Small rise in rates
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
HAULIERS' rates should have risen months just to keep in line with Road Haulage Association. But its c is still a buyers' market.
The four per cent rise is contained in the latest set of figures published by the RHA's cornmercial committee, which attributes 1.3 per cent of the increase to the Budget increases in vehicle excise duty and dery tax. And it adds that since 1981 there has been a 22 per cent rise in operators' costs, although it concedes that companies have been unable to recover many of these increases. "Rates at best remain static or are forced down due to lack of demand," according to the RHA.
The Freight Transport Association, which represents the users of hauliers' services, reports a "very small' increase in the rates being paid by a sample of its members in the year to June.
It says no simplistic pronouncement can do justice to the complex problem of rates changes, and points out that although two thirds of the operators in the sample had their rates increased, there was a wide variety of changes.
Most increases were under six per cent for the whole year, but 20 per cent of the reported rates were lower than in 1982.
Operating costs over the year rose by 7.5 per cent for heavier vehicles and by 6.5 per cent for lighter vehicles, according to the FTA. This takes account of the reductions in duty paid by operators of lighter vehicles, a type more common in own-account than haulage fleets.
Dery prices also started to fall in the second quarter of this year.