tillest1011 While people all over the world are planning big
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f uncertainty and chaos reign in the road haulage industry over millennium eve working, what is happening in other areas of the transport industry? The answer is that there has been a pretty mixed response. The AA has been reported to be paying its staff who attend breakdowns over the period an extra /75o, but a spokeswoman for the rival RAC says: "New Year's Eve comes round every year. For the millennium we expect to keep the same shift patterns as usual and I have not heard of any extra payments being offered."
The road haulage industry isn't likely to offer its drivers huge bonuses to work when the rest of us are celebrating the millennium, but many firms are still waiting for their customers to make up their minds what they are doing before they can decide what to offer their own staff.
The Freight Transport Association has carried out a survey of its members, and those which say they will make extra payments are likely to offer treble-time for working on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Of the firms contacted, 50% said they had made no arrangements or will be closed; 25% said they will offer a one-off payment; and the rest said they would offer a combination of time off in lieu and an extra payment.
A closer look at individual firms reveals that there are two distinct camps. There are those which only serve industries which traditionally shut down over the Christmas
period and in turn are likely to be shut themselves. Then there are those which carry out work for shops and other service industries which will have to deliver goods over the period. But there is still a considerable shroud of uncertainty hanging over the industry as to what will actually be required.
In the first category are firms such as Parcelforce Worldwide. A spokeswoman says: "New Year's Eve and New Year's day are public holidays so we won't be working. Postal services are not likely to get back into full operation until 4 January so the question of making extra payments does not arise."
Drunken stupor
Another firm not working is Leamingtonbased C&W Knight, whose transport manager Jerry Robbins says: "Hopefully we will all be lying in a drunken stupor at home because we serve the construction industry which traditionally shuts down over Christmas and New Year, so we do as well."
Distribution to shops is another matter, and most haulage companies are still waiting for their clients to make up their minds before deciding what to do—and lack of clear directions is increasingly causing anxiety to some firms.
Geoff Dossetter, communications director of the FTA, explains the problem: "Shops, especially supermarkets, just don't know what the demand will be because we have never had an occasion like this before so they really don't know what to do and they can't tell our members what they expect of them." However, some early indications as to what is likely to happen have been given by the British Retail Consortium.
A survey of its members, who include most of the household names in retailing, suggests that only 3% of shops will be open on New Year's Day, zo% the following day, and that supermarkets, the biggest users of just-in-time deliveries, will not start to open until Monday 3 lanuary—and even then some will stay shut.
If major stores stick to this timetable then a considerable number of extra drivers should be free to enjoy New Year's Eve because they won't need to start work until 2 January (which should allow enough time for the alcohol to work its way out of their system).
If the stores have made up their minds what they are doing they have not told the firms which carry out their deliveries. The Union of Shop and Allied Distributive Workers (USADW), which represents drivers working for some big supermarket chains, says it is close to reaching a deal with Tesco and Summerfield, but it's keeping tightlipped about what this might involve until arrangements are finalised, Large hauliers such as Wincanton and Exel Logistics are saying that they are willing to serve their customers over the period but are still waiting to find out what their requirements are before trying to strike deals with their drivers. Exel does say that any deal done would he contract-by-contract. International haulier Frampton International says that so far very few of its clients have asked it to work over the period. But John Harding, director of Fromebased JR Harding, which delivers frozen food to supermarkets, is getting anxious about not hearing what his customers want. "It is our livelihoods which are at stake and it is difficult to know what to do," he says. "At the end of the day it will be down to what housewives want as to whether stores will open."
One firm has already taken matters into its own hands. Jason Lewis, a partner in West Glamorgan-based Geoff Lewis Transport, which operates 20 vehicles delivering to supermarkets, says: "We are hoping to shut down for to days—providing our customers will let us get away with it."
Breakdown cover
One worrying development for vehicles which are working over the period is that there is likely to be very little breakdown cover. Pete Cosby, chairman of the Roadside Rescue and Recovery Association, says: "We have had numerous complaints from our members that the clubs, such as the AA, RAC and Green Flag, have not said whether they will make any extra payment for working during the period, and I don't expect them to come up with any more cash.
"This means that very few breakdown firms will turn out," he warns. "It could be very quiet, but if it gets busy on New Year's day and there are a number of accidents caused by people who haven't sobered up from the night before, it could be disastrous."
It seems that the likelihood of a cash bonanza for drivers working rather than celebrating the millennium is becoming increasingly remote, But with more than five months to go until the end of the year things could still change. If they do, it could be agency drivers who will cash in.
David Higginbottom, general-secretary of the United Road Transport Union, explains: "Very few agency drivers have contracts of employment with the agencies they work for. If they want to work over this period they will simply opt for the agency which pays them the most, including changing employers at the last minute. This could lead to a nightmare, with some firms unable to fulfil their contracts because they have lost their drivers."
Despite being unable to prepare properly because of client uncertainty, the road haulage industry currently seems a long way away from this nightmare because all the indications are that demand on it will be slight as we move into a new millennium.