General News

Oil price fixing investigations welcomed

European Commission investigations into alleged price fixing by a number of oil giants have been welcomed by the Road Haulage Association (RHA) and Fair Fuel UK.

Following raids into the offices of the oil companies in questions, there are claims that prices have been fixed for more than a decade. European Commission officials said its investigators made the "unannounced inspections" on Tuesday amid claims that collusion between companies may have occurred in a bid to distort prices.

Widespread culture of late payments revealed

European businesses saw almost £300 billion of late payments last year as late payment culture has been shown to be a continent-wide issue afflicting small businesses and SMEs, according to new research.

This was a 7% rise on the previous year’s figures, the survey by Swedish credit management services group Intrum Justitia showed.

The survey asked almost 10,000 companies across 29 different countries about how late payments have affected them, with companies said to be most at risk from late payments in Greece, Cyprus, Hungary and Portugal.

Industrial production across UK rises

UK industrial production output was better than expected in March, official figures have revealed, with manufacturing output leading the way.

Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures showed an output rise of 0.7% month-to-month rise in March, higher than the expected figure of 0.2%.

Manufacturing, defined in this survey as a sub-section of industrial production, scored a 1.1% increase, with electronics, metals and machinery all said to be performing well.

Hauliers looking to increase workforces

Almost seven in 10 transport and logistics firms in the UK have plans to increase the size of their workforce in 2013, a new survey has revealed.

In the same survey from 2012, just under half of respondents indicated they would be creating new jobs, so it is a notable year-on-year rise in employment intentions.

Another piece of good news coming from the survey was that only 21% were planning to make job cuts over the next year, suggesting that hauliers have come through the worst of the economic storm of the last few years.

Small companies to begin recruitment drives

UK small businesses are looking to grow their workforce through the remainder of 2013, a new survey by global workforce provider Regus has indicated.

A quarter of firms surveyed plan to increase their headcount by 5% or more, whilst 20% are looking to expand their numbers by between 2-5%.

Businesses are increasingly looking to expand their new business functions. More than half suggested that their recruitment drive will focus on sales and marketing staff, implying that growth is high on the agenda for the rest of the year.

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