ALL hauliers want is a fair crack of the whip—but
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they must learn to stand up and claim their proper rights. Operators, particularly the small businessmen, should not sell themselves cheap.
This was the rallying cry of Mr Jack Male, national vicechairman of the Road Haulage Association, at the annual dinner of the Devon and Cornwall area in Torquay last Friday.
Mr Male said that hauliers were not looking for inflated profits and had to put a proper price on their services. "If costs rise and increases in productivity are impossible then a business can only survive by making a corresponding increase in its own prices."
There had been an unfortunate combination of rapidly increasing costs and a fall in the volume of traffic. When the balance came to be struck for 1975 it could well be that price rises were nearer to 20 per cent than 10 per cent.
The RHA did everything it could to help "but we cannot do everything," he went on. Hauliers must learn to claim their proper rights. If they put their case fairly to the customer it was surprising how often he will accept it.
"It is a case of a willing buyer as well as a willing seller. In such a situation nobody ought to suffer except from his own fault," Mr Male commented.