A recent survey carried out by the Road Haulage Association, has found that over 3/4 of haulage companies have seen a a dramatic downturn in business. The findings come as no surprise given the recession.

Jack Semple, director of policy at the RHA, said: “Business demand dropping off is a big enough problem on its own, but coupled with the fact that customers are taking longer to pay, it is a real problem,” Semple says. “This industry is already well below the business average for receiving payments.”

The survey was conducted amongst 300 drivers, ranging from owner-drivers to large fleets and found:

• 41% reported business was down by 10-30%
• 20% found business had fallen 30-50%
• 9% has seen business drop by more than 50%
• 52% of hauliers say customers are taking significantly longer to pay
• 20% of operators are having serious problems agreeing credit facilities with banks
• 25% of hauliers face difficulties getting credit for spare parts and consumables

A rather nice surprise this morning was news that Shiply has been featured in today’s Daily Telegraph.

The piece which played off the new movie “confessions of a shopaholic” (don’t think I’ll be rushing to see this one), was an article based on how the reporter Kara Gammell used the Internet to save over £1,000 when moving home. It was a great article which really does show that if you, the consumer are willing to shop around, you can make great savings.

Kara used shiply.com to move some furniture which a friend had kindly given her. Instead of hiring a van and driving it herself, she used Shiply and got a fantastic price of just £54 for a 78 mile journey. This represented a saving of over £81, not to mention time and effort!

We’re so glad that Shiply helped aid this move and not only saved Kara money but also helped the environment by keeping that hire van off the road and fitting her delivery in with a transport provider already making a similar trip.

Moving house is always a stressful time, and not to mention expensive. However, there are ways you can cut the cost of moving home. Shiply is just one of them. We have thousands of removal companies who are constantly up and down the country carrying out house removals. Much of the time however, they are forced to return back from a job with an empty vehicle – what a waste!

What Shiply enables you as a home-mover is to match yourself up with these empty vehicles – saving you up to 75% in costs.

There are 2 main types of removal service you can request. You can opt for a full-service, that is the removal company packs up your goods, loads them into their vehicle, drives to the destination, offloads and unpacks. A cheaper option is semi-service, whereby the transport company will help you with the transport of the goods themselves from your old home to your new home but leave the packing/unpacking up to you.

Home removal firms are waiting now to hear from you, so list your move for free and with no obligation. Compare the prices you receive with the full-rates you got elsewhere and you will be pleasantly surprised. You are helping the environment too, by keeping these empty vehicles full!

Like most services, you wouldn’t accept the first price quoted! So, it really pays to shop around for car delivery quotes. Like most things in life, you do tend get what you pay for, however just because you find a cheap price for moving your car it doesn’t mean that service will be poor.

When driving on the motorway in the UK, I’m sure that we have all seen those large multi-vehicle transporters and I bet that you have also seen many that are only half full or some that only have one car being transported. These are the situations where consumers are able to get a low price for car transport. If the car delivery company is already making a trip similar to yours and has capacity to spare, it is not unusual for them to offer discounts of up to 75%.

Similarly, it will often be the case that a car transport company is making a trip with a full load from London to Manchester say and after delivery has to return back to the depot in Manchester empty. Finding loads for that return journey which car transporters have to make is what’s referred to in the industry as backloads and generally come with huge discounts.

Shiply enables you, the consumer to match yourself up with these empty car transporters already on the road and with capacity to spare. You simply list your vehicle on the site for free and then thousands of transport providers will bid for your job – like an auction. Don’t be surprised to receive quotes up to 75% cheaper than if you just “phoned around”!

You can also quickly and easily import vehicles you are bidding on from eBay for delivery Motors into hiply.

MEPs in the transport committee are floating the idea and voting on plans to charge a green tax on lorries.

Under proposals put forward last year by the EU, HGV operators would be charged for noise, congestion and air pollution caused by their vehicles.

If voted in, the tax could be introduced as soon as 2001. The news will be seen as yet more red tape in an industry which is already very highly legislated and indeed taxed.

Rather than yet more tax, we feel the government should be pushing best practice to meet environmental sustainability goals.

Moving a yacht or boat, be it a sailing yacht or power boat is not a regular job by any means. The process is a delicate one and one which does require a good deal of planning.

First off, the size of your vessel will often dictate the type of service most appropriate. Smaller boats tend to be transported by road on a trailer as this can be the quickest and cheapest option.

However, if you have a large boat, above 26ft or so, you may find that transport by road is a particularly costly and difficult process. Such large loads generally require permits from government and sometimes even a police escort. That is why sea yacht delivery is generally preferred. You can hire a qualified yacht delivery skipper to deliver your boat from A-B. When opting for a sea delivery, it is very important that you check the skipper’s and indeed crew’s experience levels and documentation. They should be accredited by the RYA and carry the correct licenses and insurance cover for your vessel. Insist upon references and carry out background checks prior to agreeing a price.

Properly preparing your boat transport is crucial if you want to help guarantee it arrives at its destination in the same condition it left. Before boat transport, it is advisable to fully wash down the vessel and hull so that you can see all the areas and record any pre-existing damage. Make sure to take time-stamped photos as these can be used later as evidence should any problems arise.

Before releasing your yacht to a boat delivery company, you should have it surveyed by a licensed marine surveyor. They will be able to assess whether or not there any major issues which could arise by transporting the boat either by sea or road.

If you need to dis-assemble your yacht before transport, for example dropping the mast on a sail boat, make notes of what you are doing as it will make re-assembly far easier at the destination.

Make sure that you have done the following in advance to pick-up day:

• Any loose gear stored below or removed from vessel altogether
• All hatches should be locked shut, if not possible, these should be secured by taping them up
• Ensure your gas supply is switched off

Additionally for road deliveries

• Ensure that all fuel and water tanks are empty
• For road deliveries batteries on board need to be disconnected
• All valuable electronics should be removed
• Take the anchors below deck and secure them with padding

When taking delivery of your yacht, be sure to thoroughly check all areas of the boat. Do not sign anything to accept the delivery until you have carried out a thorough check of the hull, decks, rigging and indeed every aspect. Should there be any new damage, the boat transport company will have the necessary insurance cover to rectify the issues.

Arranging a courier or haulage company to move large and fragile items has always been a bit of a headache. Unfortunately it is never as easy as just nipping down to the post office.

If the goods delivery is over sized and cannot go via a parcel network such as DHL, UPS, City Link etc, then you will need to arrange for an independent courier to collect and deliver your goods.

If the items you are moving are fragile, you will need to carefully choose the most appropriate packing materials for the job. Bubble wrap is always popular as you can easily wrap it around even the most odd-sized goods and antiques. It also a good idea to find out the size of vehicle proposed to be used by the delivery company and the other types of goods which will be travelling alongside (or on top!) of your items.

Particularly with fragile moves such as artwork shipping and antiques, it is important to gauge the level of insurance offered by the courier you choose. Be extra careful with breakables such as glass as some insurance policies will not cover such fragile items. You may find, however, that your own home insurance policy will cover your goods in transit.

When booking a transport provider for moving large items, you should try to gauge whether or not the driver will be working alone or will have another worker with them. If they are a “one man and his van” operation, then it is likely they will need assistance with loading and unloading.

At some point I’m sure that we have all needed to transport a car in the UK. However, what happens when you need to move your vehicle overseas, say to Spain, France or just over to Ireland?

Finding car transporters to move your vehicle in Europe is a more complicated process. Most importantly you must remember that different laws, rules and regulations exist in different European countries. So, understandably it really does pay to choose a car transport company that have experience with car delivery overseas.

Insurance is another important point, you must check that not only your chosen car transport company has valid insurance within the UK to move vehicles legally and with adequate cover but also that this cover extends to Europe and indeed any other countries which they intend to drive through.

Once you are happy with your chosen car delivery company, be sure to insist upon a written contract and take note of any pre-existing damage prior to pick-up. Note the mileage to cross-check once the car is delivered, there should be no major increases in mileage which would suggest the car has been driven.

We currently have a number of vehicles for delivery, take a look and see how Shiply works.

As I’m sure most of you will have seen, we today have launched our new search shipments section over at: http://www.shiply.com/search.php.

New functionality includes:

• More accurate search along route results
• Search along a route anywhere in Europe (previously UK only)
• Local search
• Filter by requested pickup/delivery dates
• Display up to 500 shipments per results page
• Save local and along a route serches and receive email alerts of new shipments daily
• Filter all search results by category, price and date
• Sort by columns in local and along route searches

We hope this new functionality will be of great benefit to Shiply transport providers and make it even easier and quicker to source work.

Whilst we are very happy with the new search functionality, we will never consider this finished, so please do send us feedback and help us improve this further!

Happy Searching!

Despite the Manchester congestion charge being quashed by residents, it is predicted that hauliers in Manchester may face extra charges.

The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) is now looking for new ways to fund public transport improvements. One idea motioned by AGMA is to increase business rates to raise £38m.

AGMA chairman Lord Peter Smith says raising business rates would enable the city to do “about a tenth” of what it had originally planned.

The news will come as a blow to those hauliers who fought so hard to deny the congestion charge.