Burmah drops fleet to give contract to Heron
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by Juliet Parish • Fuel wholesaler Burmah Petroleum Fuels plans to cut its transport costs by up to 10% by dropping most of its in-house fleet and possibly its four subcontractors after it appoints Heron Distribution to carry out its haulage.
From June Heron will take over the haulage currently managed by BPFL from depots in Hull, Leeds and Nottingham. And if it performs well it will take work from existing subcontractors as their contracts, worth around £800,000 each, come up for renewal. The subcontractors, some of whom tendered for the distribution of petrol and diesel are: Sadler Transport at Stockton-on-Tees; P&O Roadtanks at Grangemouth; Linkman Tankers at Altrincham and Canute Haulage at Purfleet.
Drivers at southern subcontractor Canute Haulage are pessimistic. Fuel distribution manager Chris Smith expects the drivers will be made redundant when the contract expires in December.
However the Transport & General Workers Union says it has been assured that Heron plans to recruit BPFL drivers currentl y employed on the work it is to take over. • The question of how to deal with directors and companies who fail to maintain trucks and cause death will be highlighted in the next few weeks as proposals on manslaughter are published.
A Low Commission consultation document into the common law offence, coming out on 13 April, will suggest ways of clarifying the low surrounding manslaughter. A spokesman for the Law Commission says that if its proposals are adopted, some manslaughter offences will be more easily brought to court, others more difficult.
The review is understood to be looking at:
1 Corporate manslaughter: how companies are held to be responsible for deaths possibly through breaches of health and safety;
Involuntary manslaughter: where individuals or companies have caused death unwittingly;
_ Redefinition of the terms "gross negligence" and "recklessness".