B L ACK AU 1111 - You'd be surprised at some of the
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things people do when they see it," says John Wall as he pilots Black Beauty, his mighty Freightliner wrecker, through the Newport traffic. As a motorist does an extra lap of a roundabout to get a second look at the 22-tonne beast and pedestrians stop and stare, his point is made.
Image is what it's all about, both for Wall's Truck Services and for the recovery industry as a whole, says Wall. "The industry has still got quite a number of cowboy operators in it and I think that the Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators should be doing more to eliminate them," he believes.
Wall's is a family-run business with 20 years' experience in heavy truck recovery. Its 22 vehicles are based at three depots on the M4 with an HQ and workshops at Newport, Gwent. A smaller workshop and recovery depot is situated at Aust services at the English end of the Severn Bridge and a third depot is strategically placed mid-way between Newport and Cardiff. Wall's M4 coverage extends from Swansea in the West, through three police forces, to junction 18 beyond Bristol in the East.
Wall prides himself on having the equipment to tackle any job and is upgrading his fleet to bring it up to his own selfimposed standards. Standards which he would like to see echoed throughout the recovery industry: "I would like to see heavy recovery vehicles plated. This would benefit the genuine operator who spends money on his equipment," asserts Wall.
One problem facing Wall is the rogue operator's ability to undercut his prices: "The other day someone wanted a coach towed from London and told me they could get it done for 2100. My reaction was if you can get it for that why are you ringing me? As far as I am concerned we are professional recovery operators and we have bought specialist equipment to tow coaches and pick them up without damaging them. "If we do damage them we are properly insured."
His prices have effectively kept him out of one important area of motorway work, the ever present contraflows. Wall's company has not won a contraflow contract for eight years: 'They are putting operators into those tontraflows for less than £2.50 per hour," he says. "I know this because contractors have rung me up and asked if I will do it at that price. I can't put a recovery vehicle plus an experienced man out there for £2.50 a bloody hour. Our fitters are on anything from £4 to £5 per hour, and that's on normal time."
CHEAPEST QUOTE
The problem lies in the way the contracts are awarded, says Wall. At the moment the recovery service for a contraflow is awarded by the contractor which is naturally going to go for the cheapest quote he can get to preserve his margins. AVRO is pressing the Department of Transport to bring contraflow recovery directly under control of the local authority or the DIp itself.
One motorway contract which is too important to be left to market forces is the Severn Bridge. In the past couple of years the bridge has been dogged by narrow lane working as contractors have jacked the structure up to strengthen the foundations.
Wall's has held the recovery contract on the bridge for eight years and has three vehicles stationed on the approaches to the bridge.
"The police have a lot of say in that one," says Wall. "They know we are doing a good job there and it is vital that the bridge keeps flowing."
But problems could be looming for that contract if plans to build a second crossing with private finance go ahead.
"If the bridge goes out to private tender then I don't know what will happen," says Wall.
Wall's devotion to the work (he hasn't taken a holiday for 10 years) is shared by his family, who are all involved in the business. His wife, Marjorie runs the office and his son Anthony manages the Newport base. His other son, Jimmy, is still at school, but spends all his spare time and every holiday helping out with the business, and has no doubts about where he wants to work when he leaves school.
The company's fleet reveals a collector's enthusiasm in Wall: "To a certain extent I am a collector," he says, "if I see something and I think it will do the job and I like it I buy it. We don't have anything on finance, we pay for everything."
The fleet includes two Macks, a Steyr, two Volvos, two Dafs, an old ex-army Diamond and, of course, Wall's flagship the Freightliner which was imported from Canada about a year ago where it had been used as a tractive unit. It is equipped with a 13-speed Fuller gearbox with a five-speed deep reduction and is powered by a Cummins 261kW (350hp) engine uprated to 447kW (600hp). One of the first jobs was to convert the 6x4 to all-round braking (in Canada where it was used on snow and ice the front wheels had no brakes).
IMPROVE STABILITY The chassis was stretched by a metre by Chassis Development to bring the crane to the centre of the vehicle to achieve the lifting capacity and improve stability. The bodywork is by Syron Recovery of Stourport and the rig is equipped with a hydraulically-powered Holmes 750 crane with a choice of on-board or wander-lead controls. The truck is equipped with a two-bunk sleeper unit which is used when Wall takes it to shows. This year Black Beauty won the "best turned out exhibit" award at the 1VREX show.
Wall sees the 2100,000 he has spent on the vehicle as an investment in improving the image of his operation. It's obviously working as this year Wall was appointed as the MAN main dealer for South Wales. I=1 by Paul Newman