Oxfordshire driver Bob Jones, thrown out of work, fought back
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by launching his own operation. Now he runs a highly regarded tipper fleet specialising in muckaway.
Davit] Tayko. reports.
peak to any successful small or medium-sized haulier, and the chances are they will attribute their success to the quality of their drivers. Many of these company bosses were drivers, and some still do their share. They know from experience that the driver is at the sharp end of the business and has the personal contact with the client.
Bob Jones had plenty of contact with his boss's clients when he drove low-loaders for Oxfordshire haulier PI Meaghen ln fact, it was not unknown for clients to contact Jones directly when they wanted a job done.
Jones received such a call on his mobile phone one morning in August 1992. It was from Steve Hill, the boss of local building contractor Steve Hill Construction. But he found Jones at home, not in his cab; Meagher had gone into liquidation and Jones was out of a job.
"Steve was a bit upset—he wanted a machine moved straight away, but, of course, I couldn't help him," says Jones. However, the phone call was a turning point
D for Jones. It marked the start of a lasting and successful business relationship, and sowed the seed of what has become Trux, Bob Jones' own fleet of tippers, which serves the Oxfordshire area.
Convinced he would never get another driving job, Jones had resolved to set up his own business, and Hill put up half the money to help him buy his first vehicle, an MAN 30.290 eight-wheel tipper. "She was a sad old girl, but she got me started," remembers Jones. (Steve Hill has continued to support Trux and still retains a financial interest in the business, even though most of the contractor's work has shifted towards London and away from Jones's "patch") The old MAN struggled on for a couple of years until Jones decided he needed a replacement. Again with financial help from Hill, he bought a used vehicle, on this occasion choosing a Mercedes. It was to prove the beginning of another long-running business relationship, this time with Mercedes dealer Mudie Bond—or Evenlode, as it was then.
"I've stayed with them ever since, partly because I like the Mercedes vehicles so much, but also due to the quality of their service," says Jones. "When I started in business none of the local commercial vehicle dealers wanted to help me. However, the salesman at Evenlode went out of his way to help and fixed me up with a used 30/25."
Today, Trux has a fleet of seven Mercedes vehicles, based at its sole depot in Stanton Harcourt, between Oxford and Witney. Five are tippers, and are dedicated to muckaway for construction companies in Oxfordshire. "It's the sort of business that takes time to establish, but once you've occupied the niche it's steady and reliable," says Jones.
"Generally speaking, muckaway is a local business," he explains. "If you want to expand geographically, you've got to use the local tips in those areas. There aren't a lot of landfill sites about and the haulage firms that use them tend to guard their territory If you try to expand, you'll find the big firms will try to price you out of the market"
Since the introduction of the Landfill Tax—which is set to rise to Do a tonne this year—the cost of taking excavated material to landfill tips has rocketed. This has meant the new tax has achieved its aim with remarkable success, forcing industry in general to cut the amount of waste produced and encouraging building contractors to re-use as much excavated material as possible for landscaping on site.
Confidence
Jones accepts that the muckaway market is unlikely to grow, but he's confident of his prospects in this sector. "I think I can say we're the biggest specialist tipper operator in the area," he says. "Our vehicles are out all the time: there's no shortage of work for them."
Jones declares that rates in this sector are not too bad; his only gripe is late payment—a vice all too common in construction, "Nobody wants to pay you in this industry," he says. The traditional practice of "pay when paid" was supposed to be wiped out by the introduction of new laws concerning the late payment of commercial debt, but Jones says it still happens. "I'm still chasing invoices from last October," he says. "They pay whoever shouts the loudest and longest."
Given the changes wrought by the Landfill Tax, Jones believes his best bet for future business expansion lies beyond muckaway—a belief bolstered by his first venture into pastures new about six months ago.
"Things get pretty quiet for the tippers around Christmas time. I had bought a second-hand Renault Magnum tractor unit that I used for odd jobs, and I thought I could put it to better use," he says.
Jones asked around and soon came into contact with Belgian shipping company Cobelfret, which operates a dozen ferries into Purfleet. Trux got its first job with Cobelfret in November 1999, and Jones's Magnum was soon hauling Cobelfret's trailers from Purfleet to distribution centres around the country on a regular basis.
Disbelief
This new work was a revelation for Jones, whose career is founded in the construction sector: "Cobelfret pays us every week," he says, with barely concealed disbelief Cobelfret made it clear that it could put more work Jones's way, so Jones decided to buy two new tractive units and let his old Magnum go. Obviously he opted for Mercedes, ordering two Actros 25/53 units from Mudie Bond late last year. To get the vehicles working as soon as possible, Jones and Mudie Bond salesman Mick Shirley collected them straight off the production line in Germany and drove them back to the UK.
Given the obvious boost the Cobelfret work has given Trux, you might expect Jones to abandon muckaway in favour of prompterpaying general haulage. But the company's most recent fleet addition is another tipper— an Actros 32/35—the first-ever eight-wheel Actros to be supplied in the UK.
Certainly Jones is hoping to develop the general haulage side of his business, but there's something that will keep him in the construction sector for many years to come: his drivers.
"I have to think of my people first," he says. "At the end of the day it's the drivers who get you there. Some of them are set in their ways: most of mine are tipper drivers, and they don't want to do anything else. I don't want to lose them, because good drivers are hard to find".
Well, Jones should know.