Noda prepares for cement court case
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• The National Owner Drivers Association is poised to go to court to defend mixer truck drivers who are being forced to pay for poor quality cement.
Noda has attacked new delivery notes which make the driver responsible for the quality of the cement. If the cement is rejected when he comes to deliver it the driver loses any haulage fee he was due and also has to pay for the ruined cement (CM 21-27 February).
Mick Binns, head of Noda, is waiting to get the go-ahead from his legal advisers to take court action. He believes it is not "natural justice" for an owner-driver to be held responsible for something he is simply paid to deliver and has no control over. When Noda gets authority it will take a test case to court, selected from the numerous complaints it has already received from owner-drivers. "We only need to prove we are right once to stop this practice altogether," says Birms.
The move comes at the same time that the Office of Fair Trading is attempting to stamp out price fixing cartels.
Leading operators such as Tarmac Topmix, Pioneer Concrete, RMC, Redland and Willment Readymix have admitted being involved in secret price fixing and market-sharing cartels, says the OFT. Noda believes that most of its members in quarry work have been unaffected because it negotiates fixed rates.