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• On a flying visit to Sheerness docks recently I

21st June 1986, Page 52
21st June 1986
Page 52
Page 52, 21st June 1986 — • On a flying visit to Sheerness docks recently I
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saw a yellow, unmarked van alongside a Dutch unaccompanied TIR trailer. The driver was acting very suspiciously. He wasn't "nicking" spare wheels or anything like that. Quite the reverse. He was fixing a wheel on to the trailer.

When questioned as to this suspicious behaviour, it turned out to be a novel — and seemingly profitable — diversification by the Dutch-owned UK subsidiary Copex (Freight and Clearing) Ltd. Copex, itself owned by the British Bowater Freight group, operates a daily trailer service between Vlissinghen (Holland) and Sheerness, using the luxury Olau Ferry service. Fed up with taking the blame for any damage or pilfering to (or from) the vehicles en route — things like a rip in a tilt or a missing landing-gear handle — Copex director David Stock devised a Trailer Condition Report consisting of two portions — one to be completed on the arrival in the UK of a trailer and the other on its departure overseas.

Rather like the form used by car hire firms, said form has diagrams of a trailer (front, sides and back) and spaces for a checker to mark in the condition of every component part of the trailer.

Minor damage and replacements are noted and, by ar rangement, rectified and replaced immediately. A telex is sent to the overseas owners in the case of a major job or replacement.

In this way, says Stock, it is easy to discover exactly where the damage, etc., took place and who is responsible. Arid when a trailer is checked on to the ferry OK, and comes off the ferry with a lump out of the tilt, a pre liminary claim is immediately lodged on behalf of the owners.

So successful has this system operated over the last three years that Copex now undertakes it on behalf of competitors using the Medway ports — a nice bit of extra loot to swell his company's coffers.

And who operates the mystery yellow van — the boss's brothed

Tags

Organisations: US Federal Reserve
People: David Stock

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