BRS closes 16 depots
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• BRS is to close 16 sites across its northern and southern regions, with redundancy looking likely for some of the 290 staff at the affected depots.
Sites at Dunstable, Aylesbury, Harlow, Dartford, Bury St Edmunds, Newington Butts, Carlisle, Doncaster, Hull, Bolton, Chester and Runcorn will he merged with neighbouring depots, with some changes scheduled for Brentford and Norwich.
BRS says the move is necessary to make a "slimmer and fitter" company, and promises that as many staff as possible will be redeployed within BRS and parent company NFC.
No one from BRS was available for comment on the closures as Commercial Motor went to press.
BRS is also to cut a further 200 trailers from its rental fleet because the market has shown no signs of reviving in the pre-Christmas period. "Things are as hard for us as for anyone else," says BRS managing director Steve Abel. But he is optimistic that the vehicle cuts will cause few, if any, job cuts in addition to those created by the current restructuring.
The decision to shut sites comes as BRS considers a 15% wage claim from the Transport and General Workers' Union and the United Road Transport Union, in a package which includes an extra week's holiday and a shortr working week.
Abel is intignant about the claim: "We've settled above in flation for years, and when industry is looking at the rate of inflation plus 2%, they're trying to stick us for 15%."
EIBRS is to launch a new logo next week, which will be carried on company vehicles.