'Disastrous' rates — RHA
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
AT THE OPENING of the Road Haulage Association's first-ever overseas conference, chairman Harold Russett again stressed that haulage rates are still unacceptably low.
"I don't think there is any doubt that some largely specialised sectors of the hire or reward industry have experienced an uplift in their fortunes over the past few months. But overall profitability remains disastrously low at about three per cent, and return on capital is totally inadequate for haulage to be a worthwhile investment.
"What worries me more than anything is that even though RHA members are working flat out, they are not making money."
The reasons for this are all too familiar ones.
"They are working for rates no higher than they were getting two or even three years ago. "I am bound to point out that unless our customers wake up to the fact that their haulage contractors are as vital to their companies' performance as their own staff, plant and equipment they will be in for a severe shock."
One danger is that the industry will consist of fly-by-night hauliers running around on the fringes of the law, he claimed.
Mr Russett said that one of the objects of holding the conference in Spain was to attract members who had never previously attended an RHA conference. They had, he said, "responded magnificently."
But although the conference was fully booked with some potential delegates having to go on a waiting list in the hope of eventually getting a registration, few more than 100 people attended Monday's opening session. And several of those were full-time RHA staff or officers.