rvice, t price
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IVIcHARG's letter "Our (s need pulling up" (CM, tember 10) needs very !ful reading. He complains ut an obviously atisfactory haulier, but he ts to name him. It is not my ntion to condone the 'dards of the haulier
t"..erned, for it sounds
alutely appalling, and full ks to Mr McHarg for pointing it to his customer. However, in that direction that his cism should be directed. is buyer arranged the sport, and having been Jainted with the unsavoury 5, declined to agree to her vehicle (another lier?) being provided. What s this imply?
oviously the customer — use he had the authority to me alternative ngements for the transport is valuable load — was ing the transport bill. Could ive something to do with the for the job? Here we must to page 24 of the same /mercial Motor, for the nub le haulage industry's
culties are contained in the ,k's report "Hauliers build cash mountain". Many, igh not all, sectors of the istry are artificially ressing haulage rates — ie"I get it cheaper than that".
longer interested in ice, no longer interested in bility; concerned only with price, customers should not complain when they get what they pay for. Very soon, if industry is not careful, the only standard left will be that provided by Mr McHarg's customer.
I cannot identify the largest haulage contractor in Europe, but I do know many who meet Mr McHarg's transport requirements, including Glasgow-based companies. However, to quote an old saying, "a fair day's work is worth a fair day's pay".
T. BRATTIN District Manager Scottish RHA Glasgow
British cars — more sinned against ...
IT WAS with some surprise that I read the piece "The world doesn't owe them a living" in the Hawk's Bird's-eye View (CM, August 27) and surprise was the result of two factors:
1. That the Hawk's thinking is so out-of-date and the product of prejudice rather than thought, and 2. The Hawk's tunnel vision in failing to recognise that to buy a foreign car instead of a British model is not only a betrayal of British workers but also of the British people and the British economy.
The appropriation of blame to the British car industry is not as simple as the Hawk would make out but, at least, there is concrete evidence that many of the things that were wrong have been put right. British cars have won many design awards over the past decade; overmanning is a thing of the past; productivity is certainly equal to any in Europe and no-one but a bigot would any longer call British cars "shoddy". It is not only British cars that go wrong, it is just that, when they do, they receive more publicity. The consequence of buying foreign cars is hundreds of thousands of unemployed people; a lack of opportunity for the training and employment of our young people, and perhaps most important of all, the necessity of paying, on average, six thousand pounds per annum, out of public funds, to each and everyone of those people that are not employed in our Automotive Industry. This burden on public finds is the responsibility of the whole of this nation and not the "just reward" for the behaviour of the workers nearly a decade ago. GORDON LEE 'Jobs for Britain Campaign'
Rate — a fourletter word?
I READ with great interest this week's edition (CM September 10) and would like to add that after a life-time in the transport industry! will be glad to see the back of it The blame rests with the politicians and the hauliers themselves.
I am, of course, referring to "Dear Sir" (Our socks need pulling up) and I only wonder what sort of rate the gentleman wanted to pay?
Then I refer to page 24 (Hauliers build GEC cash mountain) in "Bird's-eye-View". I would like your paper to highlight this type of situation as rates should not be falling, they should be rising. Profit is not a dirty word even to the haulage contractor and I believe papers such as yours should help the haulage industry achieve this end.
For too long has the haulage industry taken the knocks for industry in this country, and most of the time industry asks haulage contractors to make amends with their customers for late deliveries, etc.
Yes, I do believe the industry needs smartening up much more. This can only be achieved when profit margins become realistic in relation to the capital employed. Then we can also operate less tight schedules, giving the operator room for the improvement that the customer requires.
Look at our West German counterparts for proof of how well the tariff system operates. RAY SALTIEL Caerphilly
Vehicle excise extra duty
WITH the increase of vehicle weights from 32 to 38 tonnes the Government immediately increased vehicle excise duty on vehicles currently taxed retrospectively as of May 1.
I find this a serious precedent, as every time we have a Budget of one sort or another and excise duty is increased the precedent has been set that the operator will have to pay the extra duty on the remainder of the tax unused.
This is comparable to the tax increases on fuel which take effect from midnight of Budget day.
ANDREW J. SCOTT Scott (Claverhouse) Ltd Tealing, Dundee