Yuill & Dodds' big fleet cutback
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• Scottish tipper operator, Yuill & Dodds is selling more than a third of its tipper fleet at an auction this month.
After 36 years in the business its boss Jimmy Yuill thinks haulage is now a waste of time and as bad as it has ever been in his experience.
Yuill wants to diversify into other areas of business — although he has not made up his mind what.
"All I know is haulage is a dead-end job. It's not that we've lost business, but the high cost of running a fleet these days means it is not profitable. The latest rises in the cost of diesel fuel have been the last straw. All we're doing is working to keep people in a job."
Yuill says he could get four times as much return on his money by investing in a building society compared with the returns in his business: "There would be no worries, and no risk either."
He plans to put more than 40 late model Scalia tractor units and trailers up for sale, leaving him with a fleet of 70 vehicles. But if the sale at his Strathaven, Lanarkshire premises on 22 September goes well, he may decide to sell more.
Yuill & Dodds employs 120 staff — including 86 drivers and 20 mechanics.
It gained a high profile dur
ing the 1984185 miners' strike by crossing the picket lines to supply coal to the Ravenscraig power station. Coal is still an important part of its business, it is one of three contractors carrying coal to the Longannet power station.