Milk bid sours
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by Ian Wylie NI Milk hauliers who have been passed over by the Milk Marketing Board's successor have warned that new contractors may be unable to fulfil their winning bids.
Almost two thirds of the 36 operators working for the MMB will be dropped by its successor, Milk Marque, when the market is liberalised on 1 November.
Of the 18 hauliers who will collect and deliver milk for MM, five are new to the industry: Tankfreight, United Transport, Lloyd Fraser, Ryder and Gregory Distribution. Rejected operators say some of these newcomers may have underestimated the cost of milk haulage.
The Road Haulage Association's milk functional group chairman, Bruce Flintham, claims some of the bids have been won on the basis of "guesstimates". He says: "Some of the new boys have said they will do 14mpg when the industry averages are around eight or 9mpg. and their service levels will be under a lot of pressure if they want to balance their books."
MM's national distribution manager, Pat Williams, dismisses the claims: "The new operators have already completed two month's work for us and their service levels are excellent because they have taken on the existing drivers and managers at each depot."
However, at least two milk hauliers selected by MM are considering redundancies.
Dairy Products Transport has announced some 350 driver job cuts and Wincanton is waiting to see how milk volumes are allocated. Industry sources suggest that DPT and Wincanton could face redundancy bills of around £4m and £2m respectively.