OUT ON HIS OWN
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• The only reason Ken Ward became an owner-operator was because he got fed up with taking orders from an employer specialising in Middle East road transport.
He found as an employed driver he had no control over the trucks he drove or the distant destinations of the loads. So after years of pounding the TIR trail, Ken Ward decided to branch out on his own.
Ward bought his first truck with an overdraft from his bank. It was a very old and cheap Magirus Deutz tractive unit.
However, the old Maggie, which was used from Ward's Braintree base, did not have too many days left in it, so eventually the unit was traded in for a newer Volvo F12. Despite the benefits of the new truck, Ward found himself burdened with hefty hire purchase payments every month and he soon needed better rates for his work. So in search of better pay, Ward found himself working the Continent and the Middle East again.
A few trips abroad paid — most did not Ward's overdraft began to climb to dangerous heights so he decided to diversify his operations. A driver was employed and a secondhand Scania bought for UK work.
But vehicle problems and bad debts continued to plague Ward and his overdraft rose again. He decided to get advice from his bank manager.
"He suggested with barbed diplomacy that my overdraft was far too high. He said I was daft to pay him all that interest every quarter so why not remortgage my house, pay the overdraft off and reduce my monthly outgoings. That seemed logical so I went ahead," says Ward.
Faced with the reality that he was going down the same road as before, Ward decided to diversify again. Ile sold all his trucks, except one old MAN and bought an old Ford I) Series flatbed with a crane.
To his surprise Ward found there was a lot of demand for the Ford because he could now load and unload heavy items himself. And soon he decided to replace this with a new Mercedes-Benz 1617 with an Atlas crane, This move brought him in even more work.
One of his first customers was the Witham Brick Company — a local builders merchant, "I did a couple of jobs for them with the Ford but then months went by before the next phone call. Then they rang and asked if I had got rid of my old truck. When I told them about the new Mercedes-Benz I was instantly asked if I would like to do some more work," says Ward. The niche market approach paid off.
Ward's customer list began to grow but suddenly his bank dropped a bombshell. It slashed his overdraft allowance by half from ...:12,000 to Di,000.
To relieve his troubled financial situation, Ward sold his tractive unit. But the bank balance just swallowed the cheque. So with the future of the haulage firm looking very grim, Ward called a business consultancy for advice.
"They were impressed," says Ward. "They told me I had a very sound business going, but it was being overloaded with the debt. The answer was to expand and buy another truck." Ward drew up a detailed business plan, with the help of the consultancy firm, to present to his bank and to get a loan for a new unit. He got references from all his customers and took out a personal insurance policy at the request of the bank. But after almost two months of deliberation the bank turned down Ward's request.
But he decided to go ahead anyway. He bought another Mercedes-Benz and has now taken on another driver. And despite his past financial problems Ward does not regret going out on his own: "I am home virtually every night and not sitting on some border in the middle of nowhere for hours on end. But the most important factor of all this is for the first time in years I am actually enjoying my work." DLaurence Kiely