches for compensation, wrote to the RHA. I'll contact the dealer, point out what I've been told and give him the chance to respond," says Stacey. Another RHA member is hopping mad because he claims he cannot even get a reply to letters sent to the managing director of a truck manufacturer. This is a fairly small claim over a second labour charge after a replacement alternator proved to be faulty. But money is tight and the principle is important. Sometimes Stacey gets an offer of compensation straight away, sometimes the supplier suggests a meeting and occasionally Stacey draws a complete blank: "I then pass the case to our lawyers. A large number of our members have taken out the RHA's Lawplan policy, so their costs are covered, but the last thing we want to do is go to court."
The RHA's success rate is generally good, Stacey says. One haulier bought a new truck which he thought was a standard model, but when it broke down abroad, he found that the faulty parts could not be replaced without great cost and delay. The vehicle, although right-hand-drive, was a one-off special for a continental operator, which had then cancelled the order after the truck was built.
RECOVERED
When the MIA got involved, the manufacturer agreed to cover the additional costs involved, including the hire of another truck while the haulier's vehicle was off the road; 22,000 costs were recovered in full.
Yet another haulier was overcharged following a breakdown.
The recovery man spent six hours at the roadside trying to repair the truck, before it was towed into the workshop and fixed, in just 15 minutes. But the bill included the roadside labour costs.
When the RHA took up the case, the supplier conceded a credit for £64.50.
The RHA recovered £2,500 claimed by a haulier who had the wrong diagnosis made on his truck of low compression on a cylinder.
The truck had to go into a dealer's workshop three times between 3 and 27 February last year, and each time a different piston and liner was replaced unnecessarily.
Originally the garage had offered the haulier a credit for £780.
Hauliers occasionally fail to tell the whole story and when the other half of the truth comes out, their cases crumble. But the majority are bona fide, says Stacey.
El by Jack Semple