Ryedale truckers to face move or redundancy (From York Press)

Ryedale truckers to face move or redundancy

4:50pm Wednesday 4th February 2009 in News By Jeremy Small

IT STARTED 17 years ago as one truck parked on a Ryedale farm, then grew to become a national transport company – and now the business is saying goodbye to its original home.

The lorry park on Johnathan Bulmer’s farm in Great Habton, near Malton, where 14 drivers – some of whom live in Malton and the surrounding area – are based, is closing in the next month.

The drivers, who are also known as ‘trampers’, pick up containers from docks and deliver them to customers.

The move comes after Bulmers Logistics Limited (BL) went into administration last month, with Bulmers Transport (BT), which is owned by Mr Bulmer, buying the assets and trade of BL. One of the drivers based at the Great Habton site was made redundant before Christmas. BT says it has asked the remaining drivers to relocate their base to one of the firm’s other sites, primarily at Teesside or Hull.

A spokesman for BT, which is based in Teesside, said next week, the trampers would trial working from the new locations for a period of four weeks. “If it doesn’t work out for them then they can apply for voluntary redundancy,” he said.

“Having Malton as a base meant drivers had to come in and off routes at the beginning and end of each week and occasionally during the week in order to park up, so we were running more miles.

“So we’re relocating the base of each truck to some of our larger centres in Teesside and Hull, so that there’s less off-road running.”

He said a detailed consultation with each driver about the location that was best-suited to them would be concluded this week. “It’s essentially a change of terms and conditions,” he said. “For some drivers it’s no problem whatsoever – it’s just as easy to park in Teesside as it is in Malton. For others it’s a bit more of a challenge.” The spokesman revealed some of the trampers moving base were BT’s longest-serving drivers, with two having recently received ten-year service awards.

BT employs 171 drivers, but as part of its buy-out of BL, BT is making 32 drivers redundant.

The Great Habton truck park will be unaffected by this.