No transports of delight in car carrying
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WHAT can you carry on a car transporter except cars?
The question illustrates the classic dilemma of the specialized operator when times are hard. The car transporter business is accustomed to — though not resigned to — the peak -andplunge nature of the motor industry, and the past two years' graphs of car delivery throughput are like crosssections of the Alps, but transporter men now accept that they have to find ways of making the business more diverse on a long-term basis.
Different uses for their vehicles have been suggested, among them that cattle ould be carried on the lower deck of a transporter fitted with mesh sidescreens (try that one on the livestock authorities!) or, more sensibly, the carriage of long steel. One operator in Co. Durham does this already, bringing steel outward on the lowered top deck and taking seven cars fromthe Midlands as a back-load. Some operators with general haulage traffic as well as cars an switch tractive units to flat trailers when the car business is slow but this is pf limited scope because slumps in the 1:ar business usually happen at times when other traffic is difficult too.
Picture gloomier
Although operators are therefore ntent on long-term diversification they re preoccupied with surviving a very ifficult year or two. The biggest threat 3 transporters is the vulnerability of the ar industry itself. Mr R. K. Hallifax, hairman of the RHA car transporters anctional group, told me recently that e would not be surprised if one or two iotor manufacturers went to the wall in le next 18 months, pulling some transorter operators down with them. Mr Eallifax is manager of the general car ivision of Cartransport BRS Ltd, esponsible for nine depots from enham in Kent to Bathgate in cotland. When] visited him last month is company was very busy, for example feeding Austins from Longbridge to epots and compounds, while other )mpanies such as Silcock and Coiling td, of Barking, were desperate for ansporters to move the clog of mainly ord and Chrysler traffic. Since then, le car picture has become gloomier, with even Ford going on short time, and transporter operators are wondering what sort of response they would get if they were forced to go to the manufacturers for a rates increase again this year.
The transport companies negotiated a pay rise with their staffs in November 1974 for payment in February, but most of them had to go to their customers for a rates increase — varying from 20 to 26 per cent — in order to pay it. Some companies, said Mr Hallifax, would simply not have had the extra money to pay their drivers without this increase. Customers were sympathetic, and were prepared to be convinced by detailed figures of cost increases.
Of the 40 or so members of the RHA transporter group, about six are really big, with fleets from 150 to around 400 vehicles. Cartransport BRS has about 300. Outside competition is no real problem in the transporter business with its contracts and special equipment, though there are always a few "cowboys" around.
Above average
One of the biggest problems is the high cost element in car transporting. Rent and rates or other charges on car compounds are a big overhead, the specialized vehicles are expensive (over £11,000 for a 24/26-ton articulated outfit) and running costs are well above average because the bodies get hard wear when laden and are constantly shaken about when empty; as well as body repairs/. Modifications are demanded to cope with changes in regulations and practice and it is rare for a transporter trailer to run unmodofied as a first-line. unit for more than about five years. .
Mr Hallifax, who has done all the jobs in the business from driver to divisional boss, believes the economic squeeze will shrink the number of transporter operators drastically, perhaps to four or five. Fleet numbers in existing businesses have been stagnating for 18 months; now about 15 per cent of vehicles are laid up and there are bigger cuts to come.
For some, Continental work may offer new business but there are big obstacles. Because of these, British transporter operators usually work with a European partner and take the cars no farther than the docks. Although the top deck of British transporters can be lowered to bring the overall height within the Continental 4m limit the 12ft front overhang has to be removed, as top-deck length is effectively limited by regulation to the same length as the lower deck and this means "losing" one or two cars.
The one area where no problems are foreseen, in good times or bad, is in the supply of drivers; even in the Midlands the transporter business has never suffered driver shortages and there is almost a constant queue of applicants ' for this well-paid but demanding work.. Yard lads traditionally gravitate into a driving job but their numbers may now be swelled by ex-"plate" men. The number of trade plate drivers delivering cars by road has plummeted in the past 10 years and escalating costs are hastening the decline: no surprise, when it may cost £50 in petrol, accommodation and return fares to deliver one Midlands car to an Aberdeen dealer.
B.C.