• Budget changes have also arrived too late to make
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a difference to County Tyronebased haulier Donnell & Ellis Transport. Fifteen tractors and most of the firm's low-loader and curtain-sided trailers will go under the auctioneer's hammer in Omagh on 1 April.
Owner William Donnell says returns from haulage are no longer good enough. "We are wasting our time with transport," he says, "It's too big an investment and the return for the effort is not good enough."
The VED rate on Donnell's 38-tonne 2x3s was £3.200 before the Budget; the reduction at 38 tonnes was by £500 to £2,700. While welcome, this was not enough to persuade him to stay in the business.
"It's hard to get good quality drivers as well." he adds. "We had a bad run of accidents and there were 10 crashes in January and February alone." In July last year vehicle insurance cost the firm 197,000 for a year; that was set to rise to £150.000 from July 2000.
Four trucks will be kept to service the firm's engineering business.