Suite sucl
Page 32
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Forty-five three-piece suites-135 bulky items of furniture---seems an awful lot of upholstered creature comfort to stuff into an artic. Yet that's how much longestablished, family-owned furniture manufacturer Alstons is regularly loading into its new Don-Bur double-deck semitrailer.
"If we were to spread them out over a football pitch, you'd never believe we could get them all in there," grins transport manager Neil Smith. "But we stack them two-high on each deck."
With sites in Ipswich and Colchester, own-account operator Alstons uses 36 trucks to deliver domestic furniture to shops all over the country.
Its latest livery won the Class Four award in Commercial Motor's livery competition last year—it aims to enter again this year—and can now be seen on four of its trucks. "The rest will progressively switch to this livery" says Smith.
It relied on close-coupled drawbar combinations almost exclusively until recently, but a drawbar will take only 36 lounge suites at most, Smith explains. "Not surprisingly, we have another artic on order."
With drawbars, he points out, the prime mover pulling the trailer has to be specially bodied, and isn't the sort of vehicle you can readily pluck out of a local dealer's yard. To get a semi-trailer moving, all you need is a tractor, and they're easily obtained; and artics are cheaper to acquire than drawbars, "Drawbars have an advantage artics don't have, however," he continues. "And they will continue to play a key role in the fleet. While the latter are fine if you're delivering to big outof-town stores—the sheds, as we call them— they're too unwieldy to access small shops in the centre of picturesque cities like Bath, and country towns like Stamford in Lincolnshire."
Awkward drop
However, a drawbar driver can handle an awkward drop using the truck alone.
Deliveries direct to peoples' houses are an extremely rare occurrence for Alstons.
"But a drawbar is ideal for this sort of work too," Smith says. "It's the ideal tool for home deliveries."
The drawbar units and trailers are equipped with demount bodies courtesy of Cartwrights of Altrincham, Cheshire, which also fits an aerodynamic kit. The demount gear makes the vehicles quite tall, and adding to their height by switching to double-deck operation wouldn't really be feasible, says Smith.
Alstons produces chairs, tables, cabinets and a variety of bedroom furniture as well as armchairs and settees, and targets the mass market. Its products are bulky rather, than heavy, and weight isn't an issue for the transport fleet, says Smith, Those 45 three-piece suites will weigh no more than 4 tonnes in total, so the artic is plated at a mere 25 tonnes. Which might suggest that Smith would happily run a low-powered 280hp/300hp tractor.
He's opted for a 340hp Mercedes 2534, however, pointing out that the trailer is nearly 16ft high, and that's a lot of wind resistance to overcome, even with the help of the tractor's aem dynamic kit. "I prefer to specify an engine that's on top of the job, and is not being strained," he says.
It's a philosophy that, along with light loads and stringent maintenance, ensures that Alstons' vehicles stay in service for a long time. "We reckon to run them for 10 years," Smith says Even when they're eventually taken off the road, their working lives aren't over because they're put to work as yard shunters. "We've got some shunters around that were originally B-registered," he remarks.
"None of our trucks does high mileages," he adds. "You're usually talking about 1,500km a week-2,000km a week would be an exception." That's despite the fact that they journey to the far north of Scotland, to Northern Ireland and to the Republic of Ireland.
"What we've started to do is to trunk up to Manchester at the weekend and swap boxes there. Our northern drivers take the loads on to retailers in the Lake District, the rest of northern England and Scotland," he says Service and maintenance are looked after under contract by East Anglian Volvo dealer Duffields. "Years ago, when we ran Bedfords, we had our own workshops and 20 mechanics," Smith recalls. "But that's been wound down over the past 13 years, and all we have now is a small body repair bay" Ipswich Tyres is responsible for the fleet's tyres, and Smith favours Michelins and Goodyears. "All our steer axle tyres are brand new Michelins," he says.
All bar two of the drawbars, both Mercedes, are Volvos—either FL6s or FL10s. "We moved on to FL 10s—we now have three—because we found the FL6s were struggling a bit with the trailers," says Smith.
"If we don't get lOmpg out of our drawbars, we're upset; and we hope to get that out of the artics too. "It's very difficult to get good drawbar drivers, but fortunately we have a low turnover of staff," he continues, "We've got guys who have been here 30 years or more.
"When we need new drawbar drivers, we get young drivers in and train them ourselves."
Alstons views drivers as its front-line ambassadors, which is one reason why it doesn't favour a move to third-party distribution. "They are all turned out smartly, with uniform shirts, ties and jumpers, and each driver has his own delivery patch.
"Our retailer customers get to know them—they view them as friendly faces they've been familiar with for years—and they don't like it when drivers change."
Drivers often give a hand with the unloading, and all the drawbars are fitted with a tail lift. So is the semi-trailer.
"As I said earlier, nothing that we deliver is really heavy What's important is handling technique, which is something drivers learn."
The ambassadorial role they have is one reason why Smith won't touch agency drivers with the proverbial barge pole.
Nervous breakdowns
"We've used them in the past, and our experiences have been horrendous; the stuff of which nervous breakdowns are made," he says, shuddering. "We're not impressed with them, and if it comes to a choice between using an agency driver and standing a truck, I'd rather stand the truck."
Last year's award-winning livery employed Reflective and Scotchlite 680 3M film. Smith is utterly convinced of the importance of a distinctive, well thought-out livery when it comes to projecting a positive image.
"It promotes your company," he observes "It's the image the customer sees" The livery has been revised slightly to ensure that it is suitable for use on an artic. It's applied by Novagraph of East Kilbride, and the signwriters liaise directly with either Cartwrights or Don-Bur.
The bodybuilders are also responsible for fitting trailers and any other ancillary equipment. "That way there's only one company to blame if things go wrong rather than half-adozen," Smith remarks.
The domestic furniture market is cyclical; quiet during the summer months, but growing in spring and autumn. The impact of windfall share packages, which Mr and Mrs Average can swiftly turn into cash and spend on goodies thanks to building societies turning themselves into banks, has yet to be reflected in the volume of traffic the fleet handles, says Smith —but watch this space.