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Price rise is set to take its toll
Page 22
Page 23
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When the 1V6 Toll company reduced the truck fee by £4, more operators began to use it. Now the
price is going back up by El .II it put them off?
MORE THAN 50% of operators who arc currently using the M6 Toll road say they will abandon it following the price increase to £7, according to the latest results from the Commercial Motor! Michelin Business Monitor.
Low usage
Currently only 25% of those operators surveyed say they use the toll — and 53% of them say the hike will force them to consider alternative routes.
This reverses last year's trend. Whets the toll was cut from £10 to £6, a growing number of operators decided to try out the faster, but more expensive route. Of the companies CM surveyed last September, 26.5% were using the M6 Toll, compared with 15% when it was launched. But why haven't more operators taken the plunge? The top reasons for not using the toll cited in our survey have changed little since last year.They are: • It's too costly (20%) • It doesn't save much time (8%) • Customers are unwilling to pay for the extra cost (1%).
The majority of operators who are using the route reckon a reasonable fee for the toll would be between 11 and £3; 13% of them opted for £3 to £5 and only 1% between £6 and £9. On the other hand, only 4% of operators thought it should be free.
Operators plan ahead
A spokesman for Nechells-based Roy S Ely explains: "We don't really use the M6Toll route as we don't really run up that neck of the woods often. If we do, we plan our route in advance."
Our survey also reveals that for the second quarter running 27% of operators have driver vacancies, compared with 28% at the end of last year. However, of those companies with vacancies, 9% need more drivers now than in March. That said, only 11% of these companies now need two or more extra drivers, compared with 17% last quarter.
Around 20% of firms surveyed said they used agency drivers to fill their vacancies — and of these, 73% had found the experience to be a positive one. •