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Not many prospective hauliers get the chance to talk business

with two top potential clients on the Continent. Doug Lawrence did — thanks to Commercial Motor and Castrol

I/ Winning a trip to Europe has led truck driver Doug Lawrence to plant the seeds of what he hopes could be a lucrative haulage venture. He hopes to start a service carrying plants and flowers in the UK for two of the Continent's leading horticultural distributors.

Lawrence, 47, of Liskeard, Cornwall, won the prize after describing his ambition to set up on his own in a competition run by Commercial Motor and Castro'. His wish was to visit flower transport companies in Denmark and Holland to discuss the chances of subcontracting for them in the UK.

Lawrence, who works for Horizon Eggs in Liskeard and has been a driver for 20 years, wants to try using a drawbar with a long trailer and short prime mover for high street deliveries for Danish outfit Gasa and for Dutch firm Baardse — the companies he visited.

One of his options is to seek light loads — possibly flowers or eggs from Cornwall to the Continent, returning with Dutch or Danish plants via Harwich and the Hook of Holland. Gasa and Baardse sell all over Britain. and — while Gasa uses all Danish drivers — Baardse employs a UK subcontractor, Majestic of Manchester.

He met managers from both companies as part of the two-day visit, paid for by Castrol, and spoke to them about the possibility of working for them.

Both seemed keen to discuss what he had to offer.

It is not the first time Lawrence has thought of setting up in business. He drove a tipper for many years and had the chance then_ But rather than abandon a well-paid driving job, buy a vehicle and "get in the queue for cut-throat rates" he decided to look for a growth market in which he could specialise.

He thought of plants when he noticed an increase in the number of Dutch and Danish vehicles carrying flowers in Devon, Cornwall and along the south coast. "It happened over five or six years. I thought there must be a market there," he says.

His entry for the 1992 Assignment impressed judges beause it was specific about who he wanted to meet and why. They felt he had obviously spent time studying the market, and could use the trip to make contacts and gain information to set up on his own.

Gasa Arhus — the name is an acronym of 'growers' association — is a distribution cooperative with 11 trucks of its own and a pool of up to 100 subcontractors — 70 of which it uses regularly.

It claims to be Denmark's biggest flower distributor and exports by truck to most Western European countries, as far as Finland and southern Italy. Some 70% of its flowers and plants — almost all of which are homegrown — go abroad, a tenth of them to the UK.

All of its fleet is temperature-controlled, vital for journeys of up to four days where temperatures range from Mediterranean to –40°C in northern Scandinavia. Most loads arrive unscathed. Once a month a delivery is rejected by a customer and it has to come home.

The biggest of its subcontractors runs nine trucks. Until three years ago, all of them used to work exclusively for Gasa, and would drive back from foreign deliveries empty, says transport manager Tommy Hansen.

Now the arrangement has changed. Subcontractors are paid slightly less but are encouraged to seek return loads as part of their own business. "When the last load is delivered, we say 'the vehicle is yours'," says Hansen. "They can charge what they like."

The company itself has only an ownaccount licence, which means it can take back goods for its own use. Some 20% of its vehicles come back full (they take, for instance, daffodils from England), but these loads are hard to get.

Many of its subcontractors specialise in certain countries. Runs to Norway and Finland demand trucks with special tyres and different driving skills. These snow tyres are illegal in some European countries. One haulier drives regularly to Finland — he is the only one who speaks the language.

Most of Gasa's subcontractors drive under the company's livery. They are not paid more to do this, says Hansen, "but they feel closer to us," At the moment, all are Danish. "We feel we can't control a truck if it's not Danish," he adds. "But this could change if we found the right driver."

He does not rule out taking on an English subcontractor. "The UK is a good market for us, although the pound gives me grey hair. We used to get 12.7 kroner for a pound; now it's about 10," he says. The company delivers direct to wholesalers, mostly in the south, although one load a fortnight goes to Scotland.

All its trucks go to Britain via the Hook rather than through Esbjerg in western Denmark. Although the trucks have to travel further, the cheaper fares on the shorter eight-hour sea crossing make it more economical. Unlike many contractors, Gasa arranges ferries and customs for all its subcontractors.

One of Hansen's plans is to recruit UK hauliers to distribute from a central depot near London, probably after 1992. The company has no foreign depots at the moment, but this is something he hopes to change. Germany and Holland are likely targets, and a joint venture with a company there is possible.

Although flower prices are going down, the market is growing at 5% a year, says Hansen. An independent survey has predicted that Danish flower growers are increasing sales by 10%. The UK is one of Gasa's best markets, with growth at 12%.

By using subcontractors, the company can keep its own trucks busy even in the leanest period of the year — December and January, when its vehicles cover half the distances they do in May. In the winter, only about 15 trucks leave its warehouse every day. In May it can be over 100. In Denmark, training for drivers is seen as being much more important than it is in countries such as Britain, says Hansen. Every large town has its Anucentre (further education school) and all businesses contribute to its costs.

All Gasa's drivers and subcontractors go there to learn how to handle plants, how to operate reefer units and how to deal with customers.

In Finland a flower can die if exposed to the air for five seconds, so drivers have to know how to unload using a plastic sheet to protect the plants.

The company's own trucks are Volvos, MANs, Mercedes and Scanias. All are 18.5m drawbars, but this causes problems in some countries with shorter length limits. A truck has actually been sent home from the Norwegian border. Speeds are also a worry. While UK policemen apparently have a "relaxed view" on breaking the limit, the Germans will endorse the licence of a driver who exceeds 100km/hr, he says.

Trucks are fitted with foldaway rear taillifts and can carry up to 48 2.8m-high trolleys. Each makes an average of seven or eight deliveries, although these can be of between one and 40 trolleys. Its trailers are specified to suit this trolley system, and, although the company has traditionally used Danish bodybuilders, it is now looking at France's Lamberet, whose insulation system appeals to Hansen.

The firm — which is one of two big flower exporters in Denmark; the other is called Gasa Odense — has redesigned its livery, using light instead of dark green. This makes the trucks look less heavy, and gives them a more environmentally friendly image, says Hansen, who joined Gasa Azhus a year ago from the dairy company which sells Lurpak butter.

Gasa, which began with one subcontractor in 1962 and bought its own trucks in the late 1960s, has 360 independent growers, all of whom elect a board. Salesmen travel abroad and make sure what is being grown meets the company's high quality standards. About 3% of plants are rejected for sale.

Baardse is the second-biggest of 330 flower distributors on a giant industrial estate at Aalsmeer, near Amsterdam. It runs 30 trucks on its own account work, but has just won a Dutch standard operators licence which allows it to go for return loads on its longer trips. Like Gasa, it exports to most of Europe, and some 30% of its plants are flown to North America and Japan.

Britain represents 11% of its business, and at least two of its trucks go there on Tuesday and Friday. All of its vehicles have two drivers which means the 800 boxes each truck carries can be distributed quickly and the vehicle can return home. All of its UK deliveries are pre-ordered, unlike some of its smaller competitors — the flying Dutchmen, usually father-and-son businesses which take a van over and try to sell direct to shops.

It has 15 drawbars and three artics in its mostly Scania and Mercedes fleet. Its rigids tend to do the shorter trips to France and Germany. Financial director Rob Moenis applied for the company's standard licence after doing a week-long Certificate of Professional Competence course and exam in the UK. The equivalent course in Holland lasts two years, but — under Community law — an English certificate is enough to qualify for a Dutch licence.

Although its standard licence allows it to carry third-party loads, Moenis says it will probably concentrate on taking daffodils back from the UK and fruit and flowers from the Mediterranean. His advice to Lawrence was to concentrate on finding loads to take to Holland, where he will find plenty of consignments of flowers going back to the UK. The company — which is 70% owned by an American tobacco group — employs 290, 65 of whom are drivers. It has 10,000m2 of warehousing.

Lawrence — who is learning Dutch and Danish and who says winning the trip was like getting into the World Cup finals — claims meeting the two firms has shown him that there is a niche for a go-ahead owner-operator to work in the Dutch or Danish flower markets.

"I see the future as being in drawbars," he says. "When you're going for volume, you need the maximum amount of space allowed."