Dozens of haulage workers lose jobs as costs soar

Dozens of workers at a haulage firm that operated for more than 50 years have lost their jobs after the firm collapsed.

JT Leyland, based in Milnthorpe, Cumbria, went into administration, affecting all of its 43 staff.

Administrators FRP Advisory said the firm experienced a challenging period of trading because of rising costs.

The Road Haulage Association (RHA) warned diesel prices reaching about £2 per litre were unsustainable for the industry and risked pushing food prices higher.

JT Leyland's fleet of vehicles included transit vans and articulated lorries and it operated more than 70,000 sq ft (6,503 sq metres) of warehouse space.

Policy lead at the RHA James Barwise said he was seeing "hundreds of insolvencies" across the sector in the country.

"Realistically, diesel now represents a third of the cost of running a commercial vehicle," he said.

He said it was an "exceptionally challenging time" for hauliers, who were facing difficult decisions as to how to avoid passing costs on, adding "businesses really have no choice now".

Andrew Park, who runs Millom haulage firm Pellymounters, said the situation was "pretty scary".

He said: "It does look quite bleak and it's a bit worrying, you're just forever trying to work out the figures, you're always trying to see if you can get a bit of help from your customers and suppliers but obviously they have to be able to pass [the cost] on to somebody else."

Carlisle-based WM Armstrong said it was paying £11,000 more a day compared with March, as oil supplies are disrupted by the war in Iran.

Commercial director Geoff Armstrong said the sector had no choice but to pass these costs on.

He said: "Ultimately we're all consumers so we all pay it in the end, through the submarkets and whatever you want to purchase on the high street - it's a massive challenge."

Barwise said the RHA was calling on the chancellor of the exchequer to scrap a planned fuel duty increase in the new year.

He said: "A fuel duty hike is essentially a food price hike, almost everything on supermarket shelves has got there on a lorry."

Extra support measures were also needed to support haulage companies, he said, and he hoped the government's budget announcement at the end of the month would be an opportunity to address concerns.

The government said since the start of the Iran war, it had continued to protect "businesses from this crisis".

A spokesperson said fuel duty cuts meant diesel was currently 11p cheaper than it would have been under the previous government's plans.

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