Opening up in repairs
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In approach to lower rtaintenance costs is what David tilion is aiming at when he pens his new maintenance and epairs workshops at Heywood.
rohn Darker went along to find ut more and discovered the . £120 a week fitters...
;MALL haulier in icashire, originally trained a jig and tool engineer, now launched a ntenance and repair lity for road haulage rators, designed cifically to lower ntenance costs and rove the quality of lananship. The name of firm is DJA rime rcials.
iavid Ailion, now in his -fifties, has been in the I haulage business for 18 s. Until his Salford uses were subjected to a olition order, he operated ehicles and is currently ling two ut his principal energies in nt months have been ited to the layout of his sizeable workshops at Birch Garage, Heywood -a two-acre site at the rear of Heywood Motors, on the Manchester Road.
As a road haulier, Mr Ailion can point to many examples of costly maintenance and repair jobs put out to the trade. He makes the same criticisms of charges made by breakdown and towing-in specialists.
A pump repair on a vehicle broken down and subsequently towed in to a large private repair firm costs the road haulier 050. Mr Ailion reckons the pump repair job should not have cost more than t38, and even allowing for the tow the total cost would be excessive at 000.
Mr Ailion believes that the repair trade is saddled with unnecessary overheads —
white-coated functionaries and clerical staff who are unproductive and expensive -Too high a proportion of my profits over the years have been spent on garage repairs," he says. He speaks feelingly of road haulier friends who have been crushed by costly repair bills.
His formula is simple enough: maximise productivity of labour and equipment; minimise overheads.
First essential is to hire experienced fitters, preferably 'all-rounders'' skilled not only in diesel engine maintenance but in all other relevant skills needed to keep wheels turning.
Fitters chosen must be highly; motivated. Mr Ailion takes this to mean that fitters must be: (a) industrious by nature; (b) motivated to remain hard workers by the guarantee of high earnings; (c) capable of acting as their own inspectors. in other words, take pride in sound, quality workmanship.
It is, perhaps, a sad reflection on our times that loyalty and application is sometimes obtainable only through money Whether you are hiring drivers or fitters, there are many practical transport managers who would say pay top money if you want the best men. This is the view of Mr Ailion.
He advertised in the local press for fitters worth £120 a week (gross) and received•50 replies. iiity were all interviewed and 13 were chosen for appointment when the project is fully operating.
Two successful candidates helping Mr Ailion initially have been versatile enough to install compressed air lines, with outlets where needed in the , workshops and undertake simple carpentry involved in office building.
(When I visited Heywood, Mr Ailion's "deskwas a pile of wooden pallets. He puts first things first; the trimmings of a workmanlike office will doubtless follow.)
His prospectus to road hauliers offers facilities for parking, fuel supplies, use of workshops for minor repairs . and servicing, and professional services as required.
An additional service, for operators within 75 miles of Heywood, is a built-up wheel exchange service, operating from 6am to 10pm.
Terms for operators wishing
to use the Heywood depot, payable 13 weeks in advance, are. parking, £7 per vehicle per week, parking, with use of workshop for minor repairs and servicing, £10 per vehicle per week.
Services of the depot's fitting staff will cost £3 per hour for users of the base and £3.50 per hour for non-users (casual customers). These rates are said to be very competitive in Manchester though I have heard of lower labour rates in Peterborough.
Labour rates charged out will be held firm for two years. Typical charges for a full service including MoT check are £30 plus parts and lubricants. To reline the brakes of a four-wheeler or unit. would, typically, cost £50 and parts. Fitters will have to earn their money' They will do 10-hour shifts with a paid half-hour meal break. Tea will be brought round to fitters on the job. Mr Ailion's expectation is that each man will do at least nine and a half hours work a day, and all staff should be imbued with the intense desire to give customers the sort of service necessary to keep the wheels turning.
In practice, if this involves longer shift hours to get the operator's vehicle moving again, then the work will be done. Mr Ailion knows how a haulier's profits seep away when a vehicle is held longer than necessary under repair or maintenance. He is determined to provide exemplary service.
Contract users of the Heywood facility will have the option of buying fuel at preferential rates; users may also anticipate getting commonly needed spares and replacements at discounted rates.
In conjunction with a local recovery operator owning an eight-wheel Foden "wrecker,DJA Commercials proposes to undertake recover jobs within a 75-mile radius of Heywood.
Another useful facility will enable 0-licence holders to show the Heywood premises as the official base. Maintenance services, refuelling facilities, etc, are all on hand, and an added attraction — a clearing house operation — is being set up.
When Mr Ailion visited the United States he studied workshop layout in road transport premises. He returned to England filled with the idea that space-saving in the workshop is a key to economic operations.
For this reason he has plumped for Ingersoll-Rand air jacks in preference to either pits or ramps which he sees as being expensive and space-consuming.
When he interviewed the applicants for the fitter vacancies, worth t.:2 an hour, he was at pains to discuss the times each man considered to be practicable for standard repair operations. "How long would it take to re-line the brakes of an eight-wheeler — assuming everything is available?" The replies varied from four hours to 12 hours.
In choosing his team of fitters he insists that some clerical abilities must reinforce purely mechanical skills so that maintenance recording is done competently.
Any fitter applicant confessing he was not competent to inspect his own work was politely shown the door.
The night parking charge is to be standard for all size of vehicles because Mr Ailion insists that each vehicle must have rapid entry and exit from the premises.
If all the land available for parking was used with tightly packed vehicles many more than 40 could be accommodated but congestion would mean a lot of time-wasting shuffling and manoeuvring. Given an alloted space for all the over-night parked vehicles, drivers should never be subjected to delay.
There is an ambitious plan to concrete over the whole parking area with a ramp some 8ft from the perimeter fence to prevent property damage_ Ultimately, a 20ft wide canopy may be erected around the site perimeter to help drivers tranship loads in the dry.
The Heywood maintenance concept of speedy repairs and service at rock-bottom prices should prove popular with users.
Individual road transport operators often succeed in building a viable business by -creaming the market" for good fitters and lorry drivers.
Two things must be said The "market creaming" idea is not a runner for every business man: there are not enough skilled, dedicated workers around. And, as a business grows there is an inevitable tendency for administration to expand In practice, the white-coated supervisors, the clerks and ancillary staff gradually mushroom. The boss who aspires to do virtually all his own ''admin" stays a small man or, more probably, dies before his time, under the deluge of paperwork, scrawled telephone messages, account queries — you name It Even so, if David Ailion can work off his passion and provide a number of operators with the services they need, good luck to him — and others who may try to copy his methods.