BEATING THE ODDS
Page 68
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Michael Kidman is running a brand new Trailmaster curtainsided semi-trailer, courtesy of the trailer manufacturer and Commercial Motor.
• What would you do if you won a trailer for a year and had nothing to pull it with? That was the question facing Michael Kidman, director of Cambridgeshire haulage company Kidman Haulage, when he won Commercial Motor's trailer competition last November. His answer to that question was to add a Foden tractor to his eight-vehicle fleet.
Despite the waiting lists caused by the seemingly endless sales boom, Foden came up with Kidman's tractor within six weeks — three days after the trailer arrived. He was not disturbed by spending 232,500 — that's what he paid for the Foden — to haul his free gift.: "I was planning to expand anyway; whether it would have been at such short notice is another matter."
Kidman learnt to drive tractors (of the agricultural variety) on his father's farm at the age of eight. Trucks he says form "an integral part of farm life". Nonetheless, after running the family haulage business for 10 years, he has not yet taken his HGV 1. Kidman says he is too busy with the general running of the business. He jokes that it would "give the drivers too many excuses if they knew I could drive heavy trucks as well". In any case, the trailer has been hard at work, mostly on Kidman's contract with MarshaHs Concrete, delivering pre-cast concrete. The drivers have found "the air suspension particularly good", says Kidman—better than some other trailers on the fleet.
Kidman has had no problems with the trailer, The lack of a rear step can be irritating in the wet, and opening the curtainsider with the front winder can be awkward, because the clips have to be undone to reach the back of the vehicle. "We have only had the trailer two or three months," he says; "In 12 months we will see how things are wearing, but I don't foresee any problems."
ADVERTISING POTENTIAL
Kidman has naturally appreciated the profit the trailer has made (he estimates it would have cost him 5,000 to hire an equivalent trailer), and also likes the advertising potential of the bold livery. "It has generated a lot of interest when delivering loads," he says.
Would he be interested in buying the trailer? "We will be given the option to buy it, and we will just have to wait to see the price," Kidman reckons. He does say, however, it would slot very nicely into his fleet of curtainsiders, hauled by a mixture of Fodens and ERFs and a sole Mercedes. They carry a diverse range of loads, from toys and magazines, to food, packaging products and nuts and bolts.
He has no immediate plans to further expand the fleet; although he "would like to see about a dozen vehicles — any more would be a bit of a handful".
Four days before we were due to photograph Kidman's brand new rig a 38tonner reversed straight into its immaculate cab. Foden saved the day again, through its dealer Peterborough Engineering, which fitted a new bumper and headlight and re-laminated the corner and front grille panel within two days.
Kidman took the incident calmly, and with a degree of resignation which he applies to his everyday work. "It becomes a way of life," he says, "but sometimes I wish I wasn't doing it . . ."
0 by Juliet Parish