Hauliers lose cash on bunkering cards
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by Juliet Parish • About 150 hauliers who bought bulk dery through Fuel Management Supplies have been stranded by the dealer which is poised to go into voluntary liquidation this week owing them at least £60,000.
FMS has written to its customers explaining they can no longer use their FMS-issued Diesel Direct cards to draw dery from CH Jones' fuel bunkering network, although most had paid for their dery in advance.
Directors Bob Thompson and Steve Walker are hoping to pay a dividend to the estimated 55 hauliers to whom they owe money. But the size of the dividend will depend on how successful insolvency firm FluHey Davey is in retrieving .£120,000 EMS claims it is owed from hauliers. The directors claim sonic hauliers withdrew fuel from the system for which they had not paid in advance.
FMS directors are attempting to arrange for its customers— many of which have small fleets or are considered a high credit risk—to be repaid in fuel for an ■ shortfall in the dividend.
Burton on Trent-based ownerdriver Stephen Gee, who is owed about £800, says he has been forced to freeze plans to replace his six-wheeler flatbed with an eight-wheel rigid: "My running costs will be increased now too, by around /.3040 a week. while I buy fuel at the pump which works out dearer," says Gee. "My cashflow has become tight too, so that if I don't get paid on time I could go overdrawn," he adds