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Tipper men fear rate war
Page 6
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On the eve of Tipcon '76 • • •
TIPPER operators round the country are becoming worried by one-man companies going in for rate cutting and work pirating.
Reports have come in of owner-operators with trucks near the end of their working lives cutting the rates of established tipper men by up to a quarter.
And one operator sees the one-man pirate as the deathknell of some hauliers who are now running their operations on a shoestring.
Mr Tom Tatler, Derby and Nottingham chairman of the Road Haulage Association's tipper functional group, said: "The only way some of them are going to stay in business is by getting return loads.
"The solid fuel business has been dropping off and some jobs that have come from the railways are keeping one or two of them going," he said. "We have had a bit of a lean time but we are hoping for the tar business coming into its own," said Mr Tatler.
South Midlands area chairman of the tipper group Mr Howard Crane said: "I've hedrd a lot of unrealistic prices quoted by people with a lot of old tippers — this is fine while the truck is going but they will be in dire trouble when they come to replace the truck.
"I hope that a price war will be avoided because I think that most people realise that no one will benefit in the long run.
In Scotland RHA organiser Mr T. Brattin said: "I think everyone realises that there is pirating going on but it is very hard to prove — and many of the people involved in this are not RHA members.
"Everyone is concerned with the state of the industry and people are talking about pirating — but we have very little evidence."
Tipper operators relying on work from local authorities have found jobs becoming fewer and fewer as councils cut back on their road programmes.
Mid Wales tipper group chairman Mr Roy Heath commented: "There's no continuity of plan — the work comes in fits and starts." But he expected the level of work to settle down once the council elections and annual budget issues have been settled in the next two months.
South Midlands chairman Mr Crane said: "With the cutback on the roads programmes there must be a cutback in the need for tippers."
The trend of law rates for a job continued in the Potteries. Tipper group chairman Mr L. Basset .said: "The work is so erratic — you're either stuck with too much or you've none at all. Jobs are being done at very low rates and there has been some rate cutting."
The outlook for tipperrnen over the next few months is bleak with roads contracts being axed and pirating of work on the increase. Operators will also be suffering with the latest increases in dery tax.