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EPA slaps down RHA on rates
Page 51
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• Hard on the heels of the Road Haulage Association's statement (CM January 22) that road haulage costs had risen by an average of 15 per cent in 1970 and that hauliers "should examine their costs and revise their charges at the earliest possible date". the Freight Transport Association has told its members not to accept this RHA "blanket" advice as a case for rates being raised.
Says the FTA: transport users must examine applications for rate increases on their individual merits and not on generalities such as "an average increase in costs of 15 per cent". The FTA statement makes it clear that this advice is being given to its 14,200 members as a result of the RHA's statement.
Cost increases experienced by individual hauliers will fluctuate widely from the 15 per cent quoted, states the FTA. This is particularly true of drivers' wages where many will have paid increases of less than the figure of 28 per cent quoted.
Careful examination should be made of increases which have already been taken into account in earlier rate negotiations, says the FTA. Many users paid increased rates in mid-1970 which took account of cost increases up to that date and in some cases anticipated known increases for the second half of the year.
Increases in costs do not automatically justify an increase in rates. Different hauliers will have differing scope for absorption of increases and differing degrees of success in offsetting increased costs by greater productivity.
Concludes the FTA: users should insist that hauliers support any proposals for rate increases with facts and figures. These should then be examined in the light of the traffic being offered, the service demanded and the general and local state of the market for road haulage.