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Farmer-cum-haulier finds happy medium

PETERHEAD is the best part of 600 miles from London. That trips off the tongue easily enough but as I stepped from the plane at Aberdeen airport there was a snap in the morning air that reminded me how far north I had come; it was chilly at Heathrow at 7.00am but it was downright cold at Aberdeen two hours later.

This corner of North-east Scotland is best known for two commodities that are found off its coast — oil and fish — and for its beef cattle. Between them, all three generate a healthy demand for haulage that belies the sparsity of the population.

Catto of Aberdeen and Thomas Gibb of Fraserburgh are two nationally-recognised hauliers from the area, known particularly for their reefer vehicles while the offshore oil industry means a lot of work for flat trailers moving an assortment of engineering parts for the rigs.

Scotland has a fine tradition of refrigerated haulage operators and one of the most northerly exponents is Ewan Booth.

On a quiet, country road heading inland from the coastal town of Peterhead you will come across a small turning on the right, about three miles out of town. This little lane leads to a farm and a haulage yard but you will not find the motley collection of vehicles that is sometimes associated with this blend of businesses. Farmerturned haulier Ewan Booth has a fleet that is modern, well-turnedout and a credit to him and his drivers and the Scottish haulage industry. He was an established c farmer and still is) but in wanted to move into anc business as well rather thar pand the farm. Involved road transport during the Ewan told me that he is terested in anything mechal and so haulage seemed a f logical diversification.

The timing of his oric licence application turned ot be fairly crucial. It was in E 1970 which were the dying of the A-B-C licensing systen traduced in the Road and Traffic Act 1933 and car idated by the Road Traffic 1960. Under this system o operators could object to granting of a licence purel) the grounds that the exis haulage services were adeql and Ewan Booth's applica for a public carrier's A-licc did attract such objections.

After the unsuccessful pi hearing the Licensing Authr ("he was a Peterhead m. drew Ewan aside and pail out that the licensing system not have many days to run that subsequent application der the new Operate sing would not face such ctions. So Ewan went 1, bought a vehicle and was granted an 0-licence: he business.

N, 12 years later the fleet

s at eight tractive units 11 refrigerated trailers h are supplemented by regular local owner-drivers provide traction for the "spare" trailers. There are another two owner-drivers supply their own units and erated trailers, making a of 13 vehicles running on Booth's work.

ht from the word go he had ded to be entirely dedicated rigerated transport. He had supplying cattle to a cusr in Turriff, about 35 miles from Peterhead and his haulage contract was to the meat for the same cusr down from Turriff to the on meat markets.

w, although still 100 per fridge-based, the type of has changed. Meat these accounts for only about 30 ent while frozen fish is the nant 70 per cent. Peterhead )usy fishing port and Ewan that as a "middle distance" 1g centre it has not experHd the decline of the deepfishing ports like Hull or sby.

a frozen fish is in cardboard )s, shrink-wrapped and ed on pallets. The trailers to maintain a temperature ound -20 degrees to -25 ees Centigrade. The London is still the major market but 1 Booth's vehicles run vir/ anywhere and everywhere a country as well, delivering rovincial markets and the 3e wholesalers and armarket or chain store ibution centres.

nning down to London and iouth is a fairly comfortable day trip from Peterhead, vehicles typically leaving morning on Saturday to deinto the new Billingsgate (et in London's dockland on Jay evening. Alternatively, vehicle and driver may do t or nine shop/distribution re deliveries in the area on day.

ith a 600-mile return journey lake, a back-load is an absonecessity. In the early days n Booth went through a ring house to locate these has now built up a regular itele for this northbound traffic and backloads of frozen foods or fruit are as certain as the original southerly load of fish or meat.

This return load traffic is invariably bound for the central belt of Scotland where Edinburgh, Glasgow and the surrounding towns generate the bulk of Scotland's consumer demand. Once unloaded there it is a case of empty running back up to Peterhead, which is about 160 miles from Edinburgh and 190 miles from Glasgow. Commented Ewan Booth wryly: "If I could get rid of that mileage I would have made my fortune by now!"

He views this as the only disadvantage of his Peterhead base having the fishing and farming industries on the doorstep is ideal for the southbound work but an equally close medium-sized city would come in handy for the return loads!

Back in 1971 Ewan Booth's first vehicle was an AEC Mandator a choice largely dictated by its low price and within a few months this was joined by a second also working for the same Turriff customer on meat haulage. Ewan and his transport manager David May recalled that the Mandators were not particularly good units and that they ran into engine problems, mainly associated with the injectors and pump.

So the next vehicles to join the fleet in the following year were two ERF A-Series units. They performed well but the A-Series was in production for only two years and Ewan Booth was ideally looking for a sleeper cab on his tractive units. This prompted a move across to the Volvo F88 for the 1973 purchase and with the sleeper cab and the 175kW (235bhp) engine this model proved successful in the Ewan Booth fleet.

But in September 1974 Volvo uprated the TD100A 10-litre engine in the right-hand drive F88s, increasing its power output to 217kW (291bhp) at 2,400rpm, which was 200rpm more than before. Although the torque was also up on this engine (designated the TD1008) and Ewan Booth places great value on a unit's torque he was not happy with the more powerful F88 in his fleet. "That 290 was a bad engine", said Ewan. "We got poor mileage out of it and had problems with the pistons around 100,000 miles."

At about the same time as it brought its first F88 the compa ny also bought another foreigner, a Mercedes-Benz 1924. Now, 10 years later it is still with the company but living in graceful semi-retirement as the yard shunter. Ewan had been partly prompted to try the 1924 because he had been so impressed with the Mercedes-Benz cars he had owned clear evidence that brand loyalty exists and can traverse product ranges.

Although not on the same scale as Mercedes' patronage by another Scottish haulier, Christian Salvesen, it was the beginning of Ewan Booth's purchasing policy that has lasted until now. Of the eight tractive units in the current fleet, six are Mercedes-Benz 1626 models.

Ewan described the Mercedes' chief attribute as "dependability", which he rates as top priority in a vehicle averaging 70,000 miles a year. His transport manager David May agreed that the 1626 is not particularly economical by today's standards the fleet average is 43.5 I/100km (6.5mpg) but reckoned that the reliability factor easily offsets this. Any spares that are needed can be picked up from the Mercedes-Benz dealer in Aberdeen by the vehicles on their way home.

Mercedes-Benz replaced the 1626 with the 1625 at the end of 1980 but Ewan Booth has bypassed the 1625 and moved up to the bigger 1633, which made its UK debut at the 1982 NEC Motor Show. He has bought just one to date which he put on the road in June. At the same time he bought one of the equally new and massively powered Fiat 190-38 units. Once again, Ewan's previous experience with a Fiat product (this time it was agricultural tractors) influenced his decision.

He stressed that the appearance of the Fiat in the fleet does not mean the end of MercedesBenz; the big Fiat and the Mercedes 1633 are being evaluated back-to-back, running on similar work.

So far, in the five months they have been on the road both are operating satisfactorily and their greater power is paying off in the shape of better fuel consumption; David May said that both are averaging around 40.4 I/100km (7mpg).

Driver feedback is also gratifying; the lucky drivers of these two machines report far more relaxing journeys and in particular, the very high torque of the Fiat's 17 litre turbo-charged V8 (1650 Nm-1217Ibs ft at 1200rpnn) has almost entirely cut out gearchanging once on the motorway.

A prime reason for the introduction of these more powerful tractive units into the fleet was the 38-tonne legislation and nobody can criticise Ewan Booth of being backward in coming for ward; his entire fleet was equipped for 38 tonnes gcw on D-day, May 1 this year, and this includes the owner-drivers working for him.

David May explained why the company has opted for conventional two-axled tractive units and triaxle trailers rather than the 3 + 2 configuration. Firstly, the fleet operates with a 1:1 trailer to unit ratio rather than 2:1 or higher as in many fleets and so there is no numerical disadvantage in opting for the cheaper conversion by putting the extra axle on the trailer.

And secondly, the trailer fleet is remarkably young with none older than three years and so they could easily justify the cost of a triaxle conversion, which worked out at around £2,400 per trailer.

Not surprisingly, eight out of the 11 trailers are by Scottish body-builder Gray & Adams these aluminium reefers are built at Fraserburgh, just 18 miles away. The other three are by Crane Fruehauf which has an agent in Aberdeen, about 32 miles to the South. All except one of the fridge units are by Petter. The odd one out is a ThermoKing which David May said is a good fridge but a little heavier on fuel than the Petters.

The drivers do use the sleeper cabs for their overnights and have become accustomed to the droning of the fridge plants. It may be —20 degrees Centigrade with the fish in the trailer but Eberspacher heaters are fitted to keep the cabs appreciably warmer.

I asked Ewan Booth how he had fared since the move up to 38 tonnes. Is it proving a financial success? Ewan said that he cannot take advantage of the higher weight on some loads because the fish is palletised and the weight of each pallet varies so that the load sometimes cubes out before it weighs out. The rate is per pallet, not per tonne, and this rate has not changed because of the advent of 38 tonnes.

All in all, Ewan reckons that the resultant small increase in revenue is just recouping the cost of the trailer triaxle conversion and the extra road tax.

On the subject of "road tax" Ewan would like to see a reduction of what he regards as the exhorbitant price of road tax, payable whether the wheels are turning or not. He thinks it would be fairer if a greater share of the tax burden was switched to diesel fuel so that the taxation is related to actual usage.

He admitted that this would probably not be too popular with the ultra-high mileage trunking operators and one would imagine that his own vehicles, averaging 70,000 miles a year, would not escape too lightly he would still like the F Haulage Association (he member) to campaign for thi

Throughout the last four y when many hauliers have ex ienced their darkest days E Booth has continued to g The fleet has grown, no veh have ever been stood idle the number of owner-dri working for Ewan Booth even increased. But this pat of expansion will not conti. and that is a deliberate polic}

Explained Ewan: "We d want to get any bigger thar are at the moment. We wi have to build more works space, more office space anc somebody else to help with traffic work; one person handle it at the moment. I we are a comfortable size that's how we want to stay."

Expansion would also m looking to the Glasgow area work, and although it coulc found this would entail rr dead mileage. And Ewan Be is not tempted to diversify flat trailer work for the oil inc try although he said that the/ still growth in that area. H sticking with what he knows and is perfectly happy to just "comfortable".