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148 
lanson subbies fall Jut over rates move
Page 7
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number of owner-drivers working Hanson Aggregates central area e quit after the company changed ir rates structure for the second e, allegedly leaving some of them 100 a month worse off.
Two weeks ago Hanson was adverv in Commercial Motor for owneriers to work under the terms of its nchise scheme, but it has since erged that some of the existing waters are very unhappy.
Bob Cowlan, who has been based at
.nson's Baston, Cambs depot in ice the 1970s, says morale among the Evers has never been lower: "They ve just changed the payment struc-e again and we are even more badly than we were before. Originally we re offered 290 per day plus 82p per le—now we're getting 224 per day, p/mile and 210 per load. You can only 1 around four loads a day max," he Ids. "I calculate I'll lose about 21,000 a pnth under the new terms."
Cowlan says that those drivers who can are getting out, but the terms of the franchise deal make it difficult as the tippers are bought from Hanson and are painted in its colours.
One driver who has refinanced his vehicle and gone to work for a local council says he is the eighth ownerdriver he knows of to have left.
"The new rates were unacceptable," he says. "It's going to backfire on them [Hanson] as the drivers are very angry about it all—more are going to leave without a doubt."
However, Hanson's communications manager David Harding disputes the claim that the rates are poor and says that most owner-drivers in the country are happy with the new contracts.
'Those upset appear to only come from the Cambridgeshire area— most of whom were earning very good wages under the terms of the old contracts by virtue of the work they were asked to do," he says. *Under the new terms they will still be earning a good wage—hauliers in other parts of the country are to have the same contracts and I'm told they have welcomed the new rates."
Harding also says that the company has been inundated with responses to its advert in CM. "None of the respondents have complained when shown the rates," he concludes.