The Skip Magazine

I would like to let you know how much we appreciate all your hard work in producing the skip magazine. All the staff read it and there are some great articles.

Perhaps it may be an idea to find the best skip company in the land ! not only for service but the look of the fleet , politeness of drivers and office staff etc

I look forward to receiving the next installment

kind regards

Denise
Riches Skips

I think you should keep up the good work, we receive plenty of boring magazines that just panda to there advertisers, most of which usually don't make it out of the plastic wrapper it came in (oh the irony of putting the unread magazine named 'Recycling Monthly' in the bin). yours is the only magazine that every one in our office makes sure we have a look at, in fact we have a pile containing all of you back issues. Please do not publish his idea of 'most professionally placed skip' how dull would that be! So keep on doing what you're doing, I personally think we are lucky as an industry to have such a forward thinking editorial team working for us.

Dave Nickolls
Nickolls Skip Hire

Are you looking to add your comments to our skip permit petition? If so you can read the story so far and add your comments on our skip permit petition page.

This post to the site is where you can leave a comment in order to sign up to our petition to the government and local authorities of the UK to get things sorted regarding skip permits, lights and interpretations of the Road Traffic Act 1980. The more of you that sign, the louder our voice will be.

The inspiration for this petition is this letter we got from Chris at East Lancs Skip Hire in late December. We're publishing it in February's edition, but here it is:

"Dear Mark,

As you may be aware this is not a new issue. Back in the eighties, the late Mr John Field, the founder of our company, ran the “Skip and Tip Owners Association” giving a lot of free advice as well as defending the occasional court case.

Looking at the “Highway Act” and the ”Table for Charges”, they use phrases like “the person making the application” and “the person requiring the permit” .This in my opinion is the customer, builder or householder not the skip operator. They are trying to make themselves a very easy life and make us unpaid tax collectors.

As for the amount of charge in our area, the charge varies from zero to £22.50 which is a wide variation and at £22.50 is excessive. A more reasonable amount would be say a £1.00 if a charge at all is to be made .After all they are only allowed to charge for “considering the matter” and covering any legitimate expenses .Only 1% of people are willing to get a permit and pay exorbitant fees as they consider the charge another stealth tax. But 100% would get permits if they were no charge or a reasonable charge of say a £1.00.

Regarding the matter of lighting and coning, to say the “owner” is liable is unreasonable and impossible to work as in our case we have 1200 skips .How could we go round and check them every night? We are currently in a legal dispute with Lancashire County Council which may have to go to the High Court for Judicial Review. We are also in the process of responding to a Department Of Transport consultation on the “Draft Regulations for Local Authority Permit Schemes”. Our solicitor would like to know if other skip operators agree with our opinions.

Regards
Christopher Peano, Managing Director
East Lancs Skip Hire Ltd"

..and this is what I am saying to Chris in the mag...

"The Skip says: Thank you for this letter Christopher – (if anyone has read this and wants their voice heard in this response to the Department Of Transport consultation on the “Draft Regulations for Local Authority Permit Schemes”, please send them into The Skip ASAP at the usual address. We’ll pass them on to Christopher and publish your opinions) - I couldn’t agree with you more, it really does amaze me how a simple act can be interpreted so differently across the country. As I think I said in a previous issue, skip permit charges are really a tax on the poor (especially people who don’t have enough private property to place skips on).

It’s about time government and local authorities – who bleat on endlessly about the environment and recycling – got a consensus that skip permit charges are making skips prohibitively expensive and therefore encouraging flytipping. The whole lights issue makes me laugh as well. It’s hopelessly out of date and just plain stupid to expect all skips to be lighted and checked every day. The Act implies this is all about road safety, but cars don’t have to have lights on when they’re parked at night do they? As long as the skip has reflective strips on it, how is it more dangerous on the road than a car? So, here’s an idea: we’re going to use our website to set up a PETITION. Just go to www.theskip.net and search for “petition”. You can then read what we are petitioning for (single permit prices, no lights requirements, clarity over hirer responsibilities etc.) and then LEAVE A COMMENT (it’s dead easy to do). In your comment, your name and company name will be seen as a signature to the petition – even better would be to leave your tales of council/Road Traffic Act woe for all to see. This petition can then be used by Chris’ solicitor and we’ll update you as we get any news."

So, if you have any experiences with your local authority and their interpretations of the Act and you want to share them with everyone else, just click on the "Comments" link at the bottom right of this post.

Here's a letter published in issue 16 of The Skip:

Dear Mark, Katy and the rest of the team,

We collected a skip from a householder the other day and were provided by them the attached piece of paper where they detailed the contents of their skip. This was certainly a first for our drivers and us. I know that householders have become responsible for the correct disposal of their waste since Nov last year, but I think this was taking things a little further. Our driver asked if they could put the EWC code on the ticket!!

We love reading your magazine and the girls certainly look forward to your Hunks. I would also like to reiterate our support for a national association for the skip industry. The industry is in dire need of formalised system for skip permits and also a ‘badge’ to show that we’re not cowboys. We advertise clearly that we have our own waste transfer station and waste carrier’s license but at present this seems to make no difference to the, ‘I can get it much cheaper from someone else’ brigade. I have spoken with friends who work with with EA on the problem of fly tipping and they personally think an association is an excellent idea. We need to educate the public!

Yours sincerely

Anna-Maria McAuliffe
Eco-Friendly Skip Hire
Wolverhampton

Here's a letter I got from Anthony Small of Cox Waste Management in Devon in October:

Dear Mark

It sounds that I am no different than anybody else in this business. We are all too busy just getting on with our daily duties, sorting out a customer who has just had his gate pier damaged by a skip lorry or a driver who has his arse in his hand because he does not want to drive a particular lorry today as his lorry is off the road for maintenance or repairs – all the usual stuff. Also I have been busy setting up a new recycling centre for all the other local skip hire companies, local authorities and builders to use.

But I have finally found time to write back to you following our last telephone conversation and regarding your article in ‘The Skip’, yes, I believe you are right with regards to having a national brand in conjunction with the NSHA, Stamp of Quality. I do believe that we do need to have a National Skip Hire Association for the skip hire and waste management industries and all meet up at least once a year to, as you put it, ‘moan about our problems.

It is not just about moaning about our problems, a few of us have been talking to each other since and I have visited a couple of the companies’ waste transfer stations that were tat the meeting (that I had not met before) in order to get ideas etc.

Last year I was very fortunate to be invited by Blue Machinery to a recycling exhibition in Las Vegas – (didn’t see much of the exhibition, but that’s another story!). As you can imagine, a hundred people from all over the UK all in the same business with ideas, information bouncing around, relationships formed and also the business exchanged since has been unbelievable.

The December meeting went very well. The NSHA is not yet formed but the ball is rolling with people talking about their experiences and problems and listening to talks about legislation, regulations etc. All of us got something out of the meeting and for the next gathering there will be twice of three times the amount of people. Let’s have another meeting and see where it takes us – let’s keep the ball rolling.

I know that you are very busy but please don’t give up the idea of a Skip Association. As I mentioned before I don’t mind being a contact in the South West for the Association.

Yours sincerely

Anthony Small
Cox Waste Management
Devon

PS Keep up the good work.

"We really enjoy reading "THE SKIP" each month. A great mix of information and the light hearted stories we all enjoy"

Jonathan Walsh MIBA BA (Hons)
McNab Bros., County Down