RDS fights for business 'a D r e G s b e u rro r u s s
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• Wolverhampton-based Relief Driver Services is setting up a nationwide network of 25 franchised depots.
The move comes the same week that BRS officially launches its Taskforce temporary driver division.
RDS is looking for franchisees to buy two established sites, at Bristol and Stoke, having sold its Warrington depot to a former RDS manager, who ran the site for eight months before buying it for £10,000.
Melvyn Cowley, RDS managing director, says he plans to "build up a cellular system with 25 branches operating in a 25mile radius". Coventry, Northampton, Luton, Leeds and Sheffield should come on line this year and will initially be run from the head office before being franchised.
Cowley aims to dispense with the "nasty reputation" of agencies by offering a reliable service with the option of accidental damage insurance. Drivers are uniformed and have to pass a 90-day trial before being taken on as permanent members of staff.
Like BRS's Taskforce service, which has been operating as a pilot scheme since last year (CM 25-31 October
1990), RDS's charges are up to £8 an hour for a Class 1 driver with insurance cover.
BRS is currently offering its temporary driver service, also with an insurance option, at West Bromwich, Basingstoke, Swindon, Oxford and Northampton and also drafts its inhouse trained temps to other BRS branches.