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£320,000 export invisible effort

20th February 1976
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Page 47, 20th February 1976 — £320,000 export invisible effort
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

A BRITISH removal company has just won a major contract worth 04,000—and dealt a body blow to some of Europe's old and well-established outfits.

For through meticulous planning, foresight and effort, It was able to beat two countries in providing a more competitive quotation for the re.moval, cross four Continental countries—and still meet its delivery schedule to within an hour.

The company, Vanguard Engineering, of Olympia, London, which specializes in industrial and commercial removals, won the contract to move the entire factory of one of the world's most renowed central heating manufacturers, from Sweden to France, and also to the USA.

It brought Vanguard's invisible export earnings to £320,000 in just over 10 months.

Vanguard's recent overseas contracts have included the installation of a 220-ton printing press for the Natal Mercury, in Durban, South Africa; the local removal of Guy & Co Ltd, of Cork, Eire; and the removal of the entire research establishment of a famous international chemical company from Newport, South Wales, to Belgium.

But the biggest feather in the company's cap was the last minute winning of the contract from Sundstrand Hydraulic AB, of Sweden.

Sundstrand's parent company in America decided to close production in Scandinavia and move the manufacturing complex and parts stores from its factory in Stockholm to its manufacturing centres at Dijon, France and headquarters in Rockford, Illinois.

Sundstrand obtained quotations from both Swedish and French removal companies and was about to make a decision when a Norfolk firm asked Vanguard to submit an urgent quote for the movement of machinery from Stockholm to King's Lynn.

The Vanguard surveyor visited Stockholm and within 24 hours telexed a quotation which was immediately accepted. Two days later, Vanguard's men, heavy lifting equipment and transport were outward bound for Sweden. The subsequent project to King's Lynn went like clockwork—the " downtime/movement " bar graphs submitted by Vanguard were 100 per cent accurate, and the machines were back in production within seven days of being shut down at Stockholm.

Sundstrand's technical director, Mr Berth l Skylling, having witnessed Vanguard's highly professional approach, telephoned its London Office and asked if the company would like to submit a quotation to remove the remainder of the factory to Dijon, and Rockford. Naturally, the Vanguard man was on the next plane back to Stockholm, again completed a survey of the entire project, returned the same day to the UK and again within 24 hours, telexed a quotation. This was found to be very competitive compared to the Swedish and French offers and Sundstrand placed an immediate order with Vanguard.

The company was contracted to mark up and mechanically dismantle 180 tons of multistation hydraulic machinery, load to its transport, ship the major part of the consignment to France and the remainder to Illinois. At Dijon, it was contracted to offload, place and reassemble.

Vanguard submitted its usual programme/bar graphs, giving exact dismantling, loading, shipping and recommissioning dates and times.

Led by Vanguard foreman, Mr Ron Cox, the five-man crew of three driver/riggers, two mechanical engineers and an electrician headed for the Fel ixstowe-Gothenberg ro-ro ferry in two Volvo F88, 44-ton low-loaders, and one Volvo F86, 32-ton semi low-loader.

From Gothenberg, it was a 260-mile drive over excellent roads and through some of Europe's finest countryside to Stockholm. There, they offloaded their equipment ready to start work the next day—a Sunday.

Expensive

As hotel accommodation is particularly difficult in Stockholm, reservations were made in advance. The Hotel Fraelsningsarmens, run by the Salvation Army, was equivalent to an English two-star hotel, but although reasonably comfortable, at £9 for bed and breakfast, was "fearfully expensive," said Mr Cox.

"During our stay, we rapidly discovered that the cost of living and any luxuries in Sweden are virtually beyond comprehension," he added. "The cheapest seats in the cinema cost £2, a pint of beer E1.35, and an initial mistake, never to be repeated, four small bottles of Bass cost £5."

Fortunately, the Sundstrand canteen provided substantial and typical Swedish meals, which although heavily subsidised, were also extremely expensive.

It took the complete crew five days to mark up and dismantle the hydraulic machinery, spray booths, assembly and test machines. As each machine was dismantled, it was carefully marked and Tectyl 506 rust preventative was applied to all machined surfaces. If this precaution had not been taken, the machines would undoubtedly have suffered serious rust damage in transit owing to the severe winter conditions.

Despite appalling weather conditions, the three trucks covered the 310 miles south to the Port of Helsingborg in reasonable time, and arrived at the Swedish-Danish ferry late on Friday evening. Although the crossing was short—similar to the Woolwich Ferry, according to the drivers—the charges were again, at £45 for each vehicle, exorbitant compared to British tolls.

On landing in Denmark, they were met by the cleating agent, who had been pre-warned by telex. He completed the T forms for each individual load and checked the certified invoices and EUR forms. Ron Cox advised the agent about the frontiers he would cross and completed the necessary documents.

It was essential there were no deviations from this route —the reason would become apparent later.

Customs clearance is handled in Copenhagen-24 miles away —end, travelling through dense fog, the convoy arrived at 2am, surprising not only themselves at their navigational prowess, but also the Customs officials by their intrusion so early in the morning. They left the still bewildered officials half an hour later, and cleared the city limits before spending the rest of the night in the sleeper cabs.

The following day, the convoy continued south on the E4 motorway discovering the delights of Danish service stations along the way. In all cases, these stations offered the usual vehicle services, but such a wide range of goods for the crews that would, according to Mr Cox, "make an English supermarket blush."

However, the journey was not all a long line of service tuck shops. At Vordingborg, on the southern tip of Zealand, the drivers faced a nerveshattering test of their driving skills.

For without any warning notices, or restriction limits, they found themselves approaching the Vordingborg bridge which spans over onto the neighbouring island of Lolland.

Ron Cox takes up the story: "This particular bridge is extremely long, and, narrows at the middle until, at its centre, traffic is reduced to a single line. There was exactly one inch clearance on either side of our trailer hub nuts.

"The high, multi-spindle drills on the low-loading vehicles just, but only just, managed to clear the underside of the bridge steelwork and an ill-placed warning notice, none of which did anything to stop the crew's increasing adrenalin rate. If the drill had been any higher it would have meant reversing the whole two miles off the bridge—a thought to terrify even the most experienced of the drivers."

Route planning

When, eventually, they cleared this ordeal, they arrived at the southern Danish ferry town of Rodbyhaven, where an hourly ferry crosses to Puttgarden, in Germany. And this was where the im portance of good route planning became apparent.

It is essential when crossing frontiers, that the diesel held in the tanks is down to an absolute minimum. If not, the importing country charges heavy fuel tax. So, before the run up to the ferry, fuel returns were checked to ensure that the tanks were nearly empty.

At the ferry, the men ch anged their remaining Danish-Swedish money into Deutschmarks at a reasonable exchange rate. But when it came to changing English money, they discovered how badly the £ had fallen abroad, which made the ferry charge of £206 for the three vehicles seem even more expensive.

Although the crew were very apprehensive at German Customs in Puttgarden, there were no delays. The documentation and loads were rapidly cleared and they continued south towards Hamburg. They skirted the city, remaining on the autobahn E4. Py Saturday evening they reached the small village of Kirchheim.

The vehicles were parked on a very large commercial vehicle park and the crew found excellent accommodation in the specially built commercial driver motel. Throughout Germany it is forbidden to move commercial vehicles on Sundays and so, in various parts of the republic, they have tailor-made lorry parks with associated accommodation.

This particular one proved extremely comfortable and well equipped. The restaurant was good and the facilities above normal. The crew remained at the hotel throughout Sunday chatting to other international drivers. There were 40 various nationals staying at the hotel, all of whom managed to converse, although few spoke the other's language.

At approximately 11.50pm all the drivers, with the exception of the Vanguard crew, booked out—and thoroughly checked their vehicles. At exactly midnight, the lorry park sounded like an armoured regiment about to advance. The entire fleet of heavy vehicles roared onto the autobahn, nose to tail, and vanished into the dark heading for their far flung destinations.

The following morning, at 7am, the Vanguard convoy left, heading south down the E4 autobahn via Frankfurt, Manheim, Karlsruhe, down the Rhine Valley to Mullheim where they left the autobahn, and crossed the Rhine at the French border.

Problems

The French Customs attitude was entirely different to all the previous contacts. Two of the vehicles were passed without comment but the third caused untold problems. For an hour and a half the French Customs tried to explain that there were problems bringing machinery from Sweden to France; unfortunately it was difficult to reconcile this argument as the previous two vehicles contained identical mechines to the third. However, after this rather trying period the third vehicle was released.

Again, the drivers had planned their fuel consumption carefully, and had run the tanks virtually dry before reaching the border. Once clear of Customs, they found a service station and filled up— each vehicle taking on approximately 100 gallons.

Not 300 yards along the road, the French police arrived en masse on motorbikes and in jeeps, stopped the convoy, pulled them off the road and ordered everybody out of the cabs. They demanded to see passports and vehicle documentation and promptly dipped the vehicle tanks. The sergeant in charge was delighted by his discovery and demanded an astronomic fuel tax. He was shown receipts from the service station 300 yards behind him and his bonanza tax collection promptly evaporated. Begrudgingly, he let the convoy continue. Previous bitter experience had saved the day— the French police it seems never miss an opportunity of trying to raise extra taxes from incoming commercial vehicles.

The last 130 miles from Mulhouse to Dijon was along the most gruelling roads—narrow, overcrowded and definitely not ideal for heavy commercial traffic. However, despite this last minor hurdle, the convoy arrived at Sundstrand SA, Industrial Estate, Dijon, exactly as scheduled; the works engineer, who had been present in Stockholm, greeted the crew like long lost friends, hardly able to believe the convoy had arrived within one hour of the original estimated arrival time. He accompanied the vehicles to the French Customs de,aring point in the city of Dijon and they, unlike their border cousins, were extremely helpful and rapidly cleared the consignment.

The entire operation was completed exactly as scheduled; the men, equipment and heavy vehicles returned to their London headquarters on the sixteenth day.


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