6 Martin Cornwall's Sound Off article ( CM13-19 Jan) on
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low driver wages in the Class 1 category left me totally astounded by his complete lack of understanding of our industry. What planet is this man on? Obviously the same one as most of our MPs.
I own a Yorkshire-based haulage company which at one time ran five trucks. But because of rising dery prices, road fund licence costs and increasing wages for Class 1 drivers, I have parked up two vehicles as I am not prepared to run for rates on which I cannot make a profit. What everyone must realise is that we simply cannot pay higher wages until our customers raise rates, which wil never happen while our foreign counterparts run for 50% less than we do, and some one-man bands and own-account operators are allowed to cut corners in order to reduce costs.
While I agree that drivers' wages are too low, what can the operators do until this situation is addressed? My drivers are paid on the same basis as Stobart drivers, These rates are by no means exceptional, but even the biggest fleets cannot pay more. Agencies just add fuel to the fire by offering salaried positions to attract drivers away from the operators, only to sell them back again at inflated prices. Therefore, to retain staff, we are forced to try to match wages without an increase in rates, which, when added to all the other spiralling pressures, is just too much.
This in turn means that the agencies who cause some of the problems are cutting their own throats, as their customers are forced to close. The bigger question is, what will happen to these inflated drivers' wages when sufficient companies have closed their gates and the agencies' customer base Is too small as a result? Will they lay off temporary drivers or reduce their falsely inflated rates?
It is this short-sighted attitude that has helped the haulage industry into this mess in the first place. We all too easily slag off the French, but they stand together and always manage to get wide press coverage. Everything at some point in its life moves by road, and MPs must stop going for vote-winners in cars and come back down to earth.
Operator licensing must be tightened up on the vital issues of own-account operators who are allowed to operate with no transport manager to enforce rules, and a minimum of two vehicles, together with stricter financial controls with impounding for untaxed trucks to help ensure rates increase to realistic levels. We need to take the government to the European Court for allowing unfair competition, as this is also forcing UK operators to cut corners.
So, Joe Public, MPs and agencies, think about what you are saying and stop running the industry down even further before everyone is out of work and there is no more food on the shelves in the shops.
We must stand together and support each other so that everyone who acts professionally in our industry can make a decent profit and pay fair wages.