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What it means to be professional
Page 50
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THE FUTURE of the recovery industry must be based on the present state of a company, said Association of Vehicle Recovery Operators' assistant director general Bob Clarke.
And he split the industry into three parts: professional recovery companies; fleet operators, either hauliers or own account operators; and companies selling heavy vehicles for a living.
Some bigger sales companies had found that there was good value in having a good recovery department if only to tow in customers' vehicles for workshop repair.
Many of the agents who started in this way had now developed their own professional recovery service from this small beginning but many of these operators found recovery an "expensive and troublesome necessity,said Mr Clarke.
These sellers of vehicles had several problems insufficient work if they only had one franchise, unsocial hours, and large amounts of capital tied up in the vehicles — and even then there were few with a good ser vice van on call and even fewer with heavy recovery vehicles.
Hauliers had probably come into the recovery business because they could not rely on efficient recovery outside their own district at reasonable rates, and so had started doing their own recovery.
These companies came in for praise from Mr Clarke. ''They usually have excellent service vans and fitters capable of multi-franchise work," he said, but he added that the reccovery capacity often consisted only of a low loader or spare articulated tractive unit and rigid bar.
But the professional recovery man was one who was willing to turn out at any time to fix anything from a Transit to a Spanish Pegaso.
All three groups had common problems with the growing need for expertise on modern sophisticated machinery and the difficulties of getting labour to work unsocial hours.
The growing size of the capital requirement for the investment in recovery vehicles and ancillary equipment was also a problem.
And the need for what he described as -Fire Brigade" action to get a driver back on the road so that he could .maintain the ever tighter schedules demanded by modern drivers' hours rules made this more necessary.
The days of the haulier i recovery were numbered, sai Mr Clarke. Spare artic unii were a luxury that accountan: frowned on and the operatoi could not afford to lose fitters ft a day to travel 100 miles to do roadside repair.
Vehicle sales operators wer likely to move towards sut contracting their recovery war because of the capital inves ment needed to maintain th recovery fleet that could be be ter used to maintain a pan stock.
But Mr Clarke did not forese any major growth in the size individual companies beyon that necessary to absorb th work that had been done b hauliers or vehicle sales agents He did foresee more cc operation in local areas so thi there was, perhaps, only on man in an area with a very heav capacity recovery vehicle.
And he advised that whe operators contemplated the future, they should also thin about those recovery operator operating in other areas of wor who are within 20 miles of eac other.
"Make a list, go and se them and point out the thing you have learned over the la two days and what you hay learned over the last two cif cades at the side of the road.
"Offer a contract to do the recovery for them and whethE they be hauliers or dealers, the may well be very pleased to se you,said Mr Clarke.
But he warned that operator must have the right equipmer to do the job that they wer asking for the contract to do.
He said that recovery wa likely to move ahead in its ow professional sphere, whic would result in a movement c work from hauliers and dealer to companies involved i recovery as a prime source c work.
There will be more specia isod vehicles, but fewer of ther operating more efficiency. '