News

TMH Transport, which is based in Ipswich, has entered administration after a key customer left following the theft of a lorry and its £25,000 tyre load.

According to TMH, on Friday 24 April, diesel payments bounced and the group found itself with not enough money for wages, resulting in the appointment of administrators B&C Associates on 30 April.

TMH Transport's  managing director, Marc Bridges, says a cash flow problem was caused by the loss of a two-year-old partnership with Stapleton's Tyre Services.

The tyre stockist pulled the plug at the end of January following a theft, two weeks earlier,of a truck and its load in Bedfordshire.

"I understand that as a major firm [Stapleton's Tyre Services] had to be seen to do something to make sure this sort of theft would not happen again, but for us, it accounted for 25% of business.Unfortunately, lorry drivers are at risk from freight crime," he says.

Bridge tells CM that everything came to a head on 24 April: "We had been having cash problems since last summer with high fuel costs and declining volumes. We were trying to keep up with seven-day payments when we ourselves were often waiting up to eight weeks for our own payments."

There  has been 15 driver redundancies at the firm, which operated nine HGVs.