PROFILE NATIONAL PE SERVICE
Page 36
Page 37
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Tyres are not among the most glamorous parts of a truck, but they're of immense importance and represent a large item in the operational budget. Getting a company such as CM 1997 Livery Competition winner National Tyre Service to "manage your tyres" can pay off in many ways.
For an industry beset by doubts and uncertainties, road haulage does boast a number of truisms: customers will always expect more for less; costs will never decrease; and traffic congestion will always be in direct proportion to the importance and time sensitivity of a load.
Road transport is getting tougher. Against a background of static margins, operators can only hope to increase profitability by controlling costs, Peter Pan Logistics might dream of a rate increase; Real World Haulage is concentrating on the bottom line.
This shift in emphasis on the part of the road haulier has led to a similar change in approach by his suppliers. As the transport industry retreats at speed into the rela
tive safety of its core business, so its suppliers—the truck manufacturers, fuel companies and tyre suppliers—find that their roles are changing too.
What was once a straightforward goodsfor-payment transaction has changed. Today's haulier does not just want a product to be supplied; increasingly, he wants it to be managed as well. Road transport companies have had to adapt to survive within this new culture: so have their suppliers.
Stockport-based National Tyre Services is at the forefront of this change in empha sis. This 430-branch company is the second biggest tyre distributor in the UK, and over the past two years it has adopted a far more focused approach to its business. "Fifteen months ago, we split the business into two," says managing director John McNaught. "We now see our operation as twofold; on the one hand, we supply the retail motorist. On the other, we are committed to the truck operator. In the case of trucks, we see ourselves now as being more of a service provider than simply a product supplier." McNaught explains his thinking in the light of the sweeping changes which have affected the road haulage industry over the past decade. "There are now fewer companies, but more vehicles," he points out. "In the UK, 2,600 companies own 50% of the commercial vehicle fleet. These companies have become more and more focused in terms of their activities, and increasingly they are choosing to out-source everything which is not core to their business. The market now is highly concentrated, and this is a trend which is likely to continue. As such, we have had to change the ways in which we serve our customer base."
These are easy sentiments to trot out; indeed, it could be argued that if a supplier working in the haulage industry is not already operating along these lines, then his future is far from assured.
Invested heavily
However, National Tyre Services has backed words with deeds. It has invested heavily in information technology and new service vehicles. Every one of its fitters is now trained to City and Guilds standards, and is equipped with a hand-held computer allowing easy communication with base. This, says McNaught, allows for response times to be reduced.
"Having a tyre problem is never going to have the operator jumping for joy," he says. —lbday's blue-chip logistics companies are operating to increasingly tight schedules, and unforeseen problems are a major inconvenience. Our customers don't just want tyre repairs; they want to be attended quickly by a trained fitter. The days when fitters could look as if they'd just emerged from a swamp are also long gone. If their liveried vehicle is stuck on the hard shoulder, they are not going to want some filthy service van parked next
door to it. Our image has to reflect that of our customers: clean, safe and professional."
However, National Tyre Service's involvement does not start when something goes wrong. Expanding on the theme of being a service rather than simply a product supplier, McNaught points to the value of regular inspections, carried out at customers' premises by National Tyre Service's staff.
"IIaulage costs today are worked out on pence per kilometre," he says. "After wages and fuel costs, tyres are the biggest expense. Saving 1 on, for example, headlamp bulbs may not make a huge difference to the bottom line. However, shave I `l.0 from your tyre bill and you're making a huge difference to your balance sheet; with margins as they are today, this is something that the blue-chip haulier is acutely aware of."
And National Tyre Service's coverage does not stop at Dover. As haulage becomes increasingly pan-European, its suppliers must be ready to follow suit. Through its parent company, NTS can offer the international haulier a complete service across the Continent, with an English-speaking control room staffed 24 hours a day.
McNaught sees the future for National Tyre Services as being more of the same. "Haulage is a difficult business to he in," he says. "Customer demands are increasing all the time, and no operator can be in the business of making excuses for pour service. If he does not come up to the mark, his customers will go elsewhere.
"This attitude has to be taken on board by everyone within the industry," he adds, "from operators and drivers to suppliers. Our service has to reflect that which is expected from the haulier; we have to reduce the likelihood of problems to a hare minimum, but, should one arise, then we have to be able to deal with it with the minimum of fuss and delay. As the whole business of logistics becomes more and more complicated, so the operator has less time in the day to deal with things such as tyre management.
"We can take that problem off his desk," says McNaught, "but our service has to be of a standard where he is prepared to trust us to do that. The outsourcing of management is fine when it works. When it doesn't, the already hard-pressed haulier ends up having to manage the manager. That's a waste of everyone's time. Already, one tyre in 10 is supplied by us, and I'm hoping that will grow. I'm confident that we can achieve this, but there's a lot of hard work ahead; not just for us, but for the haulage industry as a whole."
0 by Oliver Dixon FACTFILE: NATIONAL TYRE SERVICE BASED: Stockport. CONTACT: John McNaught, managing director. FLEET: 430 vehicles, all 3.5 to 7.5-tonnersMercedes-Benz Sprinters, Ford Transits and Mitsubishi Canters. SPECIALITY CONTRACT: Provision of tyre management services. TURNOVER: £1 50m,