Hauliers take note: The cows are coming home

Our support goes out to the dairy farmers employing decisive action in an attempt to protect their livelihoods.

Aggressive price cutting by supermarkets is pushing dairy farmers out of business – many are even losing money on every pint of milk they produce.

These kinds of market conditions will be all too familiar to another industry even closer to our heart – and the economy – except in the case of the British haulage industry, it is the government that is placing wholly unreasonable demands on hauliers’ ability to make a living.

Just as supermarkets and consumers should appreciate the true price of milk and support farmers’ reasonable claims to fair recompense, the government should heed the united call of hauliers to stop bleeding them dry.

Farmers are pitched against the phenomenal buying power and market share of the supermarkets – and the implicit support of consumers for ever lower prices, without concern for the consequences.

Meanwhile, hauliers are beset by the breath-taking ability of the government to tax to death the distribution industry – the vital support network for British businesses.

Farmers struggle to attain the huge scale operations to justify the demanding economies of scale required to turn even a meagre profit from milk.

Contrast independent hauliers, who are faced with fierce competition from massive third party logistics providers and European firms that do not have to pay the UK’s exorbitant fuel duty. Farmers at least receive subsidies.

At Palletline, we watch the farmers’ protests with interest, hoping for a speedy and satisfying resolution. And perhaps some effective strategies for hauliers to emulate.

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