Bridge bashing

[admiles]

On 08/05/2022 at 16:47, 37114 said:

customers screwing every penny out of the rates

 

From the other side of the fence (freight forwarder) I could also said there are an awful lot of hauliers who are milking the fuel and driver shortage issues to line their own pockets.

 

Yes fuel costs have risen and drivers are having to be paid more but some job rates for container work have increased 800-900% in six months! No one can claim their cost have gone up that much.  I'm pretty sure drivers haven't had pay increases of that percentage!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 10, 2022 by admiles

[37114]

7 hours ago, admiles said:

 

From the other side of the fence (freight forwarder) I could also said there are an awful lot of hauliers who are milking the fuel and driver shortage issues to line their own pockets.

 

Yes fuel costs have risen and drivers are having to be paid more but some job rates for container work have increased 800-900% in six months! No one can claim their cost have gone up that much.  I'm pretty sure drivers haven't had pay increases of that percentage!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I agree that level of rate increase goes beyond the cost of being believable however I have never met a rich container haulier and I spent a fair chunk of my life in the haulage sector either directly working in container haulage or for companies with a container haulage division. The company I first worked for shut up shop in 2010 as the rates in container haulage were so poor, having not gone up for 3 years yet the costs had risen 30% over the same time so presume the players still left are trying to level the rates up, especially with consolidation in the market (e.g. Debens gone, Wincanton sold off container div to Maritime)

 

At the end of the day we work in a free market and supply is shorter than demand at the moment albeit I have yet to see an 800% rate increase land on my desk. 

[BR60103]

Not a railway bridge, but over a motorway.

Gretzky parkway overpass, 403 reopen | Brantford Expositor

https://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/news/local-news/highway-403-has-reopened-brant-opp

 

 

[Wickham Green too]

"temporary closing of all 403 lanes" ................... now I know American Highways are wide - but that's ridiculous ! 🙄

[boxbrownie]

4 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

"temporary closing of all 403 lanes" ................... now I know American Highways are wide - but that's ridiculous ! 🙄

You cannot criticise the Americans for grammar 😉

[admiles]

15 hours ago, 37114 said:

I agree that level of rate increase goes beyond the cost of being believable however I have never met a rich container haulier and I spent a fair chunk of my life in the haulage sector either directly working in container haulage or for companies with a container haulage division. The company I first worked for shut up shop in 2010 as the rates in container haulage were so poor, having not gone up for 3 years yet the costs had risen 30% over the same time so presume the players still left are trying to level the rates up, especially with consolidation in the market (e.g. Debens gone, Wincanton sold off container div to Maritime)

 

At the end of the day we work in a free market and supply is shorter than demand at the moment albeit I have yet to see an 800% rate increase land on my desk. 

 

I work Felixstowe. Lots of very rich container hauliers here I can assure you. Maritime, Goldstar, 3PL, James Kemball, the list goes on. Of course not everyone is in that league. We use 3-4 small hauliers and a few owner drivers. We try to be as fair as we can with rates, always have done. Our profit margin on a FCL container delivery is £20-£30 at best. A lot of the time we're doing it at cost.

 

We've had hauliers recently emailing late on Friday after saying "as on Monday morning your agreed rates will quadruple". And this is for work already booked for Monday morning. Basically it's blackmail as they know you wouldn't find anyone else to do the job at that short notice. Phoning your customer and explaining they either cough up the extra or don't get their container isn't popular as you can imagine.

 

It leaves a very bad taste after years of supporting hauliers by being loyal even when we could have found better rates elsewhere. Plus paying small hauliers weekly (and even on the day they actually do the delivery in a couple of cases) to help their cash flow.

[Wickham Green too]

4 minutes ago, admiles said:

..... We've had hauliers recently emailing late on Friday after saying "as on Monday morning your agreed rates will quadruple". And this is for work already booked for Monday morning. Basically it's blackmail as they know you wouldn't find anyone else to do the job at that short notice.  ......

But they should also realise that somebody else will be getting the work from Tuesday !

[Reorte]

On 08/05/2022 at 16:47, 37114 said:

You get a better return putting your money in the bank than running a haulage company at the moment so every penny counts. The sad reality is the situation is because of over supply in the industry, volatile cost bases (namely fuel and drivers) and customers screwing every penny out of the rates meaning the average haulier has little money to invest in sophisticated bridge detection systems. Add in the fact the driver shortage means that some of the drivers who would not get a look in due to poor driving record are being kept on/finding work.

Oversupply and driver shortage seems a bit contradictory.

[pH]

7 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

"temporary closing of all 403 lanes" ................... now I know American Highways are wide - but that's ridiculous ! 🙄

 

6 hours ago, boxbrownie said:

You cannot criticise the Americans for grammar 😉

The 403 is in Ontario, Canada.

[Wickham Green too]

Apologies for the geographical ignorance ...................... though even looking back at the site, I think a great degree of local knowledge is needed to suss out which side of the border we're talking about !

 

 

Oh ....... maybe you cannot criticise the Americans for ( lack of ) grammar but I'd expect better of the Canadians !

[Michael Hodgson]

1 hour ago, pH said:

 

The 403 is in Ontario, Canada.

I thought the 403 was an internet error message to the effect that the site won'tt let you access a page.

[kevinlms]

4 hours ago, Wickham Green too said:

Apologies for the geographical ignorance ...................... though even looking back at the site, I think a great degree of local knowledge is needed to suss out which side of the border we're talking about !

 

 

Oh ....... maybe you cannot criticise the Americans for ( lack of ) grammar but I'd expect better of the Canadians !

The website address includes '.ca', which means it is a Canadian website.

 

Looking at the photo again, with the line up of vehicles, it looks like none of them want to be first under the new bridge!

[Wickham Green too]

The website address also includes an awful lot of other gibberish that nobody in their right mind would waste time studying - nor me !

[kevinlms]

42 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

The website address also includes an awful lot of other gibberish that nobody in their right mind would waste time studying - nor me !

I just looked and saw the 'ca' and didn't bother reading much more. No, 'ca' in this case doesn't mean California!

[boxbrownie]

I know it’s RMWeb, but it really doesn’t matter too much does it…..or is somebody planning on a trip that way soon? 🤣

[Budgie]

16 hours ago, pH said:

The 403 is in Ontario, Canada.

... and Canada is in North America. So all Canadians are Americans.

[SamThomas]

On 08/05/2022 at 15:36, johnofwessex said:

My suggestion might be to have some sort of 'minimum prices' set by law, or invstigation  into companies offering unrealistically low prices

Nice thought but that would mean the cowboys would carry on the same & make a little more money.

 

Maybe, if the local authorities were not quite so penny pinching & were pro-active with vechicle inspections it would cease to be an issue.

[SamThomas]

On 08/05/2022 at 17:10, peanuts said:

from experience red light pull offs have largely been eliminated with the practice of company holding keys and drivers held in a " waiting room" until vehicle is fully loaded/unloaded and ready to go .

If you placed animals in some of the drivers "waiting rooms" you would get the RSPCA knocking on the door.

 

One of the reasons that some drivers hand in a set of "gash" keys & sit in their cabs.

[boxbrownie]

2 minutes ago, SamThomas said:

Nice thought but that would mean the cowboys would carry on the same & make a little more money.

 

Maybe, if the local authorities were not quite so penny pinching & were pro-active with vechicle inspections it would cease to be an issue.

I have always been under the impression that school coaches/vehicles have different standards to comply with than normal coaches, and expected them to be checked regularly……presumably this is incorrect?

[SamThomas]

On 08/05/2022 at 19:43, 37114 said:

Yes, the school bus world does seem to be a cut throat market, lots of operators seem to rely on end of life vehicles which point to low margins.

 

Minimum pricing will be great but there are loads of way to get round it with "Procurement team rebates"..

There is nothing wrong with using vehicles that are "getting on a bit", i.e. those that are no longer really suitable for long distance/high miles use, provided of course they are well maintained. Scholl buses cover relatively little miles, so unless we adopt the US system (& subsequent costs) we are stuck with it.

Unpractical for coach companies operating a "nice" fleet to get involved with school work as the vehicles operate in effect a "split shift" - 2/3 hours AM & PM with no possiblity of other work in between except for the odd time on rail replacement work which is not all the time.

You have to bear in mind that commercial vehciles are only earning their keep when moving.

 

A couple of semi-retired PCV drivers I know are of the opinion (based on experience & the state their vehicles are left in) that cattle wagons would be more suitable on some runs.

[SamThomas]

On 09/05/2022 at 18:35, peanuts said:

Or a hgv /PSV  licence holder when it is part of you 5 yearly medical after age 45 

Annual once you get to 70.

[SamThomas]

12 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

I have always been under the impression that school coaches/vehicles have different standards to comply with than normal coaches, and expected them to be checked regularly……presumably this is incorrect?

Not too sure TBH, but if no-one confirms one way or the other I'll ask one of my PCV driving friends.

[101]

When I was in school - many years ago! - we had the same coach for a few years and I always recognised it in the car (bus) park by its numerplate, but they were all old vehicles. Its quite noticable now that most school buses, and coaches in general, have personal numberplates so that you are unable to tell how old they are!

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

I have always been under the impression that school coaches/vehicles have different standards to comply with than normal coaches, and expected them to be checked regularly……presumably this is incorrect?

As long as they are kept up to PSV standards. Even then accidents can happen.

https://thurrock.nub.news/news/local-news/passengers-flee-bus-after-it-bursts-into-flames-as-it-leaves-a13-132658

[Wickham Green too]

It is believed the fire has caused substantial damage to the bus - never mind the road surface !