ACTIONS SPEAK LOUD
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• "I often wait seven hours to get a pick-up. It's not so bad for the lads working for companies but if they sit me here for seven hours I don't earn a penny."
Sounds familiar? That plaintive cry from one of the ownerdrivers caught up in the delays at Southampton Container Terminal is repeated every single day of the year at some depot or warehouse.
And who foots the bill? For the fleet operator having a wagon sitting around doing nothing it's a major aggravation: for the owner-operator, sitting idle it's a disaster.
The trouble at SCT raises that hoary old chestnut beloved of operators, namely demurrage — charging a customer for being kept waiting — but in a climate of cut-throat competition who dares ask for it? In any case, asking for it is one thing; getting it is quite another.
Of course it shouldn't take a blockade to change things, but where has moderation got the British road transport industry? Perhaps if hauliers acted with a little more fire they'd get more of what they want, and less of what they don't.
The depressing lesson from SCT appears to be that until hauliers take decisive action they'll continue to end up with the dirty end of the stick. If that's the basis for good industrial relations then God help us all.