Grain Haulage availability Harvest 2019

[kiwi pom]

Hello you called
Bet your glad that new ride of yours is going to earn its keep on flat work
£5/T about right for a 10 mile haul ,don't take much going wrong though especially sitting for hours waiting to tip to skim what bit of cream there is off the top
like has already been said earlier stone work far more appealing to tie in with regular straights work into mills rather than do grain

Even on a short 10 mile haul, how long on average would one load take?
150 quid and it might take half a day, transports gone like contracting, everyone cutting rates + more and more hoops to jump through.

 

[Hanslope]

Just for the record, the reason camgrain weren’t as efficient last harvest early on was because of ultra early harvest with old crop that still needed moving and new crop being harvested at a fair rate. This was an industry wide problem.
I recently went to see the transport office there and learn/understand more about it, it’s not a job I would want, very difficult.
The key is communication, not cutting 500 tonnes then getting back to the yard and expecting 15 lorries to turn up at the drop of a hat!

It was quite understandable why there was a shortgage last summer, so not Camgrain bashing at all, I'm a big fan.

Just is the transport likely to be an increasing challenge, especially as there are more tonnes to shift into store and apparently less capacity.

Communication is key I agree, but that can ultimately cause Farmers to book collections for grain not harvested days in advance.

 

[bankrupt]

Even on a short 10 mile haul, how long on average would one load take?
.

Our haulier's been known to take the afternoon off after doing three 10 mile loads before noon.

In fact, I've an invoice paid here for £438.50 + VAT, last load tipped 11.42 one morning in August 2017.

Suits him, suits me.

 

[Brisel]

Getting haulage all last year seemed to be an issue. More older drivers saying stuff it to CPCs and medicals. Eastern European drivers leaving because of the weaker £ and Brexit.

The main reason seems to be the thin margins on bulk haulage and the hassle factor with mills & farmers not keeping to time slots. Just getting liquid fertiliser delivered was a pain - Yara offering lower rates even though fuel prices were rising. A few long standing hauliers like Turners of Soham and Goughs told Yara to shove it.

 

[Spud]

We've run a grain haulage operation for 27yrs, up until our last day, which was yesterday. It was dads baby, and has made nowt for the last few years. What kills the job is tipping times. The legislation, responsibility, keeping everything running is hard enough, but 2hr waiting (and longer) has become far too common.

We have hauled for big farmers ex combine before - too many ring up demanding trucks instantly, we bust a bollock to get there to find they haven't started, its too wet, they havent paid their last storage bill so we can't get tipped, etc etc. Fudge that. Be honest, communicate, give a bit of notice, pay your bill on time and be loyal to a decent local haulier, and its amazing what becomes possible.
Some people (from merchants who give you nowt during the week then want 4 loads doing to a notoriously slow mill on a Saturday, to the aforementioned big farmers who think they're the only customer in the world to mills that use trucks as free storage) take the pish.

We all need a slice of the cake.

 

[Spud]

Getting haulage all last year seemed to be an issue. More older drivers saying stuff it to CPCs and medicals. Eastern European drivers leaving because of the weaker £ and Brexit.

The main reason seems to be the thin margins on bulk haulage and the hassle factor with mills & farmers not keeping to time slots. Just getting liquid fertiliser delivered was a pain - Yara offering lower rates even though fuel prices were rising. A few long standing hauliers like Turners of Soham and Goughs told Yara to shove it.

A decent haulier in Norfolk, having bought several new vehicles for the CamGrain job, was told to lower his rates - they'd got some new firm in running old motors prepared to do the job for less money to get in. Guy with new motors said fudge that and sold them. (I bought one of his trailers) What, on this fine earth, did CG think they were achieveing? Lunacy.

 

[Hanslope]

We've run a grain haulage operation for 27yrs, up until our last day, which was yesterday. It was dads baby, and has made nowt for the last few years. What kills the job is tipping times. The legislation, responsibility, keeping everything running is hard enough, but 2hr waiting (and longer) has become far too common.

We have hauled for big farmers ex combine before - too many ring up demanding trucks instantly, we bust a bollock to get there to find they haven't started, its too wet, they havent paid their last storage bill so we can't get tipped, etc etc. Fudge that. Be honest, communicate, give a bit of notice, pay your bill on time and be loyal to a decent local haulier, and its amazing what becomes possible.
Some people (from merchants who give you nowt during the week then want 4 loads doing to a notoriously slow mill on a Saturday, to the aforementioned big farmers who think they're the only customer in the world to mills that use trucks as free storage) take the pish.

We all need a slice of the cake.

Same things comes up time and time again, slow tips, mills, rejections. Its about time the industry got together to sort it. If it a mill wants lorries to queue for two hours then take an hour to tip, that's fine as long as they pay the waiting time.
I think most farms are geared up for fast loading, there aren't any 4" augers still working are there?

 

[Brisel]

You'd be surprised - I get lots of tales from lorry drivers about the time taken to empty bin systems. Still half an hour loading time here with a 2t bucket or under the spout for silos at 70 t/hr

 

[bankrupt]

there aren't any 4" augers still working are there?

3" was always industry standard hereabouts.

No 3-phase electric.

Still got the first decent grain bucket we had here, made up to our own specification by Martin-Markham - (3x bigger than their biggest).

This was in 1964, just after the great blizzard, and they insisted upon invoicing it out as a 'snow' bucket.

"NOT to be used for heavy materials".

Cost us £40 (£850 in today's money).

 

[Spud]

Same things comes up time and time again, slow tips, mills, rejections. Its about time the industry got together to sort it. If it a mill wants lorries to queue for two hours then take an hour to tip, that's fine as long as they pay the waiting time.
I think most farms are geared up for fast loading, there aren't any 4" augers still working are there?

You'd be suprised - augers, bins with slow elevators, tractor loaders, tight little spots with little forklifts still exist. We have one with a 30t bin on legs - only one of our trailers will fit under it - takes him 6hrs to fill it, but he's a great bloke, tells you the crack before you go, we make sure we send the right trailer, go first thing, then if theres two load to go he has time to refill said bin and we go back later in the afternoon. All possible with a bit of communication. If you go back too quick or can't fit under the bin, its a 4" auger job.....
Plenty places with a 2t bucket too though, and the majority are great. It always suprises me how many scream for movement but cant load if its a shoot day. "What time do you go shooting?" "9am" "Plenty time to load before then, shall we come for 7.30?" "oo no, the lad will have to feed up first" "How long will that take him?" "20minutes" "See you at 7 then?" "well thats a bit early" "You said you wanted it moving" "well we do" "When can we come?" "Well anytime really?" "Tell you what, you leave the bucket on the forklift, nosed up to the right heap, keys in, passport in the cab, and the driver will load himself at 7, hows that?" "Oh well, I suppose we maybe could load you at 7" "Great, see you at 7 then" Driver gets there, sheet off, 7am, ready to load. Shed locked, no sign of anyone til 7.30. Does my head in.

 

[bankrupt]

cant load if its a shoot day.

You're being a bit facetious there, Spud.

This is very far from being always the case.

If one's driver's the only person available to come beating that day, then certainly,.

 

[Spud]

You're a bit facetious here, Spud.

This is far from being always the case.

When one's driver's the only one available to come beating that day, certainly,.

In fairness, @bankrupt , you've pulled a bit from what I wrote that makes it into something it isn't. I speak from experience. As I said, the majority are fine, just some can't help themselves - some, not by any means all.

We went to one place one September with seed corn, arrived on time as arranged. Farmer charging about " I haven't time to tip you now" No problem says my driver, I can come back later. "Can you? Great" Yep, says Tony, see you in November. "Fudging November? Thats no fudging good, I need the bloody stuff before then" Its here, on the wagon, you could of had half of it off in the time you've been shouting at me, do you want it or not? "I'll get the forklift" Thank you.

I kid you not.

 

[bankrupt]

I speak from experience..

You do, and your last four dynamic posts above all prove just that.

And, as it happens, I've never done a day's shooting in my life.

 

[Spud]

You do, and your last four dynamic posts above all prove just that.

And, as it happens, I've never done a day's shooting in my life.

Lol, neither have I, for that matter!!! We do host our local shoot - last year a prominent member was waxing lyrical about it being mostly a social occasion, then got on moaning about how soaked he'd got the previous time they'd been shooting. I asked him why he didn't just skip the standing in a wet field getting wet and just go to the pub for lunch and have the social there. Apparently I didn't know what I was on about.

 

[Oscar]

Sorry to hear you've jacked the haulage in Spud although you mention your dad so maybe you personally were not controlling it. I m just being nosey but what's happening to trucks and drivers ie will you just sell trucks privately or are the drivers going to buy them and try and carry on ?

 

[Spud]

Sorry to hear you've jacked the haulage in Spud although you mention your dad so maybe you personally were not controlling it. I m just being nosey but what's happening to trucks and drivers ie will you just sell trucks privately or are the drivers going to buy them and try and carry on ?

Hello Oscar. Our haulage enterprise was dads baby - he first got ill in 2016, and unfortunately died in March 18. Through having a really good team of staff, one of which came into the office to learn the ropes from dad a fair bit, we have been able to carry on for the last year or so, me not been one for knee jerk reactions.
Unfortunately, the updown nature of agricultural haulage, poor rates, increasing legislation, increasing inefficiency at mills, and the fact that I'm more of a farmer than a haulier, mean that though it turns over a lot of money, the profitability is nil. I cannot continue the risk, responsibility and sheer workload for nothing. Its taken a lot of sums and soul searching, but unfortunately I've had to bring 27yrs of transport here to a close.
I need to run the business for the future, not the past.

Our drivers have found opportunity and/or employment over the last month, and I am in the process of selling the trucks and trailers. Fancy buying one?

 

[steveR]

You'd be suprised - augers, bins with slow elevators, tractor loaders, tight little spots with little forklifts still exist. We have one with a 30t bin on legs - only one of our trailers will fit under it - takes him 6hrs to fill it, but he's a great bloke, tells you the crack before you go, we make sure we send the right trailer, go first thing, then if theres two load to go he has time to refill said bin and we go back later in the afternoon. All possible with a bit of communication. If you go back too quick or can't fit under the bin, its a 4" auger job.....

We used to be a bit like that years ago, and loaded 21t Bulkers* with a combination of FEL and elevator and spout (about = to a 3" auger) Surprisingly, we were one of the quicker small farms according to the drivers. BUT we always needed to educate transport managers every year, that "No we cannot load two in a row unless you want to wait!"

Hauling malting barley and seed crops to the East went well when we loaded a O/wner drivers wagon at 3pm, ready for him to be away first thing, then back again after dropping his return load, and reload at 3pm by which time we had filled the loading bin and the loader pile.

In time, I moved to just having a loading heap brought out of the bins at leisure, and then loaded up to 3 trucks from a building (cattle yard ) with a Handler.

Communication!! It wins everytime...


* No access for artics!

 

[yellow belly]

I hear from drivers that tipping times are the main problem
We often load before the driver has had time for his break
Fel with a 1.2 t toe tip

What is needed is harvests with 2 milli9n tonnes to export so Inland mills learn that there is better place to haul to

 

[ollie989898]

My experience of haulage is now many years out of date but in my experience the best way to run haulage was to sort it yourself. By this I mean you had a couple of preferred hauliers and you worked with them. Granted I was buying stuff rather than selling it most of the time but if I was involved in running a big farm with a lot of tonnes to move I would sell the stuff delivered and insist on my choice of haulier.

I know a lot of hauliers do not like farm work for whatever reason.

 

[Tipperted]

I'm a haulier and farmer and last year I couldn't move my own grain at harvest because the merchants didn't have the space to take anything, I had the trucks ready to go. Its not always the hauliers that are the bottleneck but they will generally get the blame.....