Let’s face it, nobody likes red tape but most of us accept it as a necessary, if sometimes, frustrating part of life.
Yet sometimes, red tape applied without understanding the situation “on the ground— can be very costly, to businesses and more importantly, to people.
Ramsey Bros was in the fuel distribution game from its earliest days in the 1950s. Bulk fuel was picked up from terminals at Port Pirie or Port Lincoln and kept in Cleve ready for delivery to farms across the district. By the 1980s, Cleve boasted up to four or five fuel agents including Shell, Esso, Mobil, BP, Caltex in addition to Ramsey Bros which by this time had also acquired KI Fuel.
Competition in such a small market was fierce and margins were ridiculously tight—today it’s not unusual to see wild fuel price variations of up to 40 cents per litre but 30 years ago you were lucky to make 3 cents per litre on the pump.
Selling around 4 million litres per year on that kind of return relegated fuel distribution to a far less prominent part of the Ramsey Bros portfolio but with drivers already moving stock and machinery it made sense for it to remain a part of the expanding business.
So, you can imagine the surprise when an Australian Petroleum Agents and Distributors Association (APADA) representative drove the 550km from Adelaide to Cleve to lay down the law regarding award rates and conditions.
The heavily unionised APADA was a force to be reckoned with representing the national interests of those involved with fuel distribution.
And on this occasion, KI Fuel had caught the eye of one of their over-zealous representatives.
“I’m here to establish the ownership of KI Fuel,— said the rep who had never been to Cleve before.
“There’s no secret about that,— was the reply from the Ramsey Bros team. “We own it.—
“Well, it has come to my attention that you have drivers who distribute fuel for Ramsey Bros and KI Fuel who are not under our award,— returned the APADA rep officiously.
This was true. Ramsey Bros staff were paid under other state and federal awards that reflected the majority of their work – carting livestock and machinery. Fuel distribution was only a very minor percentage of their role.
To shift those staff under the APADA award would have instantly priced Ramsey Bros out of the market with the higher wage costs passed on to local farmers who would simply go to one of the other Cleve-based fuel distributors to keep their own costs down.
That would mean less work and therefore lost jobs due to red tape.
Three local guys would have been immediately dropped from the Ramsey Bros payroll and robbed of any income.
As they say, life is not always black and white, it’s a million shades of grey – except on this day.
Faced with an impossible choice, the decision was made by management to stop distributing fuel.
And three local Cleve jobs were saved.
Because protecting livelihoods in a small country town is worth much, much more than 3 cents per litre.