Tipping chief sells fleet
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• John Rayner, chairman of the Road Haulage Association's national tipping group, is to sell the entire tipping fleet based at his Madingley Garage service depot in Cambridge.
The 13 tractive units and 14 trailers will go under the hammer at an on-site auction on 22 September, leaving him with eight tractors and six trailers.
Rayner is reluctant to elaborate on the sale and his future plans, but says Rayners Transport will cease to use the Madingley depot which is to be redeveloped.
"The office at Madingley will continue, in order to steer work to the other depots at Stansted and Ipswich. It's obvious that anyone who is packing up in this business is doing so because of the state of the market. There has been enough work for us here for the past 27 years, but not any more."
He says other factors also led to the closure of the Madingley depot — such as the high cost of insurance. Rayner holds two Operator Licences and will surrender one as the operation at Madingley ceases.
In an earlier interview with Commercial Motor (3-9 May) Rayner said he was considering expansion into general haulage and planned to buy a couple of small boxvans. He said he was also considering renting out some of his land and offices.
"In the seventies when the tipping industry was good, operators wanted to be tippermen, and not jacks-of-alltrades, but now this is changing," he says.
Kerry Spencer, the RHA's manager of tipping and special projects, says Rayner's actions are typical of what is going on in the tipper market. "Companies will either suffer a slow lingering death, or they will say 'that's it' and get out.
"The recent rises in diesel fuel are likely to speed up the demise of tipping companies. Prices have risen by 5% — enough to wipe out profit margins, unless companies are able to pass some of the increases on to their customers as surcharges."
LI Barrie Hempsall, the recently re-elected vice-chairman of the RHA, has run his operation down so he no longer has any haulage interests.