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liTERIOR DECORATOR
Page 60
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Shiny custom goodies are only for owner-drivers with more money than sense, right? Wrong. Fleet operators are now using in-cab 'accessories' to help keep their drivers. Brian Weatherley reports.
0 vet the past 18 months something strange has been happening to the order book of Suffolk-based CDC Truck Accessories — and it certainly hasn't 2scapecr the notice of MD David Fairweather.
The fleet-truck market was once a no-go area for CDC. But Fairweather reports: "All that's changed.The market's ready for the next generation'.That means soft furnishings Ind seat covers, floor fittings, even custom iteering wheels, but for fleets."
While most fleet engineers reading this will 3robably say"Over my dead body! "Fairweather las no doubt what's driving the sales shift. "It's all .o attract drivers. If you don't look after them you'Illose them.lf the drivers' lot is improved I kink you'll find a lot more coming back into the ndustry.We've lost a lot of good drivers simply )ecause of the way they've been treated." Considering how far many owner-drivers go :0 improve a perfectly adequate product,cost:onscious operators might be forgiven for :oncluding those companies now talking to DC have well-and-truly lost the plot.Yet Fairweather argues that with a relatively nodest outlay it's possible to make even the nost mundane fleet machine more appealing :0 a driver, who's then more likely to stay put. "It's the quickest way to make your nclividual mark in a truck without incurring he wrath of your boss. And you can do an ivvful lot inside a truck — we're not talking negabucks. Seat covers vary in price, but you an get a very nice pair for £50-60.
"Likewise floor carpets vary depending on ofyle, but for £40-45 you can have a nice set. And these are prices that include VAT so you're still within the magical £100 figure.And for the driver his cab's more comfortable, attractive and more personal."
Some drivers are even prepared to foot the bill themselves: "We've some big fleets where we've done the fleet engineer a deal — they can buy through their company account and then the driver pays for it."
And those drivers who are willing to subsidise an improvement in their working environment appear to be equally generous when it comes to leaving cab accessories behind." Once fitted, a lot of companies will not allow them to remove them," says Fairweather,"but with four to five years tending to be the amount of time a truck is with a company most drivers will be prepared to let it go as they've had that four to five years' use from the equipment."
Keeping it clean
Say "accessories" and most hauliers think of foglights and bullbars. However, CDC also provides practical add-ons for tipper and mixer fleets."If you talk to the people who valet trucks they'll tell you the worst thing to clean up is cement dust.We sell a hardwearing,washable denim seat cover plus extra heavy duty mats that offer terrific wear rates.You just brush them out when they're dirty."
Naturally fitting extra in-cab equipment only works where one driver is dedicated to the same vehicle. But Fairweather reckons many hauliers already do just that: "One of the biggest moans you hear from drivers is when other people drive their own vehicle. I've known some companies stand the truck up far two weeks rather than lose the driver because someone else has left his truck in a mess!"
CDC's desire to sell more kit to fleet operators is underpinned by the fact that it is exhibiting at the forthcoming CV Show for the first time. "We asked ourselves 'Is this our market?' but a big show like this attracts fleet operators and they've realised that they have got to do something to keep drivers, even if it's a small token," says Fairweather."At the NEC we'll have a 'fleet engineers' catalogue'.We know what they'll allow drivers and we'll show them that's where the market is." •