Dundee tendering scheme may kill small firms
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• Several small Dundee haulage firms which have for many years relied heavily on the Corporation building department for work. fear they may go out of business this month when a change is made in the system of allocating contracts for vehicle hire.
The firms, some of them one-man businesses, missed an advertisement which recently invited tenders for future work and, as a result, they are not included on a list of approved contractors — in spite of the fact that they have been serving the department, in some cases, for more than 30 years.
A group of the owner-drivers, who were employed to carry material to and from buuilding and demolition sites in the city, recently met Lord Provost W. K. Fitzgerald to ask that their case be considered. The Lord Provost said he would look into the matter.
Later, one of the group, Mr Allan Gourlay, said that if he did not get work from the building department, which he had served exclusively for some years, he would be out of business after September. He thought at least five other one-man firms would be similarly affected.
Many of the drivers are annoyed that building department officials did not inform them of the change in the system of hiring vehicles. Mr Charles Vitchet, another contractor whose firm has carried out Corporation work for more than 20 years, said that the advertisement inviting tenders appeared while he was on holiday. By the time he returned it was too late for him to apply.