Prize pickings Winning a 12-month stint with an MAN G90
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7.5-tonner has modernised the fleet of potato wholesaler Jess Turner Potatoes, a family business of grandfather Jess, son Peter, and grandsons Richard and Matthew.
• The big British appetite for a fish and chip supper has kept Jess Turner Potatoes in business for more than half a century wholesaling 70tonnes of spuds a week to chip shops and caterers in the North-West.
The business, based at Higher Wheelton near Blackburn, Lancs says it's flourishing despite the recession and increasing competition to its customers from McDonalds, Kentucky Fried Chicken and other non-traditional fast-food operations.
And the family firm has been able to modernise its operation in recent months by winning a 12-month stint last May with an MAN G90 8.150 7.5-tonner in the Commercial Motor/MAN/Boalloy competition. Director Peter Turner took the opportunity to sell a 1973 and a 1974 Bedford which the firm had run from new. Lately the 1973 model had been mainly a back-up vehicle.
FOUNDED Jess Turner Potatoes was founded in 1935 by Jess Turner, Peter's father, who at 78 still keeps a weather eye on the business. It shut down during the war when Jess was overseas and resumed trading soon afterwards. Now, Peter's sons Richard, 20, and Matthew, 17, have joined the firm, and a third son, Andrew, 16, waits in the wings.
Richard is the MAN's regular driver. He took over after Peter—who had entered the competition—collected his prize at the IRTE exhibition at Telford last May.
The MAN's 112kW (150hp) engine pulls a curtainsided body in contrast to the flatbed trucks Turner usually uses delivering to outlets within a 40km (25-mile) radius of its base in towns such as Blackburn, Preston, Blackpool and Southport. The local fivetruck fleet includes the MAN and a Leyland Daf Roadrunner 8.13.
Before the 25kg sacks of potatoes reach chip-shop doors Turner has gone through the process of bartering with the farms that sells the potatoes. "Supply and demand rules this job," explains Peter. "Prices have been low because there has been a glut of potatoes, but a shortage will push the prices up."
At the beginning of this month Peter anticipated the likelihood of some farms not wanting to open their stores and risk frost damage. If this happened an artificial shortage could force a price hike which, in turn, could be reversed quickly.
Turner collects the potatoes from farms in Lancashire and Lincolnshire using its largest vehicle, a Volvo FI,6 17-tonner with a 10tonne drawbar. The recent addition of the drawbar provides sufficient extra capacity to eliminate the need to use owner-drivers. And thanks to modernisation, the work does not require the supermen it once did. "Most farmers have standard pallets and forklifts," says Peter, "a few still use non-standard fertiliser pallets which means our driver has to handball the load, but that is rare nowadays."
Back in Higher Wheelton the Volvo's cargo • is loaded on to the MAN and other 7.5tonners for local delivery A sign of the small trader's nervousness during recessionary times is that chip shops that once would take 40 sacks once a week are now requesting smaller deliveries twice weekly to avoid overstocking. The MAN has performed faultlessly since last May and has provided a valued breathing space while Turner decides on a permanent replacement for the old Bedford workhorses. Peter has restricted it to 3.5tonne loads whereas the other 7.544:Inner flatbeds carry four tonnes: "We were built on flats, you can't beat the payload."
Apart from routine servicing at MAN's Blackburn dealer, LCW, the truck has had no unscheduled attention and not even a light bulb has failed in service.
The 6,000km lubrication service was followed recently by a 12,000km service. To date the truck has covered 15,000km. Peter says he was disappointed that a truck so young required anti-freeze. "That seemed an expensive £30," he says.
The six-day-a-week operation seems to suit the truck well. Distances are short, but they are hard miles, says Peter: "The doors get most work because the truck stops and starts so much."
NEWCOMER The MAN has not disgraced itself in the fuel consumption department. Despite the bodywork's relative handicap, Peter says the newcomer compares well with his 96kW (130hp) Leyland Daf Roadrunner 8.13 at around 15.69 litres/1001un (18mpg).
The firm has had no previous experience of the MAN marque and will wait until its 12month loan of the rig runs out in May before deciding whether to buy. "It depends on what MAN wants for it," says Peter, "I will consider buying if the price is right."
The potato business has its seasonal dips. The new potato season begins in mid-June but a lull follows the switch from the summer to winter crops. The firm fills in by distributing imported French potatoes and other fruit and veg. At this time of year the firm is selling crops harvested in the autumn.
Peter believes the business is about as recession proof as it is possible to get as "people have to eat" but he is aware that even a relatively cheap luxury such as a fish and chip supper is hit by a general lack of spending power. People not going out to pubs and clubs dents chipshops' passing trade.
However, the firm minimises its overheads by keeping the business family-based and maintaining its vehicles in its own workshop. Its watchword is reliability, the very word Jess Turner had signwritten on his first truck. Peter says 1992 finished "quite well" with the business fairly profitable, although he doesn't reveal figures: "At least the job hasn't stopped, we seem to keep going. it helps that we are experts in our field with— to use modern jargon—our own market share."
Whether Turner ends up adding the MAN to its fleet remains to be seen. Certainly the competition prize has more than paid its way and, in a sense, there is no going back whether the MAN stays or moves on: "After driving a 1992 lorry you don't want to go back to 1973."
D by Danny Coughlan