Sugar haulage turns sour
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• by Guy Sheppard Scores of sugar-beet hauliers are facing renewed upheaval in their delivery schedules after British Sugar axed three of its nine processing plants.
The sites at Ipswich and Bardney, Lincs will close soon, now that the harvest is over; the Kidderminster site is due to close after the next harvest.
Last summer BS attempted to force beet hauliers to work for more than 100 hours a week; this proposal was watered down following widespread protests.
MC Mountain, based in Quarrington, Lincs, delivers 70,000 tonnes of beet a year to Bardney; around 15% of the plant's total. General manager Rick Legg says haulage rates will have to be renegotiated to cope with the increased distances: "It is something that has been expected for 10 years but it's still a shock when it does happen."
He says his company devotes about a third of its 24-strong fleet to beet haulage— this will probably have to be expanded to cope with longer journeys which, in some cases, will be more than doubled.
Legg predicts that the delivery season will have to be extended by a month because the remaining factories will not be able to cope with the extra work. However, BS managing director Kevin Field says continuing investment in these factories means the company is now able to "process the whole UK crop in six factories rather than nine".
Mike Salmon, Road Haulage Association area manager for the East Midlands, says the average increase in journey length for hauliers will be just over 7km: "That means extra revenue as far as loan see."
He adds that this year's beet harvest has been largely trouble-free despite initial concerns about working weekends and longer hours: "There have been problems but British Sugar have done their utmost to address them."