Markets come and go, but you can bet your bottom
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dollar there will always be money to be made shifting waste. That truth has not been lost on Exeter-based Bale Tanker Hire. The firm invests in only the best equipment, and it's reaping the rewards transporting everythim from acid to oil.
1 f a bloke told you that he met hi wife in waste, you might look a him in a funny way. But Tony Bat is quite open about the fact—am both he and Hazel Bale seem ti have done pretty well since thei first meeting in the halcyon days c the late 1960s. The waste in question is till liquid variety, and their speciality is to dis pose of it for companies who don't want tc do the dirty work themselves.
just a few years ago, both Tony am Hazel quit Acetip, the business they hac built up over 14 years, when South-Wes Water made them an offer they could no refuse. They retired to run a farm, bu didn't make a great deal of money, plus reading between the lines, it sounds as i their collective heart wasn't really in it They still have the arable smallholding, bu decided to concentrate on something alto gether more familiar. In September 1998 Bale Tanker Hire was born in Aylesbeare near Exeter. As well as hiring out their waste vacuum artic trailers, the Bales havc 13 artics which they use themselves foi waste haulage, mostly large bulk loads.
They are Volvo FF112 6x2s, mostl 5,800-gallon 41-tonners "to keep haulagc costs down".
The company tends not to deal with dr, waste and has a client list of industria firms, water authorities and food proces sors. It is far from easy work: disposing oi oils, solvents and acids requires expertise "Legislation today keeps you on you toes," Bale admits, "our training bill i astronomical."
But he knows that it's the only way to go, as ADR regs don't teach themselves. Increasingly stringent legislation has been the major change he's seen over the past few decades—that and the fact that the biggest tankers carried only 2,000 gallons in the early 19705, barely a third of today's capacity. Bale owns all its trailers. "It makes perfect sense," Bale says. "In our game we get a situation where we get busy when someone has a problem. We hire in extra units and put on the hire trailers. We can give the cover and provide
a very good 24 hour ser
vice "We've ironed out the proble So good is the service, he says, that he spends a great deal of his day at present sorting out the company's movements rather than getting on with other things he might want to be doing. "I'm in the bloody traffic office most of the time,' he says. You can tell he's not too upset by this state of affairs, however.
Maintenance is mainly done outside by Stuarts in Exeter, although Bale is wondering whether the company could do with its own workshop on site. "I'm still contemplating now whether we ought to," he says. "You know, bring them in for a little TLC. I think that will happen."
Next year, perhaps. Bale's turned over
im in its first year from nothing and is aiming to grow by 25% in 2000. About three-quarters of the work is industrial, carrying waste to treatment sites. The majority of the rest is food processing waste that goes
to land injection. The company also has a small chemical removal and disposal service for companies— "a milk round if you like—which uses a single curtainsider.
Bale Tanker Hire is certainly a family thing. The Bales' son, James, works in the company and Tony is quick to praise others around him. "Hazel is as much a part of it as me," Tony says. He is constantly saying that about the finance director and company secretary—when he is not saying that the company's general manager, "another old
hand", Graham Watley, deserves loads of the credit too. And more praise is heaped on "the girls in the office", some of whom have come back to work with them in the new venture from the first time round. "You're only as good as the people who work with you," he insists. It is all genuine and rather endearing.
Having done it all before with Acetip, the process of setting up has been easier, Bale says. "It's not like starting a new company. We've ironed out the problems. You know what the pitfalls are and you know what part of the market to target and what to leave alone." Buying new artics and trailers is something that he swears by now, after tortuous maintenance problems with used vehicles. They may be more expensive initially, but the benefits are there, he says. "Buying new, you've got the latest technol ogy, engine management and fuel con., sumption." This is infinitely preferable to the alternative, he believes: "Buying secon& hand, thinking you've got a bargain and spending more than if you bought a newt one."
West Yorkshire Tanker Services builds some of the firm's trailers to Bale's own specifications—another long-standing relationship. Bale met Dean Ellis when they both started in the waste business. "I got introduced to him and he said 'yeah, I'll build you a tanker'." The rest, as they say, is history, and the company exhibits at the Institute of Waste Management's show in nearby Paignton every year. Not that Bale was one of those annoying the protesting pensioners last year, he says with a laugh.
If the Bales sound like gluttons for punishment, then it's not worth feeling too sorry for them. At 53 Tony reckons he is much too young to retire. "I've got a good no or 15 years left yet." Starting Bale Tanker Hire has obviously been fun. "It's like a continuation with a nice break in between," Bale says.
"You get a hell of a kick, arid that's one of the reasons that made me go into it. When people heard Bale was going back int business, we got so man calls—that's an opportu, nity you don't turn down. We're not the cheapest b far but I think we offer good service and reli ability."
Bale Tanker Services has slcill and experi. ence behind it. It is also imbued with one o those highly significant, intangible qualities:" enthusiasm. "It's something we enjoy," Bal says. "Hazel looks after the finance, admin, legislation and training. Graham is an excel lent marketing manager as well as bein general manager. We make a nice team.' And what does Tony Bale do? "I basicalbi make sure the wheels go round. I'm th dogsbody, just the traffic clerk." He pauses: "The MD, I suppose. Someone to shout at."
• by Adam MI
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