Tipper men having to ;ell their services
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'HE TIPPER industry in general has een going through a sticky patch uring the past few months. The iovernment cut-back in the roaduilding programme, local government eductions in school and hospital uilding and the recession in the uilding industry generally have been artly to blame.
However, just as influential in educing tipper work has been the Ktremely wet weather experienced uring the first months of this year. fith the advent of drier conditions over le past two or three weeks tipper work as begun to pick up slightly, but, as one perator in West Sussex pointed out only last week, work for tipping vehicles is not coming in unsolicited.
More than ever before, tipper operators are being compelled to go out and sell the service in the South of England and it is felt that this condition is prevalent nearly everywhere.
Part of the reason for this is that the recent recessive conditions have brought about an excess of tipper capacity. Where business is slow in picking up there are too many vehicles competing for too few jobs.
On this subject, a West Country tipper operator told me that the rates offered or obtainable were only just covering the driver's wages and the cost of fuel, leaving nothing to spare for standing costs. J.J.