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owner-drivers' ups and downs
• "The industry is a nightmare for owner-drivers," says Geoff Lewis. "They're always being le ed over, I'd say the number of owner-drivers is shrinking very fast. They can't survive on rates of £20 a load, so they're getting bought out by big companies."
Lewis has been an owner-operator for one year but has two specialised vehicles that enable him to charge higher rates than he would get in general haulage. lie runs six-wheel Scania tractive units for Mersey Pipelines.
Mersey has 18,000 employees, and the size of Lewis's man client makes lin feel secure. Although he says most gangs he has worked with are "brilliant," he admits that some individuals take liberties and can make life difficult.
Lewis says that tipper operators probably come off worse than any other sector. "The quarries have got owner-operators over a barrel," he says. Low rates, last-minute jobs and late payers have conspired to drive many out of the business altogether. can't understand how owner-operators in general haulage survive," he says. "Late payers are a big problem. Not many large companies give two monkeys about owner-operators."