'Raise prices or go broke dilemma
Page 25
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• "The only alternative to increased charges is bankruptcy" is the belief of the RHA Medway Towns, Sittingbdurne and Faversham sub-area, expressed in a Press statement issued this week by its chairman, Mr E. H. Nicholls, Inn The statement opens by saying that, six months after the introduction of the Transport Act, Kent hauliers are counting the costs and in many cases finding them impossible to absorb.
"While they welcome the new standards of safety and the improved conditions of employment the Act has brought, in a world of rising prices they have discovered that since January 1 1970 operating costs, exclusive of wages, have risen by 8 per cent and are continuing to rise unabated.
The statement remarks that already, within the past year, wages have risen by approximately 25 per cent and the increase which became effective last Monday will be in the region of 20 per cent, "although many hauliers may find their wage bill up by a third".