EFFICIENCY DOESN'T PAY
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There's always room For improvement but the transport industry is more efficient now than it was in 1979. Hauliers are doing a third more work than they were then, although demand for road freight grew by 21%, says the British Road Federation. But the amount they've earned has risen by just 14% (see this page). There are Iwo possible reasons for this. First, maximum gross vehicle weight rose from 32 tonnes in 1982 to 38 tonnes. Hauliers invested thousands of pounds in new equipment to carry the extra weight for their customers. While they might have managed to get an increase for their investment they did not see a comparitive increase in rates. The often-quoted figure of 38 pence per mile needed to operate a fiveaxle 38-tonner is 'derisory. The fact that hauliers made an average 3% return on revenue between 1988 and 1992, according to a Road Haulage Association survey, is ever more laudable. Low rates will always be a problem for this industry while it remains relatively easy to gain an 0-licence. Overcapacity means rates plummet. The second reason is that the transport industry has begun to do some navel gazing of its costs and as a result become more efficient: loading more goods into fewer vehicles. The commercial vehicle parc (3.5 tonnes-plus) last year was about 428,000 compared to 488,000 in 1983 and there were 544,000 over 1.5 tonnes in 1979. Some 1.5bn tonnes of goods were carried in 1975; 1.6bn in 1993. ehicle useage is also moving in the right direc tion: empty running was 29% of vehicle move ments last year and 31% in 1979. Politicians use this as a criticism of the transport industry—particularly as they use it in negative "empty running" terms. But can oil and food tankers and specialist vehicles always be backloaded?
Major users of road transport continue to see transport as the one remaining area of their business where they can squeeze rates down. Hauliers need to know their own costs and then review them frequently. Buzz words such as tendering and benchmarking and quite simply getting a grip on your cashtiow is the order of the day now.