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oratio Myer, who foundei Myer's Comfortable Beds ii 1876, was

15th August 2002, Page 37
15th August 2002
Page 37
Page 38
Page 37, 15th August 2002 — oratio Myer, who foundei Myer's Comfortable Beds ii 1876, was
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

a logistics pioneei In those days most iron bed steads were made in Birm ingham, the traditional meta

. bashing centre of Britain. H.

reasoned that there were a lot of rich peopl. living in London and if he had a foundry then he could offer them next-day delivery a opposed to the usual week's wait, He bough an iron foundry in Vauxhall and set up shoF

That emphasis on fast and reliable deliver ies paid off and the company grew to becom. one of the UK's best-known bed manufactur ers. Today the present managing directoi Horatio's great-grandson Rodney Myer, is sill acutely aware of the importance of his trans port operation. "If you're delivering to you customers every week as we do, you get . much better relationship Wit's your van am your driver. In fact there is one account on th, Isle of Wight that say they would roughly dou ble the business if we'd promise to deliver ii our own wagons. It's a matter of wanting ti really deal with the company," says Myei That's why this bed maker still runs its owi fleet of36 vehicles, mainly drawbars.

In 1963 the company started to develop . second factory at Huntingdon, Cambridge shire. By 5982 the new factory had grown ti twice the size of the original London opera tion. A need to cut overheads coupled with th, new site's central location led to the closure o the Vauxhall factory and a move north,

Big employer

Myer's now occupies a 27,000m2 factory on. 5ha site and employs more than Goo peopl€ In 1984 Myer's bought Staples, which sell to the top end of the market, and with it cam the Royal warrant. "Basically Myer's make the equivalent of the Ford and Vauxhal product, good middle-market stuff; Staples i the Mercedes/Rolls Royce, top-end stuf including beds for the Queen, so it gave us bit more market share." The fleet is MN liveried with Myer's on one side and Staple on the other.

The company began using drawbars wit] hop-bodies to overcome the problems of )perating through the narrow streets of iauxhall and to take advantage of downplatng. Since 1983 Myers has had its bodies iesigned and built by Abel Demountable iystems of Chesterfield, Derbyshire. "We lave had a very successful relationship with sthel and have consistently bought trailers and axes from them over the years," says Myer. The bodies are polyester resin on plywood vith a woodblock floor which, says Myer, is nore durable than plywood. "We've honed he design. We don't mind a bit of extra veight in our boxes so when it's windy they vent blow over. They are very durable, they ook nice and each year you can improve the me detail."

Ivlyer's keeps a stock of about Ito demoun tible boxes. While half of them are in the depot )eing packed the rest are on the road. Trucks irop the bodies by lowering their air suspen:ion and two shunters, equipped with iydraulic lifting gear. take care of movement vithin the factory.

Fleet choice

Ner the years Myers has run a variety of narques including Bedford and ERF. Now he fleet is mainly Iveco with a few Volvos and 31:maintenance is carried out in house.

Myer chose Iveco because the marque )ffered him the best value vehicle for the job. The drivers would like a great big Scania or a Zenault Magnum, but an Iveco gets you there ust as well. With the lightweights we're rauling and with our types of runs, it's per'et:fly satisfactory."

At present the company has about iztrh nvested in its transport operation. "We think t is still economic to run our own fleet," says Ayer, who in the early 19805 investigated :ontracting out the transport operation. With he help of consultants the company looked at he options and after a couple of quotes lecided to keep it in house. Myer considers

the headaches of running his own transport operation are outweighed by the problems he has seen arise when other people contract out. "They think they're getting a service from an outside contractor but they don't get it. Whereas our trucks are designated to go exactly where we want—these other people start doing groupage and all sorts of stufl Carriers don't do it as a charity! Anytime werv looked at our competitors where they've gon off into contract hire or using an outside cot tractor, it's ended in tears."

Myer needs to keep a tight grip on his tram port operation as there is no slack built int. the production schedule. He says: "A bed i made in a four-day cycle. We start on th Monday, load it on the Thursday and it' delivered by Friday. The scheduling operatioi actually creates the manufacturing notc Every bed on that lorry has been promise+ to a customer."

The fleet delivers to all parts of the UK wit] the only exception being Northern Irelan, which is handled by a small independent cat _tier. "He can give us a good price because h. does full loads to Ireland and full loads back, says Myer.

Drivers can earn up to 1.5oo a week an Myer says he has no problem recruiting o holding on to them. "The driver is as much link as the salesman who calls on the shop We have a lot of long-standing drivers Basically they're delivering a clean item ti known places on a regular basis. It's . predictable job and we keep the trucks ii good condition."

At one time the company used a trackin; system on its fleet but eventually decided ti abandon it. Myer says: "The first system w. had was good. I could sec where our entir. fleet was in an hour on Monday morning am see what they had done over the week. Thei they kept 'improving' it and made it wors. and worse. In the end we switched the thin; off and said 'that's it, enough'. The technolog works but it's the dreaded software men a work! We will have another look at it whei they've removed the bugs."

So at the moment there is no in-cab corn munication on the fleet, although Myer i looking at using mobile phones. The troublu is every time you put a phone in it can make i easier for the driver to say 'I'm coming horn. now'. The roads are busy, we know that, bu they've got a job to do."

Despite all the headaches Myer is confiden that operating his own fleet still pays off "People know that the Myer's vehicle will b. there and it's one of the things, from a servio point of view, that we are in control of."


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