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Making his mark
Page 24
Page 25
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John Allan is chief executive of Exel — and president of the Freight Transport Association. Dominic Perry finds out how he fits it all in.
Follow the soot-blackened outer wall of Kings Cross station north, and chic, sophisticated London frays at the edges and disappears behind a cloud of gritty building dust. There are none of the chrome and glass offices here that dominate other parts of London, just old brick warehouses and storage yards that used to serve the nearby station.
An odd location then for the London office of Exel. Britain's largest logistics company. Perhaps not, explains John Allan, chief executive at the FTSElisted firm. the offices are effectively family heirlooms inherited when its predecessor,the National Freight Company, was denationalised in the 1980s, before the creation of Exel.
Allan is a busy man. He's already a quarter of an hour late for our interview thanks to a previous meeting over-running and politely insists that we keep to our original time frame, leaving us with 45 minutes to rattle through the questions.
Jacket hung on the back of his chair and leaning forward to answer the questions, he presents an image of cheerful determination that hints at his love for his £1.6m-per-yearjob. Of course. aside from the small matter of running Exel, Allan also has the heavy responsibility of being the president of the Freight Transport Association yet another drain on those precious minutes. The role of president. he says. is a simple one: "To understand the needs and views of FTA members and formulate appropriate policies and then to get those across to all interested parties including the government." Given its size and the diverse views within the association it's no mean feat, and, inevitably, time consuming."It certainly involves a great deal of time, although that's true of any organisation you might involve yourself in — you have to devote time to understand what it is trying to do," he comments.
As he says, a key part of its remit is to engage in dialogue with the government and attempt to influence its policy-making. Prior to 2001 the two sides were barely on speaking terms, but more recently it seems the industry has gained a toe-hold on the decisionmaking process. However, the recent fuel price rise could be a sign that the industry's influence is on the wane.
Not so, says Allan:"! think we have, and will continue to impact positively on UK transport policy.We took [transport secretary] Alistair Darling through a number of our proposals and it's astonishing to see how many of them seem to be incorporated into government thinking. If they want to take credit for them then that's fine by us — all we ask is that they deliver on them."
Genuine solutions
Allan puts the ETA's success down not to its persistence or to shouting loudest, but to offering genuine solutions. He adds: "I think that we've got our point of view across by being thoroughly constructive, not just telling them they're getting it wrong, but by coming up with concrete, thought-through, actionable proposals." However, he does add a note of caution to this otherwise optimistic outlook: "The jury is still out as to whether enough will he done soon enough to tackle the looming crisis of increased congestion."
However, he believes — rightly or wrongly — that the FTA has done its bit on this issue by starting debate on "that guaranteed vote winner", road-user charging for all drivers. In fact, Allan thinks the recent fuel price rise was not aimed at the transport industry but at car drivers. Not much comfort you suppose to hard-pressed operators, but a sign at least that the government is prepared to make unpopular decisions.
However, at the end of this financial year it could make a decision that will be deeply unpopular with the haulage industry retaining all the unspent money within the Road Haulage Modernisation Fund.
With a driver shortage looming, if not already here, Allan thinks the funds should be used to tackle this. Discussions are already on-going to that end, he explains."It's important to use the remaining funds to good effect,and let's hope a way to do that can be found.
"Although we have to remember that it's not whether all the money has been spent, but whether it's been spent wisely," he cautions.
That said, there does appear to have been a poor take-up of the current funding by the industry, with some suggesting that it shows widespread operator apathy or badly targeted cash. However. Allan disagrees: "Most people in transport don't get out of bed in the morning thinking 'Is there a government scheme I can take advantage of today?' People have other things on their mind and I hope we aren't too hard on them if they don't take advantage of every scheme that comes their way."
It's not just central government the FTA seeks to influence local authorities are an increasing area of concern for it, particularly with regard to delivery curfews and congestion charging.Allan says the industry needs "joined up thinking" on these issues so that where trucks are prevented or discouraged from delivering at certain times they are also even slots they can use.
"There are unnecessary curfews being put in place by local authorities on a lot of new retail stores, stopping operators making choices about when they deliver."Many of these go hack a long time but the concern is that local authorities are slapping them on new sites now. They are just going to push trucks into a smaller and smaller window during the day."
To round off the interview we ask what motivates him to get out of bed in the morn ing. "My wife" he quips. "No you can't that, she'll divorce me," he adds hur "Actually if you're talking about my d; then it's tremendously exciting challeng( part of the leadership of a UK company a world-beater in its field. It's very dema but extremely satisfying as well, and we a huge number of very talented people ; the gjobe.At the FTA I'm very impressel the calibre of staffit's great to have a cha work with real professionals.
"With all that in front of you, there much temptation to linger in bedl" •