ICSM Business – Logistics Insolvency News: family haulage firm calls in the administrators after massive fines for health and safety breaches

By Harry Mottram: the number of haulage businesses going to wall is rising year on year with the 463 firms going bust in the last 12 months. Date published by Price Bailey Accountants show that haulage businesses entering insolvency across 2020/21 was 225, but that figure has risen by 173 per cent over 2022/23 to 463 insolvencies according to Maria Ward-Brennan of Yahoo Finance News.

Now another firm has joined the long list of company failures as the Haulage Group in Sutton Coldfield appointed Edward M Avery-Gee, Daniel Richardson and Nick Brierley, of Manchester-based CG Recovery, as joint administrators. Earlier this year Bridgetime Transport Limited, AAD Transport and North West Cargo all went bust in the same week in February while in April Gwynedd Shipping left unsecured creditors with an £8million black hole.

A number of reasons are given for most hauliers going bust with debt, a drop in orders, a lost main contract and a hike in fuel costs along with the Brexit Business Deal which has raised costs for exporting and importing.

However, for Sutton Coldfield-based family firm The Haulage Group was fined £300,000 under the Healthy and Safety At Work Act when a worker was knocked down in their yard by a truck. The Haulage Group appeared in court alongside Turners (Soham) last when they were fined a combined total of £2.2m after a depot manager was struck by a reversing HGV and killed.

Ian Carrotte of ICSM said there must have been a link between the insolvency and the fines which have seen the 15 staff made redundant. He said: “One of the main problems most firms have who get into trouble financially is debt as essentially it kills cash flow and with hikes in interest rates and a rise in recent times of inflation manageable debt becomes unmanageable.”

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