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Elephant in the room

22nd November 2012
Page 2
Page 2, 22nd November 2012 — Elephant in the room
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

“No one really knows what a nightmare it is to be a subbie at the moment.” That is what one tipper subcontractor in the North told me this week. Life on the cutting edge of haulage is hard – and it is getting harder.

Last week Hargreaves told CM that up to 450 of its subcontracted drivers would get a rate rise of 3% in December. It’s caused quite a stir in some parts of the country: subbies working for other firms, who haven’t had a rate rise in three years, are asking why they are not getting the same.

For our nameless subbie, not a contractor at Hargreaves, a rise like that would make a world of difference. Over the past three years, he has seen the price of diesel on his fuel card rise from 90ppl to 115ppl. That’s a 27.7% increase. In that same time, rates rose 0%. It’s not hard to understand why life is such a struggle.

And we all know that if subbies can’t make any money shifting anything from potash to potatoes, then the economy grinds to a halt. Everyone loses.

But how about a radical solution? Why not look at increasing weight limits – say from a maximum of 44 tonnes to 48 tonnes? Simply, more stuff can be shifted in one go and it wouldn’t cost much more to fill the truck to do it. The Dutch and Swedes seem to get on fine with higher weight limits, so why couldn’t we?

There hasn’t been an appetite in this country for a weight limit increase since the early 1990s when we went from 40 tonnes to 44 tonnes. And the government effectively vetoed it from the start of the longer semi-trailer trial. But is it the elephant in the room no one is talking about? I’d love to know your thoughts.

Christopher Walton


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