Sick driver in bond row with ARC
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II A Welsh owner-driver forced to retire through illness has accused ARC Northern of preventing him from employing a replacement driver by holding on to more than £4,000 he paid to ARC as a bond.
John Williams, who worked as a contracted owner-driver for ARC at Penmaenmawr Quarry, North Wales, has been forced to hand back the Foden eightwheel tipper he bought from the company for £77,000 in 1988, despite being only 18 months away from completing the purchase.
He has enlisted his solicitor to try to recover the bond money and the solicitor has called in Caernarvon MP Dafydd Wigley.
But ARC denies that it is refusing to return the money. It blames any delay on Williams and says he ignored two letters asking him to put his termination of contract in writing, after Williams had told Penmaenmawr quarry manager Bryn Waldron that he wanted to quit.
"At no time were we approached by Williams asking for
money to put on another driver," says an ARC spokesman. "Whatever he is owed he will get — the situation is running its normal course." The company adds that it has now received a letter from Williams resigning from the contract.
The £4,000 bond money paid in by Williams is part of a £5,000 bond paid by ARC's ownerdrivers in instalments to provide for vehicle maintenance. "ARC told me it is a deposit reserve," says Williams, whose retirement was forced by a blood disease.
ARC will not say what will happen to Williams' vehicle — or who will end up owning it.
Williams was one of fourowner drivers working solely for ARC at the North Wales quarry; the other three remain. Williams and some of the others have complained about rates paid by ARC, with one owner-driver describing them as "crazy".
They run in ARC livery and get the bulk of the quarry work, but Williams says the rates were too low: 'I got paid just £79 for a return trip running from Manchester to Wigan," he says.
Williams claims that apart from 6.5% on selected loads, many rates have not risen for eight years. But ARC says: "The rates reflect the economic climate in that area."
Cawley Brothers of Llanrwst runs a fleet of 23 tippers in the area, working for several companies. Partner Philip Cawley says he picks up the "tail-end" of ARC's work, adding that his company finds it "difficult to make ARC work pay". "It's the same situation in the coal in dustry", says Cawley. "Rates have not gone up for a long time." He believes ARC's ownerdrivers may have suffered because they were not experienced at running their own trucks "whereas we've been at this job 25 years".
The latest ARC row comes two weeks after the aggregates giant came to a settlement with a group of Dorsetshire hauliers who had threatened to sue unless an operating cost formula was adhered to (CM 7-13May).
On the morning of a court hearing at Weymouth ARC promised the 13 drivers a new formula for calculating haulage rates, to be negotiated with ARC South-Western. One of the drivers, Peter Phillips, was awarded £4,500 compensation at the hearing.
His colleagues Finn Featherstone and David Greening are awaiting a compensation figure, which should be announced this month. If ARC's proposed new formula is not agreed within two months an arbitrator will be appointed.