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Is our way of life dying?
Page 26
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AT THE BEGINNING of last December it was announced that one of the highest profile haulage and distribution companies in this area was going to shut it's doors at the end of March. It's a very long standing company in it's own right and is also a major player in a pallet network.
The shock waves ran through the industry locally and the vacuum that will emerge in this area will be too great to quantify.
One month earlier another local high-profile company largely involved in full-load trunking and, again, a pallet network member announced its departure from the industry at the end of this year.
The common denominator of these two firms is the fact that they were both started a generation ago and the owners' sons took over to build on their efforts. Neither firm has taken the decision to leave the industry due to financial problems nor lack of work, but as one of them said:"T don't like what is corning round the corner."
The other Saturday! was with my wife in a supermarket outside of Cambridge looking through the shelves of wine. Standing next to me were two very well heeled gentlemen, not discussing which wine to have with which course, but the traffic problems on the famous 'road to hell', the A14. Yes you guessed it, it wasn't cars but the volume of trucks that was to blame. managed not to say what I would have liked to, but as we left my wife asked me: "Why are we treated with such utter disdain?"A question I failed to answer.To add fuel to the fire, on the return home in 11 miles on the A14 we counted 17 Spanish fridges, three Dutch tilts and four East Europeans.
We are now entering our 32nd year in the industry and my son has joined the family business doing what he has always wanted to do —to drive.
This industry has been my life despite the ups and downs. Like my son,it is all lever wanted to do.We have excellent customer accounts and this year will see expansion.However, with the WTD, fuel prices and the threat of overtaking bans on some major roads, I am now starting to look around that corner and wondering how many sons and daughters will want to carry on with haulage businesses their parents started.
Robert Dods-Brown Dods-Brown Distribution