How to Sell Haulage
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By Edwin Malindinc
THE legal framework in which the United States haulier operates is consistent with efforts, essentially American in character, to promote the sale of his services. In this country, the emphasis, because of the licensing system, is probably less upon selling than endeavours to cope with demands.
Nevertheless, some of the ways in which one of the largest American haulage undertakings, the Spector Freight System, lac., Chicago, stimulate traffic could be transplanted here to advantage.
The business started in 1932, when Mr. Ben Spector carried loads of walnuts. Today the organization have 950 collection-and-delivery vehicles in various cities, and, for long-distance haulage, 460 tractors and 1,500 semi-trailers.
The present head is Mr. W. Stanhaus, who rose from clerk to president in 15 years and, as a young coalfields worker. used to drive 70 mites each night to attend evening classes in commerce in St. Louis.
The number of consignments dealt with each month is about 180,000, and this represents, in a year, 958,000 tons. Fiftytwo per cent, of this is carried in full loads and 48 per cent. part-loads. The company operate in 17 States. A year ago the volume of part-loads was about two-thirds less than currently, but it was decided to attract a greater amount. The company's traffic was analysed and specific targets were set. Advertisements were placed in the newspapers in the towns where depots are situated. These were aimed at consignors and asked: "Have you checked your part-load rates lately?" .Depots were awarded bonuses if they achieved their targets. Posters were displayed and a slogan contest was run.
The drive for more part-load traffic was made in response to customers' suggestions. Every month a group of customers is invited to a conference at each of the 28 terminals so that means of improving service can be discussed. I was told that about half of the innovations which the company introduce result from proposals put forward by the guests at these meetings.
Spector employ a team of highly paid salesmen. Their job, however, is not so much to press facilities upon customers as to tell the company what consignors require. The prolitability of any service is not .given precedence by management over the need to satisfy a customer. On the other hand, improvements in service invariably result in the gaining of more traffic and greater profit, and customers rarely insist on services which would be too costly to provide. A salesman is expected to visit 12 customers a day, and is directed by management according to the indications of market study. The company were probably the first hauliers to employ an advertising agency, who worked out a campaign for Spector to fix in the public mind an image of the organization as an institution of high repute.
The maintenance of this impression, along with the aim of keeping consignors informed of developments in the undertaking, is the object of Spector's house magazine. This has a circulation of 27,000, said to be about twice that of the reading American road transport journal.
Means of gaining traffic, however, are not confined to promotional methods such as already described. The value of publicity in its various forms would be discounted were it not supported • by technical development, and it is not the case that a dynamic policy of salesmanship is a substitute for meeting traffic requirements on a less flamboyant level.
Spector have a research and development division which co-operated with the semi-trailer manufacturers in the design oC containers capable of being carried by road or rail. These containers, which are 17 ft. 6 in. long, may be carried tong distances on big road outfits. For example, a six-wheeled tractor may pull a 35-ft. semi-trailer with two containers and an independent trailer with one. Tins kind of operation is possible over the motorways, Some 40 tractors have sleeping accommodation, so that two men may make the run from New York to Chicago, for instance, a distance of about 800 miles, in 28 hours.
Spector are also operating a number of outfits capable of carrying two 29-ft. 6-in.-Iong containers. The two types of container have apertures for the entry of the forks of a Iift truck, but may also be transferred by a ramp device.
The company operate timetabled longdistance services from Chicago on 75 routes. These are worked to a relay system which strikingly illustrates the advantages of articulated vehicles. Drivers consistently cover the same route circuits, stopping at relay points to drop and pick up semi-trailers.
A semi-trailer load may therefore travel between consignor and consignee by several tractors, and, by means of exact operational control of the fleet, delays at relay points are minimized because there is always a tractor ready for a semi-trailer when an outfit arrives for disconnection.
The regular working which the drivers enjoy under this system guarantees them alternate days at home. Many of the company's 8001ong-distance drivers have
been with Spector for 15-18 years, and some of them. have served for as long as 24 years.
Fleet control at Chicago is aided by four teleprinters. There is a board representing each relay point and a card for each tractor and semi-trailer. At a glance, therefore, the current disposition of all the vehicles can be ascertained.
Extra Traffic Gained
City collection-and-delivery vehicles are similarly closely controlled, use being made of two-way radio. When this was first introduced, many hours were saved and extra traffic was gained, and new warehousing methods were needed to cope with the additional work. Pallets may be moved either by fork truck or cfragline, and checking is done bY electronic devices.
A high degree of organization is also applied to vehicle maintenance. There is a docking programme based on mileage, and each base gives a daily report to headquarters on the odometer reading and condition of each vehicle. To give this information at such a frequency may seem at neat sight to be overdoing things, but does not appear so when it is realized that the weekly mileage of a long-distance tractor is about 3,000. Dockings are at 6,000-mile intervals, with major checks at 40,000 miles. Accent is placed on preventive maintenance, and the period between complete overhauls has been extended from 150,000-300,000 mileS. The life of a vehicle is reckoned as 750,000 miles.
Spector have only recently converted to oilers, and in a year bought. 262 heavy tractors and 86 medium tractors to complete standardization in this respect. A total of 346 long-distance semi-trailers and 22 town semi-trailers was obtained at the same time, and at the present there is no traotor in the fleet Older than a year and no semi-trailer older than two.
Routine servicing is largely subcontracted, but at Chicago Spector have a 20,000-sq.-ft. workshop where 220 people are employed. One of the pieces of equipment in use is a Spectograph lubricating-oil analyser. This is used to indicate the condition of an engine from which the oil is drained.
Other interesting aspects of the company's organization are their safety scheme, involving the patrolling of the routes used by Spector vehicles by inspectors in ears, and special training for and testing of employees. For over four 'years now, employees have been able to hold shares in the company.