Port traction services get together
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• Some 40 traction services firms working out of Portsmouth harbour are to meet to consider forming what they call an "association of companies" to force rates up.
The operators say their businesses will not survive if rates don't improve: they are subcontracted by trailer operators to pull unaccompanied loads from the port.
The 3p/lit increase in diesel prices introduced in the Budget is insupportable in view of their current rate of 72p75p a mile, they say.
The idea for the association comes from tractor operator Terry Clay, of Waterlooville, Portsmouth-based EC Clay.
He plans to contact the remaining 50 operators working out of the port to arrange a meeting time and place to discuss tractor operator rates. Following this Clay will press for a meeting with trailer companies.
He is calling for: • Mileage rates to be increased to 80p a mile; • The introduction of a £20 an hour demurrage fee; • A surcharge of 140 per load on hazardous loads to reflect the cost of ADR training and other costs.
Trailer operator Portsmouthbased Euroway International agrees that these demands are reasonable—but it says it simply can't afford to pay them.
Another Portsmouth company which uses subcontracted traction points out that trailer operators are paid a premium rate by customers to carry hazardous loads, and suggests that this fee could be passed on. "But this is the least of the claims," it adds. "We cannot afford the rest in the current climate—everyone is in the same boat"