'Hauliers, large and small, have to earn their chances.'
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6 H eadlines like "How can we ownerdrivers and small firms ever get a fair chance?' really make me see red
(Sound Off 3-9 August). Hauliers, large and small, have to earn their chances. It worries me that so many think that if they only owned their own lorry, the world would be their oyster. To be successful you must think a lot further ahead than that.
The minimum requirement is probably at least double the cost of the lorry—there should be enough finance available to cover proper maintenance and at least four months' complete expenses plus cash for emergencies so that the operator can refuse poor rates and ride out payment hitches. The economic facts are that times are hard and all hauliers are suffering From poor rates, late payments and expensive trucks. No one is going to give sub-contractors a better deal than they get for themselves, if they have to lend trailers, put diesel or running money up front or supply tyres or pay out money before they themselves are paid. It is important to look for a niche market and to have an 0-licence margin for hiring so that a specialist vehicle can be hired to satisfy a particular customer's sudden emergency. But if you have to take sub-contracted work, you are in a far better position if you can say to the prime haulier: "I have my own trailer, my own diesel and tyre accounts, I supply my own running money. BUT my terms are payment in 30 days." Newcomers to the industry with a loan or overdraft instead of a proper cash reserve often hang on by their fingertips by taking jobs at cost. They are responsible for forcing rates so low. Industry needs transport and if there were no desperate semi-bankrupts to do it cheaply they would have to pay more.
In any event, traction and sub-contracting have always been the lower paid end of the market. The owner-driver/small haulier would do far better to cultivate his own customers. You have things to offer that the big boys will never have—personal attention, dedication, absolute control over your driver (you), and lower overheads. Once you convince your client that his business could not run without you, you have your fair chance and you can negotiate reasonable terms. If the work turns out to be more than you can handle you can subcontract it out—supposing you can find someone as trustworthy as yourself.
The Road Haulage Association has often successfully resisted the grant of new 0licences to people who have gone bust owing small hauliers vast amounts of money. If you join the RHA go to the meetings, help elect the officers, stand for office yourself. Members who attend meetings are the ones who control the RHA, not those who never bother but simply moan that nothing is done for them.
It isn't true that only big hauliers become regional and national officers. My wife and I run Iwo vehicles—she drives one, I drive the other—hauliers don't come much smaller than that. Yet I have been involved with the RHA for 30 years as a committee activist and have been sub area and sub regional chairman for several two-year stints. I am on the regional council and share this honour with several small hauliers as well as with the big boys. You need to know your market. It you can make a better living with a Transit than a 38tanner, don't be too proud to drive the Transit. We found we could earn almost as much with 7.5-tonners as our friends with large artics. Our costs are lower so you will find us quite happily and profitably driving the Cargos and watching some of the flash boys in their megamonsters fly past in the fast lane to bankruptcy.