Hire company thrives on gloom
Page 81
Page 82
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE current uncertain conditions in the transport industry have led to a record year for Ralph Bacci's company, Salford Van Hire, one of the largest private hire companies in the country with something like 1,000 vans and trucks. _ From his office overlooking the significantly empty yards at Salford near Manchester, Mr Bacci is in the middle of an expansion programme which makes him happy, despite the country's economic antics which made him sad. He can be excused if his eyes light up when the current economic gloomy state of the country is mentioned.
His recipe for success has been personal control of his company ensuring a controlled growth in one specific area of business.
So while Salford steadily expands, he resists the temptation to branch out into other fields like car hire, Steady growth, building up his commercial fleet — he now operates nearly 100 32-ton Volvo articulated units with more on order in addition to vans and ngids — and opening up new depots make up his plans.
A Salford Van Hire depot is already operating at Liverpool and the company has now moved into Leeds.
The Leeds opening, originally scheduled for November 1, almost had a disastrous start. Shortly before the opening, fire swept through the almost completed depot and caused £40,000 worth of damage.
"It was all hands to the pumps," said Ralph Bacci, "and the depot was operating only a couple of weeks after the planned opening date."
The Leeds opening is an important step for Salford Van Hire. "We are looking to the new depot to spearhead our expansion,says Mr Bacci. Although he adds cautiously: shall stick to a steady controlled growth rate.
This controlled growth rate will add between 300-400 vehicles to Salford's fleet over the next couple of years, although it is unlikely that new depots will be added. "We had the opportunity to open up in London, but I don't see us growing that way. I can personally manage the three locations with the excellent people l have with me here. I have no ambitions to be a northern Hertz or Godfrey Davis. There is an optimum size for this operation which, in the foreseeable future, will be about a 1,500-vehicle fleet for Salford Van Hire.
"I do not plan to have a fleet one vehicle bigger than the number out on hire every day.
He indicates the deserted yard with an expressive wave of his arm. "Other than the vehicles in our workshops everything is out on hire. Let's face it, until I opened Leeds, if the whole fleet had to park up in this 13/4-acre site we'd have had problems."
The 1,000 or so hire transactions carried out each week are now handled by computer -a far cry from 11 years ago, when Ralph Bacci, manufacturer of table lamps and statuettes, decided to put four vans on the road almost as a sideline. Five years later the van hire side had virtually taken over and it was goodbye to table lamp manufacture.
In 1973 the company went "heavy" with 24-, 28and 32-ton outfits A Volvo F86 articulated was purchased and set the scene for today's fleet of 80 F88s purchased from Volvo distributors, Lancashire Trucks Ltd of Kirkby, near Liverpool, and Tait (Oldham) Ltd of Oldham.
-This is the fast-growing side of the business," he says. "With the economic pressures today, no operating company wants any more vehicles than the absolute minimum. No one can afford stand-by trucks any more. They rely on spot hire to cover for vehicles off the road for servicing, repairs, etc and the 'peaks: "We regularly have half a dozen or so 32-ton outfits out with the large haulage companies in the North West. In fact, about 80 per cent of our business is now with regular account customers. They want vehicles for odd days and weeks, paying only when they need them, not long-term hire.
To support the Volvo 32-ton tractive units a fleet of 40 boxvan semi-trailers has been built up. Refrigerated bodied trailers are the latest additions as the demand in this sector has been growing quickly during the year.
As a sample hire charge, a Volvo F88/40 boxvan outfit costs £40.00 per day or £198.00 per five-day week. A seven-day-week hire is charged at the same five-day charge of £198.00. The returnable deposit is £250.00 and, as Ralph Bacci puts it, "now for the big selling point: there is no mileage charge whatsoever. "Our opposition quote lower weekly rates — about £30 less -but charge for mileage which on a big rig over a week really pushes up the charges against our all-in price of £198.00."
"Reliability is the name of the game especially in the heavy ranges," says Ralph. "Over the past few years we've tried several British and imported makes and decided on a Volvo fleet. With different drivers almost every day, different operations and loads our trucks have to take a hammering. We've basically standardised on Ford Transit vans, Bedford medium trucks and Volvo heavies. They are also what our customers ask for so our choice can't be far out."
Small and medium vehicles are not kept beyond 15 months while the Volvos leave the fleet at about 18 months.
Normal maintenance and some repairs are carried out in the six-day SVH workshops at Salford although the new Leeds depot with its larger facilities will shortly begin to take its share of the work. Major repairs are mainly carried out by the manufacturers' distributors and this factor plus the question of warranty work in the initial 12 months, plays an important part in vehicle selection.
Ralph Bacci admits to working as hard as his vehicles Ask him his working hours, he'll answer 8.00am-6.00pm each day, pause, then add that he's usually around well into the evening. "Five days a week?" "Well," he adds, "I do come in for a while on Saturdays" — another pause — "and I like to drop in on Sundays for a couple of hours when it's quiet and I can get some paperwork done.'
He acknowledges only one. other passion to his family and continued overleaf
work — that's nearby Manchester United, A keen fan he quietly disappears Saturday afternoons to watch United's home matches.
"I shall know when I start to ease up," he laughs. -That's when I start going to the away matches as well!'"
His work rate has brought him personal success obvious only in the one display of opulence he allows himself -his new Rolls-Royce with its personalised number plate — a far cry from the long in the tooth Hillman Minx owned when he started Salford Van Hire 11 years ago.
No visitor to the company's Salford headquarters can fail to be impressed with the 24ft high steel fence surrounding much of the premises. It turns out that the fence is the perimeter of Stangeways prison which strangely enough seems to have been a good security omen
"We've no real security problems,says Ralph and points out that his company has only completely "lost" two vehicles in the past five years.
Returning to the subject of the parlous state of the nation, Ralph Bacci admits to very mixed feelings when he sees his company's growing success prompted by the impetus of hard times, He gets quite upset about the state we're in and talks passionately about the upturn which must come. Whether this revival will affect his company's success is a question open to debate.
"The company was built up through the 60s when we were supposed to be going through one or two booms and our latest expansion comes in what they call 'a business trough.' I think we can cope whatever happens."
On his past record he most likely will