New transport firm for Ashburton

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33957, 25 September 1975, Page 18

New transport firm for Ashburton

A new company will operate in Ashburton from next month to take over part of the rural cartage business from which Mid-Canterbury Transport, Ltd, has withdrawn.

Mid-Canterbury Trans- ' port’s managing director 1 (Mr B. A. Cullen) announced last Friday that the company would with- ' draw from rural transiport operations in the 1 Ashburton County and ■Coalgate areas at the ! end of the month, and (close its rural depots at) Meth ven, Mayfield, Rakaia, Hinds, and Coalgate. The decision had been forced on the company because of a severe drop in . cartage, particularly in grain and cattle, at a time of rising! costs of operating and reli placing vehicles. . The new company will be .ioperated by Mr Hugh Cullen,) pa brother of Mr B. A. Cullen. .'Their father, the late Mr J. B. >| Cullen, founded Mid(Canterbury Transport 52 [.(years ago. It is one of the) largest privately-owned transport firms in New Zealand. Mr Hugh Cullen is a director of Mid-Canterbury Transport and held an executive position with this firm-

until he purchased a large; cartage firm in Wellington; eight years ago. He said last evening that; Mid-Canterbury Transport; had agreed to sell him some) vehicle authorities and equip-; ment. Temporary licences are; being sought to enable the; company to operate from; October 1. An application made to ithe Transport Licensing Authority to ratify the transfer of the licences and vehicle authorities is likely to be heard early next month. Initially, Mr Cullen seeks to take the licences over in the name of his Wellington company but operate under his own name. He may form another company later for the local operation. ; :

Mr Cullen contends that the road cartage industry in New Zealand is in a depressed state at present and is being “killed” because of the rapidly increasing costs of plant and equipment.-, spares, tyres, and inflated wages. At the same -time operators had to do cartage work in competition with railway freight rates which had been pegged by the Govern- ; ment for the last three years. If they had been allowed to rise during the three years they would be 40 to 50 per cent higher today, keeping pace with the increased operating costs. He said the only way for; operators to combat the’ cur-; rent problems was to have' minimal overheads. His new company would operate on these lines. He said the firm would- be a “grass roots operation,” run with the very minimum of overheads. A staff of about 10 to 12 will be employed. mostly drivers, a man for over-all supervision of the trucking work, and a clerk. Mr Cullen will be responsible for all marketing, and will attend the various stock sales. A novel feature of the new operation is that Mr Cullen. proposes to make licences'. available to drivers to take over the trucks and do the) cartage work under contract to the company, particularly ! in country areas. He said his Wellington firm operates very successfully in this way, with, seven owner-drivers employed. In engaging staff Mr Cullen will give preference to employees of Mid-Canterbury Transport who have been made redundant by its withdrawal front rural cartage. He said he had been heartened by the response from farmers wishing to support the new company with cartage work.