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THE MILK RUN

With EC milk quotas keeping a tight lid on profits, the Milk Marketing Board is looking for economies of scale through weight savings in its contractors' fleets and mergers within its network of depots.

• Like Billy Graham, the Milk Marketing Board says it has a mission — "to maximise the returns to milk producers in England and Wales whilst pursuing policies to maintain a viable dairy industry."

But if the MMB is the high priest of dairy products, its faithful disciples must surely be the 50 haulage companies who daily send out, come shine or sleet, 1,600 tankers from 150 English and Welsh depots to collect 32 million litres of milk from 33,000 farms.

Within 24 hours, one-third of this vast milk-lake is standing on suburban doorsteps; 80% — some 16 million households — have milk delivered every day.

Not surprising then, that V100m of the board's £140m annual operating costs is spent on haulage.

The MMB itself owns no haulage vehicles but Phill Green, development engineer; Pat Williams, farm transport mana ger; and Geoff Mayne, head of farm transport operations, between them control a national grid system of milk haulage with a fleet of 1,600 tankers and 250 38-tonne artics.

The operation germinated in 1933 when the MMB was set up as a farmers' cooperative to combat uncertain pricing.

In 1940, the imposing headquarters at Thames Ditton was built, with extra-wide corridors for conversion into a hospital should need arise — rumour says this is how the canny farmers won planning permission in wartime Britain.

SOPHISTICATION

The cunning of the forties has been replaced by the sophistication of the nineties. Computerised vehicle routeing was introduced in 1988.

"We've digitised the entire road network of England and Wales — using ordnance survey; each point of supply is located as well as each customer," says Williams.

Once collected, 300 customers buy the farm produce as liquid milk and convert it into packaged milk, cream, yoghurt or cheese for the retail trade.

Regional centres in Wales, Plymouth, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Harrogate aid the transport team. Currently, it is seeking economies of scale in two ways: by reducing the number of tankers and by persuading depots in the same area to merge, in the belief that larger operations have lower overheads.

In Cheshire, six haulage companies became three in 1989 and East Anglia plans to reorganise four local operators and two national carriers to cut the depots used from eight to three. "Because of milk quotas we can only improve costefficiency in transport terms rather than by greater production," explains development manager Green.

Green's latest project has been to respond to 1988 legislation which increased the legal laden weight on two axles from 16 tonnes to 17 tonnes. He wanted to maximise the change in law by creating a lighter chassis cab, capable of carrying a heavier load.

SPECIFICATIONS

To do so, Green briefed the Motor Industry Research Association to strip down an existing chassis to new specifications. The target was to achieve a 17-tonne laden vehicle, carrying 10,500 litres, a 1,000litre increase, and equivalent to one farm milk collection.

MIRA outperformed the specification and-came up with a tanker able to carry an extra 1,300 litres. Green explains how it was done: "We took a Leyland Daf Freighter 1615 and replaced the engine with a Cummins 6BT 5.913 — lighter but of comparable performance. We wanted a lighter vehicle, but not a weaker one. And we wanted to keep it simple — if you want space-age materials, you pay spaceage prices."

The MMB guide to weight loss includes replacing heavy road springs with lighter ones, substituting a single passenger seat for a double-bench seat, putting on lighter bumpers and smaller fuel tanks.

The new specification has been given to Leyland Daf, AWL), Iveco Ford and ERF. Their methods of achieving the result vary. lveco Ford and ERE.' have put the new chassis into production, but Leyland Daf and AWL) are still to do so, despite the MMB sending MIRA a Leyland Daf 1615 to use as guinea pig.

The new chassis cab with fuel and driver on board weighs 4,430kg.

Green says the tank is the other half of the equation. Built by Thompson of Bilston, modifications will shift the milk outlet from the bottom of the tank to a slipper outlet at the rear, enabling 130mm of chassis height to be saved.

"We've also done away with mounting rails — the tank now sits on a set of feet," says Green.

With the tank and milk, total laden weight of the tanker is 6,200kg. Green is cagey about how much weight has gone from the old spec, but says the important thing to remember is that the tankers can now legally carry 14% more milk.

CONTRACTORS

Contractors are required to replace chassis cabs every eight years, and the MMB says the new spec will gradually reduce the total fleet by up to 8%.

Not all operators share the board's enthusiasm for change. John Rowlands, director of Stocklands Transport, is worried that the lightweight chassis will not stand up to the rigours of rural roads. He has 16 tankers collecting 35,000 litres of milk a day.

"What if the new chassis isn't up to it — will the board foot the repair bill?" he asks. "I'd rather the MMB tried them out first for a year."

Stocklands, collecting in Cheshire, is itself the result of an MMB-imposed merger between A Rowlands and Stockton.

But despite doubts about the new chassis, Rowlands is happy to work for the MMB. "At least we know the milk cheque is coming every month," he says.

The MMB agrees a rate at the beginning of the year with each contractor, and pays monthly with adjustment made for fluctuating fuel prices.

Ann Tanner of G R Tanner has no problems with the new spec. Collecting in Essex and Suffolk since 1941, the family firm expects to grow from the present operation of four tankers. "We will be moving to larger tankers anyway," she says.

Day-to-day links with operators are maintained by Geoff Mayne who also runs training sessions for drivers: "We also hold social evenings to give operators the party line," he says.

In this way, the board is squaring up to the Single European Market which, in any case, happened for the dairy industry in 1988 when pasteurised milk was first allowed across national boundaries.

So, will the Channel Tunnel pose a real threat?

Chief executive Charles Runge takes a bullish line. "We can either think negatively — and be stamped all over by Europeans wearing hob-nailed boots — or we can change and improve our efficiency to the point where we stamp all over them," he says.

0 by Patric Cunnane.