Difficult assessment
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THE STATE of the haulage industry is difficult to assess, Road Haulage Association chairman Bert Neely said in Malta last week.
"There are sectors of haulage which are being kept fairly busy, although the rates they receive are still well below what is required to ensure future stability in the industry which is so necessary to Britain's economic recovery.
"This is borne out by the recent ICC financial report (CM, November 10) which shows that hauliers were not receiving lucrative rates and no fewer than 35 per cent in London and the South reported losses in their latest accounts.
"During the miners' and docks strikes it cannot be denied that some of our members were able, with difficulty, to work more or less normally. But others have been driven into bankruptcy.
"These considerations are not only relevant to us, but should be the concern of our drivers who are, by and large, an honest-to-God, hardworking crowd of men who rely on their employers for the living they earn.
"Drivers know that if their employers go under, the State, the Coal Board, the Dock Board, the Steel Corporation, and not even the Church can give them security for life.
"We need our drivers and our drivers need us, and it is heart-warming to note from Press reports and tv interviews that many of them are beginning to realise and appreciate that their livelihood is being jeopardised by misguided actions of their union leaders, both local and national."