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More than a pay packet

13th May 2004, Page 66
13th May 2004
Page 66
Page 66, 13th May 2004 — More than a pay packet
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Brian Lee finds that competitors promising the earth still don't

shake his world.

Last Saturday afternoon found me astride my sit-on mower cutting the prairies of the Lee household and about to start the second verse of the Tennessee Waltz (I'm ambidextrous; I can sing and manoeuvre the mower at the same time).All of a sudden in went the sun and Jamie (my duty Saturday traffic man) came over looking as if he was carrying the woes of the world with him. "Dad, I've heard that five drivers will be leaving us to go and work for the new logistics firm who are offering a pound an hour more and guaranteed 40 hours a week," he announced. Although I've been in the business a lot of years, and heard it all before, it still unsettled me to such an extent that I couldn't get back into the Tennessee Waltz and spent the rest

of the afternoon singing hymns and laments.

Early Monday morning saw me down at the coalface chatting to our senatorial driver who not only wears the T-shirt, but designed it as well. It was true that there was a new firm promising the earth, and that the wages were acceptable if the hours were normal. However, the hours were far from normal and included a great deal of unsociable running between Saturday morning and Sunday night and on Bank Holidays.And no, they weren't throwing in a troupe of dancing girls for nights out. We haven't as yet lost any drivers and hopefully we won't Thankfully we have a close-knit team who, during the past month,have taken to the new wages scheme and hopefully are benefiting from it

As a haulier we can't compete pound for pound with the major own-account fleets that can enhance drivers' wages at will by sticking a penny on a pizza or a pint. We can only sell the added value of freedom and the camaraderie of 'us against the world'. Part of the added value is the vehicles we run. I believe that all vehicles get eight out often, mainly because the use of computer-aided design nowadays has watered down the human contribution. Nobody gets ten

out of ten because we don't live in a perfect world. The marginal points are picked up by the local dealerships, fuel consumption and driver acceptability.

Our walking-floor fleet spends four to five nights out each week so the interior is important. Recently I had the opportunity to visit Sweden and inspect the interior of a new range of models which supersede those in our fleet. It made a change from the last fleet truck visit, which was to Sandbach.

I shared a cab with Roland Young and our local dealer, Steve Orr (incidentally, Steve, demo means 'demonstration', not 'demolition' — enough said!). On the strength of that factory visit,! took delivery of 100 new trucks yesterday.

No, I haven't broken the bank at Monte Carlo— I'd just ordered a second batch of model trucks (first the walking floor version and now the tipper). I never knew there were so many model truck collectors out there, butTerry produces a certificate identifying the exclusive limited edition numbers and the orders flow in from all over the country.


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