Drivers fear
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By Juliet Parish • Aggregates giant ARC is ordering 800 owner drivers to sign contracts which they fear could push them to the edge of bankruptcy.
The tough new agreements scrap many of the financial safeguards the contracted tipper and mixer operators currently enjoy.
Mick Binns of the National Owner Drivers' Association UK which is representing around 80 of the drivers, is warning contractors against signing the contract because he claims the risk in working for ARC will be much greater under the new conditions.
Under the new franchise agreement, drivers will lose: • ARC's guarantee that it will buy back a driver's truck at any time during the contract.
• Any rights to negotiate with the quarry firm over pay and conditions.
• The ability to draw on a compulsory sum paid to ARC by the contractor, to cover any short term cashflow problems.
• A guarantee of a minimum £500 a month from the reserve if work is so slack that a driver's wage is under £500.
However, under the terms of the new agreement, mixer drivers can become financially responsible for loads of readymix concrete delivered to a customer to the wrong specification.
Drivers are being told to sign the new contracts, in most cases valid for five years, as soon as existing agreements run out.
Binns says if contractors take on the franchise, the least they should do is register as a limited company, so if they go out of business, they cannot lose their homes.
His greatest fear is that ARC will no longer stand as guarantor to a hire purchase deal so the contractor will become personally liable for any shortfall: `They can cancel the franchise and leave the driver high and dry with a £70,000 truck, no work and massive debt," claims Binns. And he says drivers will be in the same position if work is lax, because they are no longer guaranteed a minimum monthly income of £500.