• Rick and Julie Ellis were tired of their truck
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earning more money for freight forwarders than it did for them, so six months ago they set up their own freight forwarding business. Rick can now do what he does best — hauling across the Continent in his Scania — while Julie organises the loads.
PBC International (the name derives from the Ellis' house in Newark — Post Box Cottage) now acts as a freight forwarding agency for Rick and a close-knit group of owner-drivers. "We call the freight forwarding our one-man war," says Julie. "We feel there's quite a moral issue at stake. Our books are open and all the drivers know that.
"We have been ripped off by a couple of freight forwarders in the past — it was the main reason we started this thing — and we simply refuse to rip off the drivers who work with us," she says. "On a £1,900 job I am taking about £100. I have to pay the Customs duties out of that, so our cut is actually about £65."
They were spurred into action after finding that some forwarders were making more money than they were from Rick's trips to the Middle East, Turkey and Eastern Europe. Last summer Rick was away for 12 and 14 days at a time, and he returned from each trip more disillusioned. "He used to say, 'I can't work any harder and the forwarders are making more money out of the truck than we are'," Julie says. "I told him it was no good moaning. We had to do something about it."
Offering customers a single vehicle was unrealistic, however, so Rick set about recruiting some of his owner-operator friends. Most of them were experiencing similar frustrations to Rick and they jumped at the idea. "From there it has snowballed," says Julie. "We've ended up with many more loads than we initially anticipated. I've covered 30 loads around Europe in the past month and a half."
PBC International is different because it is run by hauliers for hauliers and not purely for profit. "Of course, we've got to make money, but the motive is to help Rick and the half dozen other owner-operators who rely on us for work," Julie explains. "This industry is hard all the time. It really is the survival of the fittest.
"People who want a cut rate for the job are just playing games and I make it clear that it's not going to work," says Julie. "We are so confident in our ability to deliver that I can offer a E50 discount if the customer is dissatisfied. They never are. We are strict about taking only quality work."
VITAL SERVICE
IIauliers should realise that they are providing a vital service to customers which puts them in a strong negotiating position, says Julie. "When I talk to customers I dictate terms to them. Never mind paying me in 90 days, our terms are this ... If the customer is professional they will respect professional negotiating."
Rick became an owner-driver four years ago after his employer, Astrans, decided to sell off its vehicles and concentrate exclusively on freight forwarding — perhaps it saw where the money was.
With the promise of guaranteed work from Astrans Rick and Julie bought a Scania 142. But as the business expanded other freight forwarders had to be used and the frustration set in.
Rick hauls his own high-cube trailer which has proved to be a useful selling point. During a trip to Romania he was approached by a businessman who had been admiring the size of his trailer and that led to a contract for regular work.
The PBC International team now hauls television sets out to Romania and returns with loads of garden furniture and barbecues. Yugoslavia is another new market for the company.
Julie spends much of her time cold-calling potential customers. "It's hard to do it when the importer/exporter is probably quite happy with the people he is already using and you have got to convince them over the phone that you can offer a first class service," she says.
"And I've got to get the work while making it plain that we are not the cheapest. But I'm not going to apologise for our rates: they are realistic. I think a lot of people have become accustomed to unrealistically low rates."
SIMPLE ANSWER
PBC's success begs the question, why don't more small hauliers go out and get their own work in the same way? Julie thinks there is a simple answer: "An owner-operator is too busy maintaining and driving his truck to get his own work effectively, and he may not have a wife or partner who could take on that role the way I have done."
"There are a lot of frustrations in trying to organise vehicles and loads all over Europe. The point is that we now feel those frustrations are worth it because we are the ones benefiting from our input," says Julie.
"I would like to see more hauliers getting their own contracts. That is why we are fighting this cause."
D by Paul Fisher