AN OW NE R-DRIVER'S LAMENT
Page 51
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EVER since I started HI the road-haulage business in .1–'1929 I have been a regular reader of your journal. My one vehicle is owner-driven, under an A licence, and I was granted a new 3-ton tipper in 1943, as my old long-wheelbase lorry was condemned.
I have closely studied the figures given by S.T.R. for the catrying of ballast and I most definitely agree with him regarding them It is not, however, the price you want for such work, bait that which you can get, and if a haulier disagrees, the pit owner refuses to employ him. I have carried wet ballast weighing about 26 cwt, per cubic yd., 16 miles each way, for 5s. 1.0d. per cubic yd., and this is stilt the rate offered in many instances; so you see this puts S.T.R.'s figures in the shade.
One trouble is that there are still too many war-time B permits_ If I were not in financial difficulties, I would like to sell my tipper and again employ a long-wheelbase lorry. It hurts my feelings to finish up in debt just because newcomers in the industry can accept ridiculous rates. I do not really want nationalization, but, after all, I cannot sink much lower. A-LICENSEE London, E.
[I have read your letter with considerable interest. I fully appreciate your sentiments but I am, nevertheless, somewhat surprised that to-day, when there is such an ample supply of work for hauliers in the building and allied trades, there should be the slightest need for the kind of rate-cutting which is indicated by you. My article on rates for the haulage of ballast was, as a matter of fact, written for the purpose of helping operators to appreciate what their real -costs are and what their "charges ought to be. The only practical suggestion that I CAR make to you is that you take steps to find other sources of employment for your vehicles at rates which will show you a profit, and leave these competitors who work at such low rates to get themselves into the predicament that you are now in, and which must inevitably happen to them isooner or later,—S.T.R.]