On 7 May, 10:50, Conor wrote:
The hauliers are going out of business because although the retailers
etc are upping the price, using the rise in fuel costs as an excuse,
the rates the hauliers are getting isn't going up.

One owner driver on the trucknet forums says his diesel bill is now
£240 a week more than a year ago and its hurting hard.

What I do not get is why not? I would assume the haulage industry is
close to a free market, so if the cost to supply a service is going
up, why do the hauliers not raise their prices? Presumably this is
hitting everyone the same, as the global costs have gone up. The only
explanation I can think of (while knowing next to nothing about how
the industry works) is that they have somehow got into multi year
fixed price contracts, but surely the cost of crude has been on the
rise for long enough now that anyone would include the cost of deseil
into the contract price? The other possibiliy may be some sort of
starbuck style loss making by a big player, but surely then they would
be the target of protests rather the desiel tax.