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Newport-based MDW Haulage achieved spectacular growth last year. For most hauliers such an achievement would be a cause for celebration, especially after a colourful history which includes driving through violent picket lines. But despite current success—and running one of the largest tipper fleets in Wales—the MDW boss is surprisingly downbeat about his life in the industry...
f things had turned out differently, Mark Hazell would have been drawing buildings rather than delivering goods to them. The boss of South Wales tipper operator MDW Haulage harboured early designs on a career in architecture. But when he worked out that he wouldn't be earning much in the way of money before the age of 30, he decided on life in the road transport industry instead. Rather than fighting his way through years of qualification and low pay, he set up his own company at 21, soon after getting his licence.
"I wish I hadn't done it now," he says, somewhat gloomily.
His reticence is hard to fathom: 19 years on, things seem to be going well.
As well as the tipping business, MDW has branched out into landscape gardening and chemical transport. To this end, the company has fork-lifts, low-loaders and internal skip lorries on the fleet as well as bulk tippers.
Hazel! likes Scania and Volvo because they are "good kit, reasonably priced", plus he plays golf with the dealer, In terms of fuel efficiency, a Renault Premium managed MDW's bestever figure, with 8mpg, as opposed to the usual 6-7mpg on tipping operations.
He is not, he readily admits, particularly interested in trucks, but is vociferous about the six Mercedes-Benz 1834s he had. He reckons that having bought them for L42.,000 each he managed to sell them for £3,00 o apiece. " Breakdowns, breakdowns, breakdowns," he says by way of grim explanation. He is happy with the Mercedes Actros, though.
That aside, MDW uses a mixture of acquisition methods and is not wedded to any one. "It all depends how we feel," he says, and illustrates his flexibility by saying he has also taken some second-hand vehicles off Eddie Stobart and has had a number of 412s converted to 6x2s "for the tax".
In much the same flexible fashion, Hazell is always on the lookout for new contracts with nothing, seemingly, off-limits. For a monthly fee he even puts adverts for a local estate agent on the side of some of his trailers. "We'll do anything," Hazell says firmly.
The Newport-based company has now grown to 25 vehicles. Hazell's father was in the industry, and the son worked for the father for about two weeks. It was, Hazel! recalls, "a nightmare". He struck out on his own, armed with one wagon and the realisation that he never wanted to work for anyone else, let alone his dad.
Barrel of laughs
Lucky breaks come in a bewildering variety of guises, and Hazell's was no exception. The miners' strike of the early 198os may not have been a barrel of laughs for those involved but it provided at least one excellent business opportunity. He was contracted to move coal from Port Talbot to Llanwern, and was the first person to drive a truck through the picket line— "my claim to fame," he says proudly— and has the pictures to prove it. Interviews with John Suchet on ITN followed.
So did arson. His premises were torched, Hazell says, and the trucks had to be fitted with wire mesh to deflect missiles. He has the pictures to prove that, too. It was not your average contract.
And Hazell is still fighting—against the police, the roads and the Government. Haulage is, he reckons, "general hassle".
Just-in-time deliveries and legislative restrictions mean the job has got tougher and tougher. Missing a 3 o'clock deadline by five minutes on a Friday afternoon because you've spent three hours stuck in traffic, and being told to bring back the load back on Monday morning, is not his idea of fun. "There's no job satisfaction to running a haulage firm," he says.
Satisfied or not, Hazen seems to be making a good job of it. A report on firms in Wales and the south-west of England from research group Plimsoll recently said MDW had achieved 48.1% sales growth in the past financial year.
One irritating side effect of this success has been increased interest from unwanted sources. He reserves special contempt for Americans who phone to offer him unrivalled opportunities in the bond market. And, rather more bizarrely, "People started to ring me asking me to buy coffee machines," he says in disbelief.
"At the end of the day, it is a fairly bleak business," he says, going back to his theme. To put a new Scania on the road is about /8o,00o, he says. "That's more than most people's houses." Not that he wants to pack it in, it's just that in his 4oth year it's a question of identifying the profitable, non-aggravating parts of the business and maximising them. In other words, "the good bits".
He enjoyed moving chemicals for RhonePoulenc, likes the landscape gardening business and is keen to do things for engineering firms; it is possible to expand in a more attractive direction, he believes: "There's plenty of work about. But it's getting people who can actually do something; you tend to always think you've got to be there. I like things done properly."
From his days as an owner-driver, Hazell has always been alive to new possibilities. "Being in the road haulage business, you tend to get involved with people's problems," he says. "You're the first to know if there's a problem with commodities, and that gives you an opportunity."
Commercial offshoot
Last year such an opportunity led to the purchase of some aluminium and its sale in Italy. Hazell is not sure what the next commercial offshoot will be, but you get the impression that he will seize it when it arrives.
Whatever happens in the future, he certainly doesn't seem thrilled by his current status as one of the largest tipper operators in Wales. "Great," he says with heavy irony. "Don't tell all the girls."
Apart from a general pessimism about the industry, he has a more specific beef about his place in the business world. His success, coupled with a penchant for car racing, has led the local press to refer to him as the "Eddie Stobart of Nash Road" and the "Gwent Speed Ace". For the record, both make him cringe. "I've had the mick taken out of me something wicked," he says.
But, above all, he really wishes people would stop ringing to ask if he wants to buy coffee machines.
• by Adam Hill