Haulier slams P&O rate by Rob Willock • Tyneside family
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haulier Twice Vital has closed for business, blaming P&O Ferrymasters' "unviable" short-haul rates for its failure.
Father and son Andy and Wayne Rogers made their decision to fold based on the advice of their accountant, who said the work would not keep them in the black.
Despite owning modern, dealer-maintained vehicles, the pair had recently suffered a number of breakdowns which, they claim, put them at the bottom of the list for Ferrymasters' more lucrative long-distance work.
"Local work at P&O's 48.5p/km rate meant it wasn't even worth putting the key in the ignition," says Wayne Rogers.
He says one subcontractor was paid just £75 for driving from Middlesbrough to Consett, then on to Hartlepool steelworks, where he was kept waiting for most of the day, before making the return trip to Middlesbrough.
"A lot of our work was to the local steelworks where we'd be kept waiting for several hours with no waiting fee," he adds. "Some days we were just getting £46. It was mission impossible just to keep afloat." because we need them."
But Rogers says P&O "acted like God" with them, originally taking them off its subcontract work because of unreliability, then taking them back on for limited work after a weeks' suspension. "P&O bankrupted us," he concludes. "Fuel increases had to be borne—but there were never comparable rate rises."