Rover sale will hit Midlands haulage
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fby Karen Miles
Alarm is spreading through the West Midlands this week, as hauliers and drivers face the loss of up to a third of their business if Rover's Longbridge site is closed.
BMW's decision to sell off the Birmingham car plant could threaten the livelihood of 5,000 drivers, mechanics and warehouse and office workers in the region, according to some forecasts, hitting the UK's largest and smallest transport companies.
The future of Exel's fleets. which work for both Longbridge and BMW's retained plant at Cowley, Oxfordshire, is unclear. and it is feared that several hundred Exel drivers could face redundancy. Exel is also declining to comment on the future of its £10m integrated logistics centre for Rover at Cowley, which opened two years ago.
The employment prospects of the 600 staff who are transferring from TNT to Rudolph & Hellmann is also uncertain. On 3 April the German-owned company takes over the operation of two distribution centres with 410 staff for Rover's Land Rover business, which is being sold to Ford. TNT had already lost a
£5m-a-year contract to run Rover's distribution centre at Longbridge (CM 27 Jan-2 Feb).
Dozens of smaller hauliers whose businesses depend on transporting Rover components are expected to close because of BMW's decision to pull out of Longbridge.
Rail freight will also be hit. EWS, which carries Rover cars from Longbridge to the Continent and within the UK, says it is "pretty clear" its traffic levels will decrease.
Clive Hampson, chairman of the Road Haulage Association's Midlands and Western region, sums up the mood in the West Midlands as "desperate". He believes Longbridge will not survive for more than two years, despite its sale to ven ture capitalist Alchemy Partners. BMW's move will lead to even greater haulage overcapacity in the region, but because of a general shortage of drivers Hampson expects most to find new work.
Danny Bryan of the Transport & General Workers' Union describes the position at Rover as a "disaster", He warns 'A very large number of drivers are facing the prospect of losing their jobs. If they find others, they will probably be in less well-paid sectors."
Mark Morgan, a spokesman for car transporter Walon. says the firm services both Cowley and Longbridge, but he declines to give details of what effect BMW's decision is expected to have on the company, except to say it will be "fairly minimal".