Cooperative care pays off in profits
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THE BRITISH Associati Owner Drivers, which itself in such peril at th, of its first year, migl worse than study methods which have bre success to a similar orga tion for 44 years. Han Co-operative of Hail Israel was formed in the of horse-drawn traffic apart from two years its operations were aft' by outside influences, i consistently shown a pre
The members are employees and shareho with one share each and al members must hold dr licences. They drive or a despatchers, clerks, manr or mechanics and they op on two shifts.
For salary, the sixty re equal parts of the estimate nual profit each month, pective of their task. At th( of the year, if the profit is or less than estimated, al justment is made to balanc books. It is simple and it v without acrimony becaus( shares are equal.
In addition to its employee shareholc Hamanal employs 40 c people as junior clerks, ty and mechanics.
Based at Israel's biggest the traffic is mainly conta ised import-export busin There is, however, a ser imbalance of traffic on contr work — only 20 per cent o vehicles are back-loaded. T are carrying empty containE
None of the work is on sic. long-term contract altho rates are agreed with the tamers every year within government's rates ceil Arranging prices on an an basis makes budgeting ez although it is hardly an e science where inflation is r pant and now stands at 45 cent.
As well as container tra the co-operative also car steel ingots and scrap m from ships' ballast and is Government's grain carrier ween shipside and a 100,C tonne silo at Haifa. It has n. been, and does not intend become involved in gent haulage or smalls traffic seems that these traffics gc the state transport company struggling owner-operators.
At Hamanal the compE owns the equipment and the individual members. Hc ever, the members have a sa the type of equipment to used.
The trailers are bulk tippE grain carriers, platforms
eletals. Every frame is fitted ith twist locks just in case they
e required. All of the prime overs are Maas and all are dio-controlled.
Members have introduced eir own modifications to the luipment to meet their worng conditions. A platform 3iler used for bar steel has len fitted with two transverse ;ems slotted into the floor and votted on both sides with anail hydraulic ram.
Instead of three men or a ane discharging the load, hich lies longitudinally on the atform, the driver engages the )wer take-off to the rams on e opposite side from the disiarging area. The bars are ted and slide off on the smooth irface of the angled transverse embers. I do not believe it has en patented.
Another member's modifiation is a simple tipper
rrangement for containers rhich is used to discharge loads at will not damage easily. In ddition to twist locks, the rear nd of the skeletal has a hinge racket fitted and the container as eyes and pins which marry ) the brackets. At the front end le container has twin threetage rams which lift the body n is simple hinge device and :5 tons of scrap is discharged in econds.
Where a power take-off is not tted, the body has its own etrol-driven power unit to carry ut the operation. These iodifications are weight penal es, or would be if the weight mits were enforced. They are lot.
"It would double the cost of ransport overnight if we stuck o'the limits"' a Hamanal official :hayin Goren told me. That, hen, is what will happen soon when the law is enforced on kpril 1, 1979. He confessed hat most of the co-operative's ehicles run at double the naker's weight!
Nevertheless Hamanal has )erfected many operating proc
idures which save time, equipnent and cost. One example is he method used to clear conainer ships at Haifa, Ashdod When the traffic operator is advised of a ship's estimated docking date and time, two units pull the required number of trailers alongside the berth. The vessel discharges the boxes on to the trailers, which are immediately moved to a parking area.
When the discharge is complete, the trailers are moved to the customer and empty trailers are returned to the dock. This method was devised in cooperation with customers and the port authority and it means that the turn-round time for vessels is greatly reduced than if they had to wait the arrival of empty trailers. Also it uses only two units for the entire discharge.
Despite the apparently irresponsible attitude to weights regulations, Hamanal takes seriously the Government's requirement for companies with more than 20 vehicles to have a safety and training officer. Their's is a retired sharehold r who is now an employee.
He investigates working methods, examines equipme t, oversees the maintenance the cause and effect of all accidents. How such a responsible person can condone excessive overloading is a total mystery to Me.
Hamanal has its own repair and maintenance workshop where it can accomplish any task apart from reboring, regrinding or pump recalibration. This, they estimate, shows enormous savings and they take up the slack time modifying trailers.
The vehicles are ample proof that the workshop section is highly efficient. Some of the equipment is original postwar Leyland, built at Ashdod. That they've lasted so long is of course a compliment to Leyland.
Not only the equipment is antiquated — there are employees who are in that category, but not as drivers. The company policy is to pension drivers off at 62. They consider that to be the limit to which a man should be asked to go as a driver.
To meet the gap between 62 and the official pension age of 65, there is a pension scheme. The Government allows 18.66 per cent of a salary tax-free for official and voluntary pension schemes. The treasury takes £8 and Hamanal allows shareholders or ordinary employees to invest up to MO per week on insurance. This ensures that at the end of his useful driving life, the shareholder has an income and is able to start other employment inside or outside the cooperative for a further three years.
Hamanal works well: it is built on a business footing rather than a dependency on trust, which seldom seems to work.