It’s really not that bad
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It would be easy to spend the year looking back and being a bit down about what has happened. Bulmers, Dodd’s and
164-year-old Joseph Rice were the highest profile hauliers to go under as many found themselves struggling to make ends meet (Scottish haulier Macaskill Haulage joins them just this week, see p8 for more details). The rumour mill spread throughout the industry, with talks of clients taking advantage of the weak financial position of some hauliers, by screwing down the price of contracts as they know how desperate people are to keep work. Employees remained unhappy in 2011 too: Kammac avoided industrial action but this week Unite is balloting tanker drivers at Wincanton, raising the spectre of more strikes among the highest paid drivers last seen with Shell in 2008 (see p6).
Times may be tough, but every cloud has a silver lining. From 1 January the financial standing required by the traffic commissioners to meet O-licence requirements will go down (p8). Longer semi-trailers, for the 180 successful bidders, continue to roll off the production line as the Department for Transport presses ahead with its trial.
And hauliers have a stay of execution if they are having difficulty retrofitting vehicles to be LEZ-compliant (p7). Even fears like the disruption the Olympics will cause could (and we say this with a pinch of salt) be abated. Transport for London chief Peter Hendy says the movement of freight is more important than that of people during the Games. There is lots to be optimistic about as we approach 2012 but in the mean time, a merry Christmas to all our readers! Christopher Walton