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Survival tactics In an ailing economy, Transervice has made the

11th July 2013, Page 15
11th July 2013
Page 15
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

move from new rolling stock to trucks sourced from the second-hand market Words: Steve Banner When the economy goes into freefall, an intelligent haulier responds by reorganising his fleet and making some rapid savings in order to survive, which is exactly what Transervice Express Transport MD Paul Johnson did when the recession bit.

The West Bromwich-based family-owned business was running 15 shiny new Mercedes-Benz trucks when the economic bubble burst, rates fell, and customers started going out of business. These days, though, the onus is on used vehicles, mainly as a consequence of the amount of local collection and delivery work Transervice handles for The Pallet Network (TPN).

"You can't afford to run a brand new £80,000 truck on that sort of traffic," he says. "Typically, we use 53-plate 18-tonne curtainsiders fitted with tail-lifts."

Many of the wagons Johnson now operates are second-hand excontract vehicles bought from established West Bromwich truck rental, repair and bodybuilding specialist Fred Smith & Sons. However, Fred Smith, which also handles Transervice's maintenance, is not Johnson's only source of supply. "A while ago we were looking for a 26-tonne 6x2 rigid to carry heavy building materials," says Johnson. "We'd bought a new 26-tonne Scania 18 months previously — we still acquire new trucks sometimes as well as used — but when we inquired about getting another one we were told the price had gone up by over £15,000. To be honest with you, we couldn't justify spending the money."

He ended up talking to Mac's Truck Sales in Huddersfield to see if it had any decent used 26-tonners in stock. None were to be had — in fact, none were to be had anywhere — but Mac's came up with a suggestion.

Although it had no second-hand 26-tonners, it did have plenty of used tractor units, so why not pick a low-mileage example and have it converted into a rigid?

Johnson agreed and opted for a 410hp Daf CF85. The conversion work was carried out, a new body plus a tail-lift were fitted and the truck is now doing sterling service.

"It was a very competitively priced package too and it's got plenty of horsepower," says Johnson. "It's the first Daf we've run for several years. In the main we still run Mercedes."

The converted unit's steer axle is shod with Michelin's new 295/80 R22.5 X MultiWay 3D XZE tyres. Having sampled them Johnson has decided to switch to Michelin right across a fleet that encompasses 12 rigids and two tractor units.

"Half are on pallet work, while the rest are either working for contract customers or on general haulage," he says. "Our other activities include picking and packing for a European building products company."

Tyre policy These days Transervice buys its trucks outright, but when the economy was buoyant it acquired new trucks under a contract hire agreement with Fred Smith that included replacement tyres.

In those days, says Johnson, the company did not have a tyre policy, but he soon realised he would have to implement one when the company switched to outright purchase.

"We ended up buying tyres as and when we needed them without any forward planning, which meant potential savings were being missed," he says. "In particular, we were losing out because we didn't have a strategy so far as casings were concerned."

He has now signed up to Michelin's Four Lives programme. "This means we have our tyres regrooved, then remanufactured into Michelin Remix tyres, then regrooved again to maximise longevity," he says.

General haulage remains a tough market and as a consequence Johnson believes Transervice's decision to forge such strong ties with TPN was the right one. "We used to have haulage customers who'd book four lorries at a time, but that doesn't happen nowadays. The work isn't there, the rates are flat on the floor and we do half as much distance work as we used to."

The TPN hub is at Minworth, Sutton Coldfield, only a dozen or so miles away. "We send two or three doubledeck trailers in there a night, but you can't really call it night trunking, given the distance," he says. "Our night trunk drivers often finish when it's still daylight."

Transervice and its 22 employees look after the WS postcodes and some of the B postcodes for TPN. "We cover Walsall, go up to Cannock and touch the edges of Lichfield and Rugeley," says Johnson.

He is contemplating offering a home delivery service using a driver and a driver's mate. "We handle bathroom suites through TPN and the idea is that we strip down the pallet once we get to somebody's house and put the suite in the customer's garage," he says.

Johnson, chairman of the Road Haulage Association's central sub-region, says he has no problem recruiting drivers, but he does worry about where the drivers of the future are going to come from when those of today reach pensionable age and start to hang up their keys.

"We had three retire last year and in two cases it was because they didn't want to do the Driver CPC," he says.

He believes not enough youngsters are coming into transport and staying because they are told that they must be better qualified and comply with all sorts of rules and regulations, yet are not being remunerated accordingly. Haulage is not profitable enough to pay them the wages they deserve.

All this talk of trucks, tyres, postcodes and pallets is a world away from the story of how Transervice started.

In the 1970s Johnson was a roadie with a local band. "They were a bit like the Bay City Rollers and I used to haul their gear around in a Ford Transit," he recalls. "I spent four years with them and before that I'd never been out of the Midlands."

That came to an end in 1979 and he was left with the van, which he started to use for the odd light haulage job. His transport business grew from there.

"I miss my days in the music business though and I still stay in touch with the lads," he says. "One of them plays guitar for Alvin Stardust, while the vocalist does a David Essex tribute act — even though David Essex is getting on a bit now." •


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