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CONCLUSION
Page 53
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The franchisee business model so popular in this industry sector seems to have overcome past problems, which have seen drivers demonstrating outside plants over rates and work allocation.
However, it functions best in an expanding market. With a downturn in the economic cycle and cutbacks in construction projects the situation could be very different. A box van can easily be switched to other duties, but a rigid concrete mixer in customer colours can't. Canny operators with more than one truck often put them with different fleets to spread the risk or, in the case of hire fleets, work over a wider geographical area.
Both chassis and mixers have advanced in quality and reliability, although the sector's equipment preference is for technological simplicity appropriate to tough operating terrain—allowing ease of repair.
Whether artic mixers will mirror the growth of similar tipper trailers in the aggregate business remains to be seen. The first were introduced in Scotland where runs between batch lng plant and sites tend to be much longer, so reducing the number of journeys by carrying up to 12 metres makes sense in reducing revenue costs.
But this is expensive equipment, even if the unit can be switched to other duties.
Before committing, talk to existing operators.