News / New rural freight charges raise eyebrows
SOME rural businesses have raised concerns about a new charging regime for the rural freight service being run by special needs charity and social enterprise COPE.
COPE took over the service when it was dropped by Shetland Islands Council in May to save the authority around £80,000 a year.
COPE manager Ingrid Webb said the new centre at their Gremista site next to the Shetland Scrapstore had become so busy they had no choice but to charge for the service.
Originally the organisation struck a deal with the three main hauliers supplying goods to the islands of Yell, Unst and Whalsay.
However lots of small businesses started to use the site during its opening hours from 9am to 1pm during the week.
“We let it run as a free service for six months to see the uptake and very quickly realised for it to be done safely it would have to be manned,” Webb said.
“It’s been far, far busier than we expected because so many people have been making use of it.
“We’re a charity, we don’t have a service level agreement with the council for the freight service, so we have to find a way to pay for it.”
Having assessed the traffic for the past six months, COPE plans in January to introduce a charging regime of £5 a week plus VAT for low level regular users, £10 for medium users and £50 a week for high level users.
Webb said most of the users she had spoken to were content with having to pay.
However some rural shops in the north mainland have warned the charges could affect business, especially for small producers.
Scott Preston, who runs Tagon Stores in Voe, said: “It seems difficult to justify these charges, which at the end of the day will fall on the customer.
“For us it also means we will have to consider how many local producers we are able to use, which is a shame because we have always supported local producers.”
Some shops are concerned that their suppliers are being charged to drop goods off, while they are being charged to pick them up.
Sheila Tulloch, of Hillswick Shop, said: “I think there will be a number of retailers who will be unhappy about the duplication of charges.”
Charlie Hodge of the Walls Bakery said the charges were far higher than they paid to the council.
However Webb said she had discussed the charges with council managers who had told her they would have had to charge even more for the same service.
“We want this to be successful because we can see the value of it to rural communities. We have tried to do the very best we can, but we do need to cover our costs,” she said.
She said the centre had been staffed until now by employees seconded from the Shetland Scrapstore, but to keep the service going they would need to provide a dedicated worker.
She added that it was a good opportunity for COPE’s clients who have learning difficulties to pick up skills, especially around dealing with people.
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