LETTER OF THE WEEK
Page 21
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Let me tell you what’s wrong with the haulage industry nowadays...
MY NAME IS Howard Shade and I am writing to you to let you know a little about the industry I work in: haulage. I have been involved in it for most of my life. I am now 52 years old.
The industry is going downhill everyday. For a sector that moves 95% of goods around the country, it is a disgrace that we have so many laws to abide by.
As for the cost of fuel, I think the government should give us some sort of discount so that we can make an honest living and have a fair playing field.
There are farmers running around with huge tractors pulling massive trailers, with young lads driving them, that are 30 tonnes gross weight and running on gas oil.
Then we have the big blue-chip companies and the quarry companies that are giving haulage rates that we cannot afford to run at. They are about five years behind. For example, I was given a job by a quarry to take 20 tonnes of stone to a destination. When I eventually got the rate, I could not even get a taxi to take me the same distance for that amount. A taxi would do 40mpg to 50mpg, whereas an LGV would do 7mpg to 8mpg – there is something wrong here. We then have new CPC courses to do that cost approximately £80 to £100 a day, and there isn’t that sort of money in the job. When you go for your LGV licence, it will cost you approximately £1,500 – and then there are still all the CPC courses to do after that.
If drivers make a mistake by forgetting to move their mode on the tachograph reader, they are fined a ridiculous amount of money.
No wonder no one wants to come into the industry. They would be better off getting another job in another industry where they can make a mistake and not get punished by law for it.
Don’t you think that the Road Haulage Association and the Freight Transport Association should get off their backsides and do something to put the industry right, while there is still an industry to look after? Howard Shade Howard Shade Haulage Contractor