Is your bonus rth whi e?
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HE MOST RECENT service to be added to an already long list of services available to FTA nembers is transport consultancy. The service began with an engineering inquiry a year ago Ind has now developed into a full-scale consultancy service headed by Martin Downer. It )ffers everything that a specialised transport consultancy service should.
Terry Goldrick plus wall chart — the progress of the various consultancies currently in operation is plotted on a wall chart.
No job is too small or too lifficult to be tackled. Some are elatively simple and these Marin Downer describes as "mini :onsultancies."' They amount to ,pending a few hours with the :lient talking through his probem until a solution is found.
The service is not met entirely )y direct resources. The FTA eadily agrees that it has no )perational expertise and where his is required one of four iccredited transport consultants s engaged.
Should the problem be purely operational the client and -.:onsultant are introduced and he FTA only comes back into :he scene when the job is completed. Fees are charged directly 3y the consultant to the client.
Many commissions demand 'nore than an operational
examination. In these cases the FTA consolidates the -subcontractor'sreports with its own report to the client.
The types of consultancy tasks which FTA is equipped to tackle with its own staff are productivity schemes, conditions of contract, staff recruitment, depot and workshop planning and technical.
Consultancy briefs are usually initiated at regional level either through the regional officer or a vehicle inspector. The inquiry is passed in some detail to Martin Downer who makes arrangements to have the client visited by one of the specialists.
Following the initial visit, which is made at no cost to the client, a quotation for the service
is tendered. If he accepts the quote the service is activated. At the end of the study a report is prepared, submitted to the client and discussed with him. The FTA cannot afford to offer a -here today, gone tomorrow" service. Its clients are also its members and an unworkable or unacceptable conclusion to a consultancy study would almost certainly lose a member.
This is the most recent example of FTA's diversification policy. The need was first identified when the Association's vehicle inspectors were presented with technical queries which had to be referred to Terry Gold rick, the FTA's controller of engineering services. All other forms of consultancy branched out from that point. To find out how the consultancy scheme worked in detail, especially on the engineering side, CM talked to Terry who has overall responsibility for this function. His empire is split up into five regions (South-Eastern, South-Western, Midlands, Northern and Scottish) each with its own regional engineer and team of inspectors. Directly responsible to Terry Goldrick are the engineering manager, Ron Rider, and the inspection services manager, Dave Moody.
"Our function is to help out in the management field with systems and advice on the provision and maintenance of vehicles at the lowest life cost"' said Terry_ One of the areas in which the continued overleaf FTA is developing is that of engineering consultancy. The procedure for this is set in motion by an inquiry from a member and is normally concerned with inspection, vehicle replacement or staffing. Having got the inquiry, it is fed out to the region concerned.
The investigating engineer will build up a plan of how the job is to be tackled by following a "consultancy check-list." This is intended for the guidance of the investigating engineer regarding the scope and content of the information to be submitted to Hermes House.
Information on the type of work and the nature of the freight carried are recorded as well as the general routeing pattern including any Continental work. The number of vehicles/trailers based at each operating depot is noted as well as indicating the predominant makes and types.
The current fleet replacement policy and new vehicle intake would be studied and a list of the vehicles on order but not yet delivered would be included. In this way, the FTA is able to build up a picture of the structure and operation of the -customer" concerned.
Workshop loading
Next the engineer would-turn to the maintenance and repair side of the operation and review the system currently in use. The collection of information here would include an assessment of the workshop loading based on the number of vehicles, the planned frequency of the various maintenance operations and their standard times.
To illustrate the procedure of the consultancy operation, consider the case of a district council which asked the FTA for advice on its maintenance facilities. The brief was to examine the vehicle maintenance systems in general and the adquacy of the workshop premises and the equipment provided in particular. The FTA was also asked to comment on the standard of the vehicle maintenance records and to make recommendations -with a view to improving the workshop layout.
Last but not least (and this indicates the range of the consultancy service) the study was to include an investigation into the suitability and effectiveness of a workshop incentive bonus scheme.
To get the ball rolling the local regional engineer made a series of visits to assess the existing maintenance facilities in conjunction with the senior inspector for the region which monitored the condition of the vehicles.
. If you call in a consultant you must be prepared for bad news as well as good. In the case of the district council the FTA report was more than a little critical. There were major deficiencies in the maintenance documentation and the fleet spection revealed that the ov all condition of the vehicles lef lot to be desired. The asse: ment of the bonus scher suggested that is was unsat factory.
All good strong stuff al exactly the right sort of hon( approach from an impartial oi side observer that was require From here on in, it is back ir the hands of the operator — t consultancy service can only so far. It can make recomrne dations towards improving ti operation — it's down to tl operator to carry them out. TI same results came out of a st vey carried out for a northe operator. The maintenance pr gramme was not being adhen to and the premises cramped.
As far as the cost of the co sultancy is concerned, the Fl submits a quote to the cu tomer. If this is not accepte then the cost of any investig tion up to that point is the re ponsibility of Hermes Hous The rates work out at aroui £100 a day and a typical char would be £2,500 to £3,000 f a survey into a 50-vehicle fle and workshop.
As Terry Goldrick said: "If v answer something by phone by letter then this is classified ; advice and it's free. If a visit involved, then this is chargeab and a consultancy is the ne stage up.
Commercial project
He went on to say th; although he thought the coi sultancy reports were first de; "we've got to get better at i But I believe we are now at if stage where it is a controllab commercial project.'
Vehicle specification is r-14 included in the consultancy are at the moment but it probab will be before too long. This w revolve around the sort of situ; tion where an operator might considering, say, a change to drawbar/demountable syster from his present artic fleet.
This was art area which Terr Goldrick was hoping to includ within the umbrella of the er gineering service. He though that such a service could dev( lop from a job descriptio from the operator.
"Knowing the job descrir tion, we will develop the spe and then provide a list c vehicles which meet that spec There are a lot of areas in whic we're only just starting but b the end of the year we shooL have something," he added.
"It's on the project list!