Pressure mounts for end of fly-by-night operators
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Trailing the 'cowboys'
by Martin Huckett
WANTED dead or alive—for rious rate-cutting, an unscruilous law-breaker known as e Cowboy.' This man is .ngerous to the haulage invstry and Should be ap°ached with caution since he known to be armed With an rerloaded truck."
Well, things haven't quite rt to the stage When posters ading like that are slapped ) in every transport café Toss the land. But with the Irrent crisis in the industry 'essure is growing for a ieedy clean-up of the fly-bygilt drivers.
It's too much to expect an itablished operator to sit back id watch his own vehicles id up through lack of work bile the cowboys, running on the fringes of and outside the law, sneak What business there is.
However, the activities of the few have unfortunately led to many perfectly respectable and law-abiding owner-drivers being tarred with the same brush.
Accusing finger
There is no doubt that it is the owner-drivers who are surviving and even prospering during the crisis while some old-established companies feel the pinch or in some cases go under. And so it 'is not surprising 'if the large fleet owners point 'the accusing finger when the one-vehicle man does some. thing they cannot. This week I took a look at the way in which the ownerdrivers operate. I wanted to know if the claims against them are justified or if the larger hauliers simply have a lesson to learn from the ownerdrivers in how to make a profit in these difficult times.
First stop was at White Oak Transport Ltd, Hertford Road, Barking, to see the managing .director Cohn Williams. He believe S that owner-drivers hold the key to success in the modern haulage business, and backs this by having 20 of, them working for them. "It really is very simple and straightforward business sense," he said. "The ownerdriver doesn't have the overheads which a fleet operator has to carry on each vehicle."
And White Oak Transport makes use of this fact. "To put it at the most basic level, we provide the work and they provide the trucks," 'said Mr Williams. "It is a system which has worked in America for years and Which, in my opinion, is the way all hauliers will be working in a few years time."
Owning vehicles is the millStone which, said Mr Williams, has dragged many companies down. " So we don't inrant have all the problems and overheads that having one's own fleet entails.
"The owner-driver arranges his own maintenance and takes his truck home when he knocks off, which means we don't have Ito pay for garaging them. We do provide depot facilities and make out invoices and take on the secretarial chores.
"It is a very efficient system since when we don't have any work for them, which does happen on occasion, the drivers can go off and work for themselves. "They keep earning and we don't have the expense of drivers and vehicles sitting doing nothing. One can also make sure that the driver maXimises the use of his permitted hours.
"This can mean the difference between a load arriving on time and being a day late, for the owner-driver can manipulate his hours to fit in with the job, rather than the job being fitted in with the ordin ary working hours."
These advantages apply to all owner-drivers and White Oak makes use of them to give what it claims is a better and more dependable service.
"These drivers have to do a good job, otherviise they don't make money, whereas if they were simply employees they couldn't care less."
Mr Williams made it clear that White Oak does not werk cheaply, and he said that the rates 'are about the same as those of Other hauliers.
"But With these advantages, we can spend more time on looking after our customers and making 'sure that their requirements are met exaCtly. Reliability is everything in this business, and owner-drivers help us give it."
Fringes of the law
But wbaJt about the allegation that the .owner-drivers work on the fringes Of the law, overloading their vehicles, working extra 'hours and in general breaking every rule in the book?
"Well, we make sure that the drivers who work for us operate .strictly Within the regulation's and keep their trucks up to a high 'Standard," commented Mr Williams. "But there's no denying the fact that there are such cowboys within the industry.
"However, the regulations and their enforcement have got tougher, and it is not good business sense to operate like that."
These wards were echoed by two owner-drivers I spoke to at the Royal Docks. James Lett of Bermondsey, 1.1s two trucks and has been self employed for the past eight years.
ancial advantage at all from being an owner-driver rather than working for someone else; the only thing is that I work when I want to."
Mr Lott is an RHA member and says that he simply cannot afford to undercut his bigger competitors. "If anything at the moment it is the large haulage companies Who are getting up to the fiddles," he said. He pointed out that when large operators were called before the LA under Section 69 of the 1968 Act all that happened in many cases was the loss of their 0-licence margin Which did not affect their trading position, whereas When the owner-driver was called up he had only the whole licence to lose.
"Some of them are cutting their charges because they are so desperate for the work. As for cowboys, I reckon that has been blown up out of proportion.
"I get 'stopped for inspection about once every six weeks on average. I have to meet the regulations otherwise I am off "You might be able tc away with operating Mei for a few months and ma killing, but your luck is 13( to run out—and then than Michael King, of . Barnet, agreed with him said that the economic dc turn had put many 'of owner-drivers off the r "We are suffering as muc the large hauliers from depressed state of the busir but the 'effects are not dramatic."
So that's the opinion of Iaw-abiding owner-drivers, there's nothing quite like I ing the word 'straight from horse's mouth and I talke< a self confessed cowboy v for obvious reasons, prefer keep his name a secret.
Thebigtrick
He said that many of cowboys now found it m profitable to operate avers( "For starters it is absol murder trying Ito get an licence now.
"The big trick now in country is not in breaking of the regulations applying loading and hours but in ac ally getting a licence of a cc pany which they sub-contr to. This is illegal, but it is di cult to prove."
This man works from B glum pulling English trailers the Middle East. " Stric speaking, the only operatc picking up trailers 'in I3elgii should be Belgian national he said.
"BLit I have got an addr( in Belgium and the autho ties overlook the fact that I not a national. And the go thing is that firms will pay per cent more to us th English firms because tlit think their loads have got better chance of arriving. the destination.
"Other cowboys that I kric have lost their operatoi licences in Britain and ha gone abroad to work. Irelat is a big favourite since drive there don't have to lel records of their hours."
As a parting comment 1 said that no matter what w said about the cowboys th■ were a vital part of the tran port scene. "Without them lot of people would not. g their exports delivered at there would be a waiting li for transport services,".