1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162 
West Country Tipper Men Put Their Case
Page 46
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
BY NORMAN TILSLEY AND JOHN DARKER THE recent Contract A licence inquiries
held by the Western Licensing Authority, Mr. J. R. C. Samuel-Gibbon, have high-lighted the rates war that is currently going on between Mendip and Forest of Dean operators and certain quarry companies in the area. There have been discontented murmurings in the Frome area for some time now; indeed, about a year ago The Commercial Motor visited some operators working in the dis. trict who complained about the rates that were forced upon them by the quarry masters. Armed with the evidence given to the LA publicly about rates that are as low as 10t1. a mile, we revisited the area last week.
The low rates paid to hauliers on a take it or leave it basis have forced those fortunate enough to operate under public A or B carriers' licences to seek work elsewhere. Quarry masters, under the cloak of the provisions which allow newcomers to obtain Contract A licences, have sponsored drivers who are ambitious enough to want to run their own vehicles. Capital has been no problem, because certain commercial vehicle suppliers in the area—who are allegedly tipped off by the quarries on who is next in line for a contract—are only too wilting to supply new vehicles offering sometimes quite phenomenal "discounts ", which are then used as the deposit.
Once the contract is signed and the Contract A licence granted (virtually "on the nod ", until the advent of the new Western LA) then the owner-driver, having committed himself with a hirepurchase company to the tune of sometimes £5,000 or £6,000, is virtually in the clutches of the quarry owners, and what one operator called the "slave driving" then begins.
On any prudent reckoning the rates paid to these people are grossly uneconomic, yielding, on some long trips, less than Is. per mile. In most cases there are no fixed rates, and often they are changed from day to day. For du most part the hauliers have no chance tc quote, and some are not told what the rate is until several days after the wort; has been carried out. Deductions of 2+ per cent, and in one case 5 per cent are made on hauliers' accounts by the quarries to cover "administrative costs" Such is the plight of many of these operators because of monthly h.p. repay. rnents (running sometimes into hundred! of pounds) that they are forced to operate illegally. Many openly admit to over loading and to driving excessive hourt with no regard to speed limits. Because of the possibility of being prosecuted fix aiding and abetting overloading, mosi quarries have clamped down on this and to counterbalance this "loss" (and atm] to make up for losses incurred when the use of "dodgy diesel" was stopped by the authorities) the excessive hours aspeel has been stepped up. It is not unusual, we were told, for two trips to be made in a day from Somerset to Brighton, while two daily runs to London Airport and back were described as easy.
To do this, vehicles are often loaded between midnight and 2 a.m., when they start leaving the quarries on their firs! run. They return soon after noon for their second load. 'A driver must go hell-for-leather and cannot get his head down because the man behind will overtake him on the road and beat him to the off-loading point," one operator told us. We were shown how log sheets are easily " fixed " to make all appear correct in the event of a Ministry or Police silent check.
What is the answer to all this? Obviously the rates must be improved. But despite serious attempts on the part of the RHA to achieve this, most operators feel that the RHA has left it a little too late in the day to do anything effective. So far, the quarry men have refused to meet the hauliers as a body, although certain of them have been heard to say that they would raise their rates provided others did the same.
And this is where the new LA, Mr. Samuel-Gibbon has stepped in. He is insisting that all Contract A licence applications concerning carriage for the various quarries in the area be published, to enable objections to be lodged and the matter, if it seems to be at all suspicious, to be brought out into the open at public inquiry. At the Bristol inquiry, as reported last week, he suggested that the quarry owners should get together to agree reasonable rates, and we understand that he will not give any decision on the adjourned Contract A cases of Shorey, Ivin, Carr and Lloyd (who were given short-term B licences) until the quarry men meet and come to some suitable arrangements about rates and conditions.