This article is from page 9 of the 2008-06-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 9 JPG
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The Irish Road Hauliers Associa- tion (IRHA) have set a deadline of June 27 for progress to be made on the issue or they will take to the Streets on protest.
One of the counties oldest haulage companies, Spa Transport, revealed yesterday that it has had to cut back staff as a direct result of the soaring cost of diesel.
“This is a huge issue, people have gone out of the business already and there are going to be more casualties. I myself had to sell two trucks and let people go because of this,” said Eu- gene Brennan of Spa Transport Ltd and the IRHA.
‘No matter how big or small you are this is savage. We have had a higher percentage increase in the last year and a half than has been felt over the last 20 years.
“It has affected us in many ways. The increases in diesel are really massive and we cannot be going to OUT MCLUT Kees RMAY ALO MUST KERA (OM ANCE RA
Besides that it has hit business gener- ally meaning that there is less busi- ness for us to compete for. Coupled with that we have been hit by a sur- charge by the shipping companies meaning a further increase in our overheads.
More than 100 years old, Spa Trans- port began life hauling produce from the west Clare railway using a horse and cart. The company now trans- ports high tech produce out of Shan- non as well as agricultural produce.
“It needs to be addressed in a two fold process. First we must go to the customer and look for a surcharge. We are going to have to do this to keep going. We are trying to meet with all the industry and get this idea across to them. We want a simple rate that does up and goes down with the price of oil,” continued Mr Bren- WE NOe
‘The other side of it is that we have to go to Government. They can either declare us an essential service like the buses and give us a special rate, they can rebate our fuel like they do with farmers, they can create a stable structure for a switch to using plant oil, they can assist us with the intro- duction of surcharging or they could help us to hedge our fuel and buy for- ward like the way airlines do.”