Speaking at Marble Arch on Tuesday, Transaction organiser Mike Presneill stated that "when we left Medway services this morning, there were 70 trucks. We've had up to 50 from Essex, as well two coaches with hauliers from Shropshire and the borders and there were a lot of operators who cannot get in with their trucks."
Despite all this, Presneill notes it could have been better, but, in my mind, its enough that the RHA can see our strength of felling. Transaction was joined by Transport Association chairman Stephen Taylor, MD of TM Logistics, who declared: "We've come with our own formal letter to Gordon Brown, calling for the government to come up with a solution to control the price of fuel."
The Transport Association represents 60 companies with more than 3,000 vehicles and a joint turnover of £1.2bn. Taylor says our message to Gordon Brown is "please act now". Transaction's letter to the Prime Minister calls for the withdrawal of the planned 2p per lit fuel hike, decoupling of domestic and haulage fuel duty and the creation of essential user rebate.
Essex-based Andy Courtney of CSL has no doubt that the spiralling cost of diesel is making itself felt in his 20-truck tipping business. "This month, my fuel bill is £78,000. This time last year, it was £35,000. You do your best, but you can't argue with that. You can't keep putting your prices up." Along with the government, Courtney was scathing of the trade associations' efforts to win concessions by an essential user rebate. "They should have dealt with this eight years ago."
Courtney says he will not join the RHA: "I get lots of letters from them, but I won't talk to them. I've been in this game for 30 years, but I can't see they've done anything." Based at Stanford le Hope, where a number of fuel companies have major fuel storage and production facilities, Courtney also slammed local fuel prices. "In Essex, we've got the dearest diesel in the country and it's where it all comes from. There's no industry that pays so much tax on its raw materials. Why should we bear this burden in support of the country?"
West Midlands operators Alan Hingley and Brendan Hayward had started their journey down to Marble Arch from the West Midlands at 6am. According to Hingley: "We should park up our trucks for a week or better, we should come to London for a week"
Hayward, who runs 40 trucks mainly on construction work, reckons, "it's impossible to monitor diesel prices now even if you've got a customer willing to pay a fuel surcharge, it's only on their invoice. You don't get paid anything for empty running. Even if a customer is willing to pay, we talk to them on the Friday, then again on the Tuesday - my fuel bill has gone up by 35% in five weeks." Hingley, who runs 70 trucks and 150 trailers predominantly on steel haulage, agrees.
"Even the best customers are getting fed up with it". Hingley, an RHA member, was in praise of TransActions efforts, saying: "I'm amazed the RHA is not doing this. In France, if they want something, they get out on the streets and protest. If you go to an RHA meeting, every haulier is there because they want to be seen, but they don't come out here."
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