Costs stable unless wages rise
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By Karen Miles
OPERATORS' costs this year will rise at last year's level, provided that drivers do not push for higher wage rises, according to the Henley Centre for Forecasting.
Since 1979, when operators' costs rose by over 20 per cent in one year, cost increases have gradually fallen off to last year's five per cent rise.
The picture should remain• settled for at least the next year providing there are no unexpected major price shocks, Henley Centre economists and independent transport consultant Dr Bernard Warner said at a freight transport seminar in London last week.
High interests rates will remain until 1989, and the abolition of capital allowances by April 1986 will also increase companies' costs.
Dery which makes up around 20 per cent of operators' costs, should rise by similar amount as in 1984 for the next five years — at around seven per cent per annum.
This news comes as International Road Transport Union (IRU) reveals figures that UK fuel prices increased by 134 per cent from the end of 1978 to the beginning of this year.
Dr Warner also said that repairs and maintenance costs (around 20 per cent of costs) are going down by one to two per cent a year because of contract repair maintenance and that this trend will continue. Lorry prices and vehicle excise duty will be stable, he said.
Generally, operators had faired relatively well in 1984, he said. All costs — the price of vehicles, vehicle excise duty, dery and drivers' earnings — had risen at less than the in dustrial rate of inflation.
But Dr Warner said that it is "quite astonishing" that this wage round had only seen wage increases of around £5. Drivers' wages take up 30 per cent of an operators' costs and if the drivers increased their wage demands in line with the national average of eight to nine per cent, there could be disputes in the next wage round.