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EXPANDING BULK HAULAGI DIVERSIFICATION

2nd February 1973
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Page 56, 2nd February 1973 — EXPANDING BULK HAULAGI DIVERSIFICATION
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

by John Darker WHEN a single element is predominant in a manufacturing or distribution activity it makes good sense to diversify the business. The bulk haulage division of Wincanton Transport Ltd has for nearly 20 years been involved with the movement of a wide range of petroleum and coal tar products and chemicals. Milk — the staple product which plays such a large part in the activities of the parent company, Unigate Ltd — continues to occupy a substantial number of vehicles, mainly in the South and West of England.

At Wincanton, which besides being the company's head office is the divisional office for the milk activity under its general manager, Bil Bayley, the company set up the largest bulk farm reload station in the country. The continuing change frorr churns to bulk farm collection ant reload represents a near revolution ir the dairy industry, reflecting tht greater utilization of men anc machines with consequent benefit tc cost and consumers.

The use of modern methods in mill collection, storage and transfer wa: greatly helped by the close collaboration of Unigate Ltd and the Milk Marketing Board. In learning fresh techniques from outside farmers helped themselves as well a: the transport operators. In most othei fields the transport operator alone must hope to persuade his customei to .adopt modern labour-and-time saving methods. There are still man3 manufacturers of bulk products wile are, it seems, still dubious as to tht merits of articulation.

Dennis Miers, Wincanton Trans. port's general manager, bulk liquids was for many years opposed te articulation, partly because he wa conscious of the strength of soml customer resistance but also becausl in the early days he doubted dh. ability of drivers generally to cop with the often inadequate approache and exits to customers' premises Now, Dennis has no doubt tha articulation, with suitable sizec vehicles, pays off. In the field o petroleum and chemical products, ID is successfully breaking down till remnants of customer resistance tc articulation.

"Our tanker fleet will be full: articulated within the next E months," said Dennis Miers. "W have only 20 rigids left in a fleet o 153. Our small tankers wit] capacities of 1500 and 2500 gallon are increasingly uneconomic an these vehicles will be phased out".

Dennis Miers' family haulage iusiness was merged with the Unigate ompany at Wolverhampton some .ears ago and in the past three years ie has steadily expanded the haulage if bulk liquids and chemicals for Vincanton. The Wolverhampton lepot is now the divisional office for lie bulk liquids activity.

Various depots are operated round the country — Preston is the ontrol point for traffic in the North Vest and from thence to Scotland. Vincanton Transport shares the ame buildings as the newly acquired valley Carriers at Sully, South Wales, nd this is confidently expected to be growth point. PVC granules are arried from a British Petroleum lant at Sully to customers all over le country.

Fleets of fuel tankers are also ased in London and in the South Vest the Wincanton depot provides n area office for bulk liquids work. a Mayfield. Sussex, a number of rain tankers are operated with a !gular traffic flow to Lancashire.

Fleets of milk tankers also operate .om Wood Lane, London, Attleborugh Norfolk, Haverfordwest, Wolerhampton, and on the South Coast. he Wincanton organization has been :rengthened by the addition of the 'alley Carriers South Wales fleet of 5 flats and 27 specialist bulk powder ad liquid tankers and is substantial its own right. The flat vehicles in ie Wincanton fleet play an important )le in the company's growing iterest in storage and distribution.

The total Wincanton Transport fleet is around 600 vehicles with some 340 semi-trailers; 133 platform vehicles, mostly 7 tonners, carry milk churns or bottles; 117 road tankers of 16 tons gross are employed on bulk farm collections; 94 vehicles, mostly 32-tonners, convey milk and allied products to dairies and factories in the Unigate group.

With a fleet of this size impressive figures are revealed in terms of annual carryings. Milk accounts for 305 million gallons, or 1.4m tons. The operation controlled by Dennis Miers from Wolverhampton (153 vehicles and 119 semi-trailers) hauls in total some 1.3m tons annually. The annual vehicle mileage of all Wincanton Transport vehicles approaches 20m miles.

Several makes of vehicles are operated, principally AEC, Bedford, Foden and Guy with tanks by Butterfield, Clarke-Chapman and Wincanton Engineering. The proportion of tanks both rigid and articulated has grown steadily and they now comprise 70 per cent of the fleet. Articulated running gear is by Highway and York. Some 34 Guy Big J4 tractive units are powered by the Rolls-Royce 220 engine.

Regular contracts Of the Wolverhampton operation, some 80 per cent of all vehicles operated are now on regular contracts a tribute to the consistently high level of service given, in Dennis Miers' view. When new work is undertaken in the spot-hire market the aim is to give such a good service as to encourage customers to take out long-term contracts.

Traffic operation is eased by the clear methods used to identify trailers and tractive units in relation to the contracts on which many of the vehicles are working. Standard hydraulic pumping equipment by Drum Engineering Ltd is fitted to all tanker trailers. The increasing complexity of equipment inaintenance, and cleansing programmes for tanks, is met by regular training sessions for maintenance staff.

Wincanton has always "named" its vehicles. The milk fleet uses rivers for names and bulk tankers utilize warship names culled from Jane's Fighting Ships. Dennis Miers makes sure that a ship name like "Blackpool" is omitted from the fleet names if its use could prove embarrassing in a particular location.

I gather that the naming practice goes back to the Thirties when some Cow and Gate vehicles bore such cozy names as Smiler, Bo Peep, Miss Muffett or Tom Thumb! Certainly, to see vehicles identified — almost personified — by a famous ship's name is effective public relations and it simplifies administration.

Tank trailers are identified with the letters "TC" — Tanker Contract — or "TM" — Tanker Milk — and a number. This denotes the company division the equipment is working for.

The vehicle naming system, apart from its use in traffic office documentation -it makes a refreshing change from normal fleet numbering systems — is helpful to customers and the public. It is much easier to report a vehicle name than to identify a vehicle registration number or fleet number with a fleeting glance. I would guess that named vehicles are even easier to count in a depot round-up! Interestingly enough, contract customers often get the chance to choose named vehicles themselves; two 30-ton tankers on contract to Cawoods have the names Caesar and Cavalier.

Unigate Ltd, the parent company, formed an international division in 1969 to handle exports and various overseas operations. Following Britain's 'decision to join the Common Market, it was decided that most of Europe should be the home market and therefore these countries do not form part of the international .division. Unigate's acquisition of food companies in the Common Market increases the prospect of reciprocal trading -and hence regular transport services — between the UK and Europe. Quite apart from any group transport activity, Wincanton has already amassed considerable Continental experience with movements of vinegar from the Birmingham area to the Netherlands. Permits for France, Germany and elsewhere are being applied for. All the more recent vehicles are built to TIR standards. Managing director, Ted Wall, says that negotiations are well advanced for the acquisition of a Belgian transport company.

Throughout the Unigate group staff training is taken very seriously Peter Marley, formerly Wincanton'; training officer and now in charge o the South Wales depot, said furthei education is subsidized by the paten company for any subject under tit( sun — even things like needlework 01 country dancing.

Training courses Unigate is planning trainini courses for managers and supervisor; and shop steward training has beer arranged in the foods division. Thl company attitude is that a call fo training should come from employee — and this is particularly true in thl sensitive area of labour relations.

Tanker operations inevitabl compel management to take a clos, interest in the cleansing procedure for internal tank cleaning and also th; external washing arrangements. Ti make Wincanton Transport mor efficient — and self-sufficient — ii both areas, expensive cleaning an washing plant is being installed a Wolverhampton. The automati lorry-washing equipment selected wi spray chemical solvents over the lorr and after a one-minute dwell peria the wash-off will be by high-pressur water spray.

Dennis Miers hopes the vehici washing plant chosen "will enabl washing to be done for around 50 per vehicle — or considerably less we get it straight". His experience i recent years of lorry washing b contract cleaning contractors a "thirty bob a time" has not been ver satisfactory; hence the decision t invest in new equipment.

The more thorough cleaning — what Dennis Miers calls "secon degree" (under mudguards an chassis cleaning), and "third degree, involving the cleaning up of all spil around the tank and the accumulate grime in chassis members, etc — obviously a serious burden to a tanker operators, Wincanton is prou of its public image and constantl strives to present clean vehicles I customers — though a newly washe tanker does not need to travel man miles over some roads to acquire patina of filth. Marked variations the filth picked up by vehicles c different stretches of road in ti Midlands are noticeable — whir must mean that different mixtures salt and chemical sprays are p! down by local authorities.

Throughout the Unigate organiz tion a system of joint consultation h; recently been introduced. Wincantc Transport workers' representativ meet the management every thrl months and already some producti, discussions have taken place. If thr months seems a fairly lengtt interval, shop stewards have access the general manager at any time if

urgent matter needs to be resolved.

I asked Dennis Miers what occupied most time in labourrelations matters? "Interpretation of agreements is often a major problem. Ideally, all agreements would be brief and written in simple language everyone could understand. In practice, this may be easier said than done in an industry like road haulage. There are problems of work allocation within the various activities. First-line supervision is obviously important and we are giving much attention to training in this area. There are the usual management problems relating to performance assessment of drivers and other staff."

Though Wincanton Transport has been very successful in offering such high-quality bulk haulage services as to persuade 80 per cent of customers to take out long-term contracts, tanker operations are subject to wasonal fall-offs. The spot-hire market operates at premium rates but is very competitive notwithstanding. Efforts to keep all vehicles fully employed throughout the year are continuous. Wincanton studies the various options — such as detachable ank linings, the Metalair moving bag ;ystem, etc — for practicability from he operator's and customer's angle. iecause intensity of use is the key to vofitability, research will continue. or Continental operations the use of orries and trailers cannot be ruled mt, especially on long runs.

Drivers pay On the competitiveness of the ;pot-hire market, I was amazed to earn of the enormous variations in Myers' pay rates in the Midlands. If nistomers get what they pay for, the well-established firms paying drivers well should offer much better and nore reliable services than competitor irms working on a shoe-string. Vincanton's expansion at Wolvertampton has necessitated driver .ecruitment but a high proportion of !rivers are long-service men — which nust greatly assist the marketing of he service.

Enough land is available at the ihowell Road depot, Bushbury, some wo miles from Wolverhampton :entre, to sustain the company's ;rowth for the next five years. The ocation — only 12 minutes drive tom M6 — is convenient and Vincanton naturally exploits all vlidlands road improvements to alliance customer service.

Dennis Miers sums up the Wincanton philosophy: "We're not he cheapest operator but concentraion on customer service has enabled is to convert many casual customers ato contract customers". It is a veil-proved formula for success — nd profitability.


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