WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE
Page 53
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The 'N1MBY' Not In My Back Yard) syndrome is notoriously strong among new converts to rural life, as Sue Mitchell and the team at Meteor Transport know all too well ...
• People who pay 20.5 million for a roperty in a bijou Cheshire village do not isually want their homes to be sited hard )5, a haulage firm whose yard, says its )wner, "looks like Steptoe's". The inhabiants of Prestbury, in Manchester's stockroker belt, are not over-fond of Meteor fransport, a small haulage business whose depot is tucked behind a hill just mtside the village.
"People tell me my business should nove to Manchester, but why should 1?! want to be here," says director Sue Wlitchell, looking out of her tiny office winlow at a glorious view of the Pennines. 'We're the last working business in what ised to be a working-class area with working farms. Now the atmosphere is .ather ratified. There are a lot of nice )eople here, but some of the nouveauiche type, who know a lot of influential )eople, have tried their hardest to close is down."
Mitchell has been running a haulage op:ration in Prestbury for six years, but the lepot has had an established-use licence rince 1965.
"They were down to the planning office n droves when they knew the yard had :stablished use," recalls Mitchell. "Charibanc loads used to turn up at the gates
o look at us, and I had a stack of post a bot high — including letters from Cornwall — protesting about us."
Although Meteor Transport is still alive ind kicking, she feels that the protest has iot gone unheeded by the powers that be. 5. year ago her application to add three rehicles to her six-vehicle 0-licence was .urried down on environmental grounds 'although the Department of Transport lad passed us for 12 vehicles". She ended ip with a licence for seven, and is still 'siting why her trucks are considered an :nvironmental nuisance when heavy coun
vehicles and horse transporters are a tommon sight on the local lanes. But she tasn't taken it lying down: "I said 'if you'll mly let me have one more truck, I'll have big one'." Her next purchase was an RF 38-tonner.
LOCAL FEELING
...ocal feeling ran so high that Mitchell tpent 212,000 on 1.6ha (four acres) of and surrounding the depot "just to keep hem off our backs. It's stunted us for a it but [think it's worth it."
Mitchell's introduction to the haulage inJustry was not exactly favourable. In need if an income after the sudden death of her .armer husband, and with two young chilten, her only assets were two flatbed wagons which had been used for general iaulage work after their milkchurn hauling luties had been taken over by tankers. 3he also had to think of the two men who lad worked on the farm with her husband — one for more than 30 years — but when asked about a loan to buy premises Or her business, the bank manager was
less than helpful. "He said he could perhaps see his way to lending me E3,000. I told him if that's all he could manage, he could keep it." Mitchell had her eye on the 230,000 Prestbury property, comprising the yard and a Dutch barn, and borrowed the money from her mother, telling her it was for a house!
Meteor Transport's first pair of trucks were a 1970 Vintage 15-tonne Dennis and a 1979 D-Series Ford 16-14. They cost E5,000. "We painted them up in the Meteor colours — maroon and red. We had absolutely no money and worked in the open by torchlight." An old caravan (cost 25) was installed in the yard as an office. "I didn't know one end of an artic from the other. I didn't even know what a VAT number was. I did it by feel."
The business is run by Mitchell and her partner, Peter Bradley. He handles all the vehicle maintenance, drives if needed, and manages to fit in some agricultural machinery repair work for local farmers. Mitchell and Bradley work all hours. "We're never ill and Pete never takes a holiday. I have taken four days this year, but usually for a day out well go to a motor auction. I love bidding and we meet all our friends there."
Mitchell may be prepared to work long hours in spartan conditions, but she is concerned that her five drivers get a fair deal. Cutting drivers' subsistence payments to £11.55 was "mean" she says. "The man from the Inland Revenue won't be sleeping at the side of the road for Ell. He'll be in a 250-a-night hotel."
In six years in the business Mitchell has never made a loss, and now the firm has steady business with two packaging manufacturers (both confusingly called Dane, and both with managing directors called John). One makes cardboard boxes, the other polythene for bags. Together they account for 40% of Meteor's business which, says Mitchell, is as much as she wants to see tied up with single contracts.
General haulage makes up the rest of Meteor's business: "We carry plastic waste, waste paper, potatoes — anything. I even picked up a three-piece suite the other day. We don't do chemicals because we don't have the qualifications."
Mitchell doesn't predict a smooth ride for her business, or for road haulage as a whole. "I talk to other hauliers in the area, and 30% of most people's fleets have stood still recently. You can't maintain that for too long. We should be doing a little better this month, otherwise we'll feel the draught in February," she adds. "January's usually alright because the shops are stocking up after Christmas, but it dwindles in February."
BIG PLAYERS
The small transport business will soon be a thing of the past, she fears. "We're an anachronism. The industry is becoming so much more professional with the big players taking over, and I don't really think people like me will survive against all this. We'll be squeezed out."
At the moment, however, Mitchell has no fmancial worries. The business uses no debt finance at all: she was summoned to her bank manager's office recently — to ask if she required more services from the bank, as her account was always in credit and was costing the bank money. "I always think we should be doing better than we are, but our accountant says we're doing alright. Our turnover last year was around 2150,000 and we made profits of E30,000 on that, so I suppose our return on money invested is very good.
"We save first and then buy, which means we do better if times are hard but not so well during a boom," says Mitchell, "but it's swings and roundabouts. A company nearby had 12 vehicles on the road and now they've had to lay off six, whereas we've had seven on the road and kept them there."
But at 54, Mitchell is hardly thinking of retirement. Prestbury can be sure that her trucks will be around for a good few mars yet.
LI by Gill Harvey