'Unfair' dery rise
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HAULIERS reacted angrily this week to the latest round of increases In dery prices, which followed an unfavourable change in the relative values of the US dollar and Sterling.
The latest round began on Friday last week when Esso reacted to a fall in the value of Sterling from $1.49 in November to $1.40 by raising the commercial price of dery and industrial oils by 1.3p per litre (5.9p per gallon).
According to Esso, that takes the scheduled price of commercial dery to £1.71 per gallon, although it accepts that it is generally available for around £1.661/2 per gallon, so discounting will probably continue.
Shell was the last of the big four companies to implement an increase, mirroring Esso's move on Tuesday this week.
Between these moves, BP and Texaco increased their rates by 1.35p per litre (6.1p per gallon), which in Texaco's case takes the scheduled price to 37.21p per litre (£1.69 per gallon). • It is a move which has once more worried the haulage industry, not least because the companies have selected the captive industrial market for the increases and have left the retail petrol and dery prices unaffected.
The oil companies insist that this is because the market would not stand an increase in petrol prices, in other words they accept that retailers would continue to apply their present charges.
But the Road Haulage Association issued a statement on Tuesday this week, deploring the price increases and saying it was "grossly unfair" that the burden must be borne by hauliers.
It said the increases would have to be passed on to customers.
It called upon the oil companies to stabilise their prices and use their "massive" resources to absorb the currency fluctuations which had been passed on for the second time since November 1983.
• Relief from the worst effects of dery prices is available to the 100 British hauliers who are members of Roads, the RHA-associated mutual aid company based at Winchester, in Hampshire.
Its manager, David Allen, told CM that its national network of dery bunkering facilities is now virtually complete, with the 12th facility having been opened this month at Airdrie, near Glasgow.
Mr Allen said it was unlikely that Roads would require any additional facilities in Britain, but it is looking at whether European facilities will be needed to cater for its members' growing involvement in international work.