Where abnormal loads are normal
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4,000 miles away. Just as important, he is also responsible for the profitability of his projects.
Two aspects of EPH's modus operandi take much of the cardiac risk out of the project managers lives. Their daily meetings ensure that their pooled experience is available for every contract, and that experience is considerable.
Robbi Watson joined EPH after a long spell with Monks International Ltd; Mickey Martin, who has special responsibility for the transMediterranean ferry operation, gained his experience with an exporter; and Eddie Wardale was a commercial vehicle service manager. Michael Cave, the founder, proprietor and managing director, is the globetrotter who brings back dayto-day knowledge from the company's territories across the Channel.
If, after he is appointed to a project, the manager finds that the movement could be better handled by a colleague he passes it on. "There are neither jealousies nor inhibitions here," said Mr Watson. "We are all too involved." Each project manager handles about 10 projects, in • varying degrees of progress, at any one time.
The other factor which helps take the strain is the activity of the company's agents in the transit and destination countries. They are always on the spot to ensure that the EPH drivers • have rapid customs clearance and they handle transit problems throughout their country. I was told that they are very much on top of the job and, in many respects, although they operate for a number of companies, they are almost as totally involved as EPH employees.
Because of the nature of the traffic, EPH is involved with the law more than general haulage operators. As in Britain, where abnormal loads have to be routed by the police, so it is in Europe and the Middle East.
EPH's agents are given cletails of proposed vehicle movements showing particulars of the vehicle and its load together with an outline drawing. They apply to the local police for a route and a time for the movement. When the permit isgranted by the police it is sent back to Bedford and these permits are attached to the application forms for transit permits, which the company sends to the International Road Freight Office in Newcastle.
Once the journey has started it is essential that the schedule is met; any unscheduled delay could be disastrous. What might be a passable road for a normal load on October 10 might easily be •the site of a newly opened oil pipeline 24 hours later. Such movement requires meticulous planning throughout.
According to Mr Watson meticulous is the watchword at Milbrook Road. "We are not cheap, but we certainly are meticulous," he told me. "We have to be; every customer has the boss's home telephone number."
Documentation is the bane of most international traffic clerks. Moving heavy indivisible loads, however, adds to the paper work; pre-planning in great detail is absolutely essential. This is the basic reason for EPH requiring one month's notice for most movements.
Within 48 hours of receiving an inquiry the job has to be examined. For the Middle East, three methods of operation are designed, three routes drafted and a price for each compiled. From the time the order is placed EPH requires 28 days to obtain transit permits, TIR or Community transit documents and police routeing permits. Thereafter the time scale between one method and another varies only by about 24 hours. It is roughly: four days from Britain to Marseilles, Genoa or Venice—five or six days on the ferry and five days thereafter to the final destination. This compares favourably with the time required for a movement to the Middle East throughout by road, provided driving hours in the transit countries are recognised.
Co-operation The success of the operation requires the complete cooperation of every party in volved and, according to Mr Watson, this is not always forthcoming. He told me: "The biggest problem we have is the shipping and forwarding agent. Why exporters of heavy plant and equipment take their work to them I don't know."
Exporters, he said, contact their nearest forwarding agent, who is not necessarily skilled in the movement of abnormal loads and consequently he passes the inquiry onto one of the bigger and more experienced companies. The first forwarder is reluctant to pass the custo mer's name to his sub-contractor; the -second forwarder almost invariably refuses to pass any name to the haulier, merely quoting rough dimen sions of the load, its pick-up points and its destination. "This is bad enough," said Mr Wat son, "because it is impossible to quote and plan an operation with care unless we are able to examine the traffic and the loading and discharging facilities.
"What adds to the aggravation is when the small shipping and forwarding agent touts the business around a number of the large boys and we finish up with eight inquiries on the same day for the same traffic. Jobs that come through a for warding agent are the ones most likely to go sour." He said that once the traffic had been passed to the haulier he was the one who stood to lose.
I understand that at the moment 50 per cent of EPH's. initial inquiries come from forwarding agents, but as its reputation spreads more direct inquiries are coming in.
Forwarding agents' progress in international road transport, according to Mr Watson, can be traced to the hauliers' reluctance to get involved in documentation. Even the rela tively simple T-form procedure was avoided like the plague by many international hauliers, he said, and they then had to pay the agents to complete their documentation.
This is one service among many where he considers the RHA could help. "Because they don't, many of their members do not get involved or alter natively scratch around for vital information." He instanced the Association's lack of ability or willingness to help its members in understanding some important aspects of European law and gave as an example the moNiement of abnormal loads where police escorts are required. The law in the various European countries was com plex, but he felt that it could be presented by an organisation like the RHA, simply and quickly. He acknowledged that the IRU Year Book did much to assist, but it was out of date in many respects even before it was printed, he said.
To ensure that they met escort requirements in a country, EPH had taken the Minimum requirements and applied them throughout, said Mr Watson. This meant, basic ally, that. any load in excess of 2.75 metres in width and weighing at least 30 tons was police escorted either by one or two cars. This of course adds to the operating costs," he said.
I asked Mr Watson about costs and although he was happy to talk generally, he understandably did not want to divulge their detailed methods. Our standing charges are the same as for home operation," he said, "but in addition to the normal running costs there are agents' fees, ferry charges, customs dues, escort fees and expenses." He agreed with me that the going rate for an indivisible load would be around £11 per hour and that a load to the Middle East would cost approximately £6,500. Since back-loading was the exception rather than the rule, the job had to be priced on round-trip costs.
A young company like EPH must look to its future. One example of how it intends pro grossing is illustrated in its approach to "customer occasioned delays". Any delay caused by the customer, his agent or servant results in a demurrage charge being raised by EPH; this is an understandable attitude with vehicles costing £11 an hour. The company is extremely cost conscious. Two days after the end of its monthly trading period the revenue for each vehicle and each contract is known. A financial target. is set for each 'month and Mr Watson told me that in his experience it was always within 5 per cent of the mark.
In a company which is unique in many ways it was landscaping golf courses four years ago—it was not surprising to find an unusual approach to vohicle maintenance.
It operates eight. Volvo F89s and a mixed bag of nine lowloaders. The outfits are serviced on a regular mileage basis before and after each trip. Between foreign trips they operate for one or two weeks in Britain —more or less on revenue earning post servicing test runs. But it is the maintenance administration which is unusual.
The company has its own fully equipped workshop, but apart from fuel pipes, olives, oil and air filters and nuts and bolts it carries very few spares and it has no fitting staff.
The servicing is carried out on EPH premises by a two-man company, Box Commercials Ltd of Bedford, which works on contract exclusively for EPH. The advantage is that the haulier knows precisely how much his labour costs will he for servicing for 12 months ahead. He is not required to pay overtime, sickness, or holiday payments nor does he need to carry extra staff to cover for any absenteeism. It must be to the credit of Box Commercials that EP has never suffered a major breakdown or been delayed on a contract owing to vehicle defect. How the two-man team will cope when the six vehicles about to be ordered go into service between now arid next spring remains to he seen, for this will almost double the EPH fleet, Both Box and EPH keep maintenance records.
Driver staffing The bigger fleet will not present any driver staffing problems since the main requirement apart from a clean record, in every respect, is a class 1 hgv driving licence and Continental experience. Eventually, EPH drivers must learn the skills of low-loader operation, but Mr Watson believes that this comes to a general haulage man easier than teaching an experienced low-loader driver to become a European diplomat.
New drivers go as second men on one or two European runs to learn low-loader techniques. When this has been mastered they go off in convoy with other vehicles to learn the documentation routines and after a few months of this "in company training" they go solo, Drivers have to be skilled in detailed map reading to ensure that they stick to the specified routes. In addition, they must be able to translate routeing instructions from any one of half a dozen languages.
The men are paid as salaried staff and receive neither overtime nor bonus payments. This makes for easy accounting for FM and assures the men of a regular level of income. Mr Watson acknowledges that in addition to their overnight expenses there are other "wheel-oiling" outlays which grow in both volume and intensity the farther south a man travels from Britain and for which no receipts can be produced.
Since the introduction of the Community transit scheme the pattern is changing and T forms are more in evidence; indeed loads can travel all the way to the Middle East using only the 'I'-form.
The first part of the journey is through EEC countries on the transit document to the exit ports in France or Italy. They then travel to Adana in Turkey where they are discharged and the EPH agent from Mersin in Turkey clears the traffic through the next border. Succeeding EPH agents throughout the Middle East clear it at the remaining borders to its destination.
Usage EPH is in a field of limited opposition because the administration of such an organisation is largely dependent upon experience for its success and as of now there are few experienced men in this field of operation.
Despite its predominantly one-way traffic its utilization is in excess of 80 per cent. The management's confidence in its future is evident by its plans to order six new units. Much of the success is traceable to the commitment of the md Mike Cave, who spends more time in the field than he does at his desk; he accepts personal responsibility for every job, is seldom available for interview and last month he took his first holiday in three years.