FLASHPOINTS Hauliers' discontent with container shipping lines has surfaced twice over the past six months...
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In November, sub-contractors working for P&O Ferrymasters in Teesport formed an unofficial union in a bid to win better rates.
Teesport United Contractors later disbanded after two founders claimed they were dismissed because of their involvement with the organisation. IThe company denies this.
One owner-driver still working for P&O says there has been no increase this year and he is still averaging 1,500 miles a week at 78p a mile. "I draw £100 a week—that's all I can afford to take out of the business," he says. "It's rubbish."
Nik Scott-Gray, general manager of the company's Scandinavian division, says rates have gone up, but not en bloc. "It is between us and the individual hauliers we have been dealing with," he says.
At the beginning of last month Coastal Container Line increased its rates by 7% following protests from its sub-contractors in Liverpool.
Group logistics manager Duncan Beaumont says this was 2% above what was originally demanded by the subcontractors because the company is seeking better service levels which include round-the-clock delivery and collection: "Over the past 12 months particularly, the emphasis has been on night collection and delivery."
But Graham Johnson, director of Preston-based Charles Mayor, which stopped working for Coastal last year, says the new rates no longer guarantee a minimum payment per week for local work. "There used to be a guaranteed payment of 21,190 a week if you were busy," says Mayor, "but that was done away with so we were just working for job rates."
He adds that the more lucrative long-distance work has been taken over by Coastal's in-house transport operation which was formed last year.