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Two sides to the argument TO PUT STEWART OADES' views
Page 28
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in context, he is not disputing the value or the quality of small road transport businesses. But he is suggesting is that with margins so low, overheads so high and legislation so burdensome, too few will find being self-employed more viable than being an employed driver.
This runs in the face of one strand of conventional wisdom, which says that increasing numbers of large firms will strip the overheads and heavy asset base from their businesses and run as fourth-party logistics suppliers, essentially handling supply-chain provision on a consultancy and management basis while deploying the trucks of small firms across Europe.
As Simon Chapman, economist at the Freight Transport Association, says: "For the past 10 years I've thought the business model was going the other way. Why would any large firm run its own fleetwhich is very expensive except to underline quality?"