LTS FREIGHT
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BASED: Le Havre. FOUNDED: 1988. CONTACT: Philippe Friboulet, branch manager. FLEET: 15 tractors (Seddo Atkinson, Ivaco and Mercedes-Benz plus 50 curtainsider/tilt trailers. SPECIALITY CONTRACT: General unit load haulage. TURNOVER: (1998 projection) FFrl 2m (£1.25m).
on ITS Freight Le Havre, it was just dispatching a hide carrying two oil bypass pipes eighing around six tonnes apiece • own to Marseille. The fact that the driver, Kevin Andrews, was English and that he was driving a UKregistered vehicle wasn't really much of a surprise as this French operation is part of ITS Freight of Eastleigh, Hants, and its main task is to help coordinate the UK company's operations within France.
Both the UK and Le Havre ends of e business were established in 988. The company has 50 of its own trailers—chiefly curta insiders and dropside tilts—and hires in another 20 or so as needed, says branch manager Philippe Friboulet. It hauls them with 15 tractive units (a mix of Seddon Atkinson, Iveco and Mercedes) and employs 30 subcontractors with their own vehicles; 20 of them are Brits, the other 10 French. All its own vehicles are registered in the UK.
The Le Havre end of the operation employs just three people and helps to co-ordinate about 60 vehicles a week coming and going between France and Britain, mostly general mixed loads— full loads and groupage. The machinery and construction industries are key customers, says Friboulet.
Britain's 38-tonne limit can be a problem for Friboulet, as French clients often have heavier loads. "Sometimes we have to leave the surplus in Portsmouth and try to get the extra taken up by another client's vehicle with spare capacity," he says. A key task for the Le Havre offic to help find backloads for UK vehicle in France. This is achieved via word o mouth, rather than by electroni means such as France's Minitel elec tronic noticeboard system. "We usual ly avoid it," says Friboulet. "Often you don't know the companies i question and sometimes they don't pay. So we only tend to use it if we otherwise cornered."
Channel crossing is mostly via Havre, although the company also uses the Caen and Cherbourg routes occasionally—though never the Channel Tunnel. "It's just too far and too pricey," says Friboulet. ITS Freight was already into cabotage operations before the July relaxation but Friboulet doesn't think his company will do much more now; he also doubts whether there will be much change for others. "I think if UK companies don't have an office in rance they won't do much," he says. "If they do, they ay try to develop the rench market."
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