Bad debt menace AAB hits operators
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IAULIERS are being hit hard y welchers and slow payers. Bad debt burdens have lready forced some operators ut of business, and the mence is growing.
As Road Haulage Associaon area secretaries met in ondon this week to discuss le problem, an RHA spokesIan said that slow payment is ow a "real danger" to many rms.
"It is a widespread problem nd there is a lot of apprehenton in the industry," he added. Moves to combat the slow ..ttlement of accounts are eing made by road haulage rms on Merseyside.
A spokesman at the Liverool office of the Road Hauige Association said the uestion of slow payment of ccounts had been discussed y the local committee and ..rious consideration was eing given to the setting up of warning list for slow payers. Some members would like ) see a bad debt collection ervice initiated. Normal )rms of trading in road hauige are by a monthly account. There was no doubt that lore and more hauliers were rorried about the amount of ioney outstanding through ow payment of accounts.
In one case a bill of £3,000 ,as outstanding for more than 2 months. Bad and doubtful ebts were a contributory ictor to the firm going out of usiness.
The head of one company, to refused to be named, said: We have been forced into a osition of having to take )ecial steps to check creditTorthiness.
"What troubles me is that it often big firms that are the rorst offenders.
"They leave their money ivested in the bank so that it an continue to earn them Iterest, while we are left rhistling in the economic old."
The RHA spokesman said it ras impossible to pinpoint any particular trade, industry or strata of operation where slow payment was especially bad — it was a fairly general problem.
While there were some very good and dependable opera, tors in the field some hauliers had experienced difficulties with clearing house types of operation.
At a national level, the RHA's commercial services committee considered setting up a debt-collecting agency.
But it rejected the idea and, instead, is drawing up a list of commercial organisations who will take on the job.