Solly:
You know… for as long as I care to remember… haulage is the only industry that I can think of where the customer set’s the rate for the job to be done.
Something wrong here isn’t there?
Farming is another one, everything a farmer produces is sold at whatever the market rate is, on a “take it or leave it” basis, just like haulage.
Paul
Putting it in a simplistic way…and I think you will agree… farmers are not customers…they are providing a service. Therefore they should set their own rates irrespective of artificially “Fixed” rates…and I use the word “Fixed” as in consortium agreed rates…dreamed up by the likes of the Supermarkets.
“Why has it been allowed to evolve into this situation?
Look at it this way. If you don’t agree to pay the tradesman/professional his “Going rate”…you don’t get the job done…and please don’t give the tired “Supply and demand” or “Someone else will do it” excuse…it doesn’t wash.”
Unfortunately this is the situation in the real world and the laws of supply and demand do apply as in most other aspects of life.
This thread is about traction only work which is essentially subcontracted work from a larger haulier who has already encountered said laws in successfully obtaining the work in the first place. They then have a choice of deducting their own costs and a reasonable profit from the rate and offering a fixed rate to a sub contractor, which he can either accept or decline (free market economy) which is OK for regular subbies working for a fair company.Obviously some companies will try to maximise profits by squeezing the rates until subbies go elsewhere (supply and demand). The other choice is to ask for quotes for a particular job( which is usually how they got the job in the first place) and go for the lowest quote, hopefully lower than than their own costs.
In my 27 years experience as an O/D when a haulier/freight forwarder rings for a quote on a job that he has already accepted their will only be one winner, quote too high and you don’t get the job,unless said haulier is desparate, too low and you don’t make enough but sometimes this is better than nothing… supply and demand again!!! It’s a competitive world out there, even for the large shipping companies etc.
Firstly well done for not accepting the rate and having your head screwed on, the only thing I would say is that in my experience unless on locals distance tipping is hard on the vehicle with higher costs accepting that the rates may look attractive by are no different as a percentage. Personally I have found walking floor work to be have lower operating cost although I have ditched it because every job I was doing 800-1000k round trip and I can earn more doing 3x 300k dock work without needing a wet pack