Local truckers will soon begin benefiting from the construction of the international airport at Argyle.
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has announced that over the next eight months, local trucks will be contracted to work at the construction site.
“… we are going to spend in the region of $3 million on trucking. We are renting now about 14 trucks every two weeks,” he told Parliament on Thursday.
He said there are over 50 trucks, ranging from 4 to 12 tonnes, which will be rotated every two weeks.
“So everybody get a piece of the action. It’s good money for the truckers and it is a sensible way for IADC to operate. Because we are coming to the end, it doesn’t make sense in buying a whole new set of trucks.”
Gonsalves said the owner of a 4-tonne truck will make EC$600 a day, while a 12-tonne trucks will make EC$1,050.
He noted the monies to be made if a trucker spends EC$150 on diesel and pays the driver EC$100 per day.
“So it’s good money that fellas are making,” he told Parliament, adding that one trucker has said he will work one day free for every 12 paid days.
The government has initially acquired its own truck to do the earthworks at the airport when works began five years ago.
So u mean to say after all these yrs is now the local truckers getting a piece of the action. I am sure they have to have their party cards and carrying ” labour now” ” I am labour” “me nah turn back” bumper stickers. What ah country!
“Because we are coming to the end, it doesnt make sense in buying a whole new set of trucks.
What a BAREFACED politrickan…
Such utter contempt for the Vincentian people.
IADC’s own trucks most of which many are now broken down, they need trucking or they will have to spend money repairing or buying more trucks. What they are looking for are tipper trucks.
Trucks working off road, on site, have a maintenance cost of 5 times that of road use.
Also if you have a truck that has 5 years road use left in its life, on site it will be 1 year.
Tyres may be damaged hourly, daily, or weekly, the maintenance cost regarding replacement tyres will be astronomical, it could well come to as much as is being offered for work. The tyres for off road site work are special tyres, made for that use. Using road tyres and some of which may be thread bare and bald, they won’t last a day.
The wear and damage sustained by carrying stone and rock will wreck a truck body in no time at all.
So what does that tell us, the daily rate should be up to 5 times that paid for road use.
I watched Mr Balcome working at Buccament. Three really good trucks, big tippers, were completely written off in seven months, just carrying rock and stone on site, no road use.
As for the cost of diesel, in most other countries vehicles employed on site work get duty and tax free diesel. Do they expect truckers to use diesel off road and still pay tax’s on it?
Also if the vehicles are used exclusively off road for a period, during that period the owners should get a refund of the road fund licence, the road tax. Because that’s what happens in other countries.
Working on the airport at those rates will see their trucks destroyed, and the owners bankrupted.
Remember these privately owned trucks are road trucks not off-road site trucks. Off road trucks are usually made specifically for off road use.
And last but least, seeing as there are around 60 Argyle land owners that have not been paid for their land taken for the airport. If they still owe land owners how can we trust IADC to pay truckers their money promptly when its due?
ITS NOT ENOUGH MONEY, PAY THE PEOPLE THE PROPER RATE
Having said all that, there are desperate people out there who will work for 25 dollars a day.