'It's just getting worse' - Transport firms counting the cost of pothole repairs on West Midlands roads

According to research by the Federation for Small Businesses(FSB), almost half of small firms were negatively impacted by potholes last year, including damage to work vehicles, missed meetings and road accidents.

A quarter (24%) of small firms say pothole damage has cost them more than £300 in the last 12 months.

Last week, the Government announced an extra £1.6 billion in funding for local authorities to tackle what they described as a "pothole plague" - with every council in England now required to publish figures on how many potholes they’ve filled or risk losing the extra cash. 

Ian Francis, who runs TCs Haulage in Shropshire, described the problem as "horrendous" and says there are areas across the region where his firm's drivers have memorised the locations of some of the worst ones.

"It's not just us, it's everybody - it's a bit of a shambles but that's life in general at the moment," he said.

"We travel around the West Midlands a lot and it's just horrendous at the minute. I understand they have budgets to stick to but the damage being caused is just horrendous.

"From a transport point of view it's horrendous and it doesn't stop with a tyre going bang does it - if it takes out a mudguard or a wing it adds up very quickly and I can't send the bill to the council unfortunately.

"If you hit a pothole at 50 miles an hour it's £600 worth of tyre on there and it soon knocks the profit out of the job. Truck tyres are a bit more robust than car tyres are but they're £600 each and not the easiest thing to replace.

"To be honest, we travel all over the country and Shropshire is probably one of the worst areas we see for potholes. When you start going into other counties of course they have potholes but their roads are noticeably better and we're probably getting a bad name for ourselves."

Meanwhile the boss of another West Midlands based firm, who did not want to be identified, said there was "very little light at the end of the tunnel" for haulage firms who were struggling with increased costs as a result of the poor condition of the roads.

"They're certainly getting worse and they've been getting worse over the years," he said. 

"If you're rolling along at 50 miles per hour and a tyre goes bang, you've got 44 tonnes of weight there and of course the consequences could be very serious.

"You're not going to notice a difference on the road with artics, it's the cars which will be more affected. If the potholes are there to start with having a 44 tonne truck driving over it isn't going to help is it, so the problem's only getting worse."

Taxi driver Basil Brockhurst, who runs Basil's Taxi's in Market Drayton, says in his region of north Shropshire the pot holes on some roads resemble a "patchwork quilt" - with some repairs coming undone in a matter of weeks. 

"They're getting deeper and down the road where I live in Stoke Heath there's a pothole in the middle of the road which is about 3 inches deep now. On the main highways around the north of Shropshire it doesn't matter where you go they're getting deeper," he said.

"I'm sick of the sight of temporary traffic lights just appearing and not getting told anything. The ones they are doing is just a patchwork quilt - it's a top up and two or three weeks later you're back to square one."

Duncan Harris, Transport Manager at Salop Haulage, said the topic is a regular feature at their Road Haulage Association meetings - but that logistics firms were feeling little progress on repairs.

"I think everyone's of the same feeling - that it's getting worse," he said. 

"I can't really say we've noticed any cost increases in terms of maintenance ourselves but there's always wear and tear on springs and tyres and such and who can say what exactly is causing it - it's just one of those things really and you've just got to just got to suck it up and absorb the costs."

A statement from the UK Government issued earlier this month said that from mid-April, local authorities in England would start to receive an extra £500 million, which they say is enough to fill 7 million potholes a year.

Local authorities in England are required to publish reports on their websites by June 30 which detailing how much they are spending on pot hole repairs, how many have been filled and the condition of the affected roads.