Willie Russell starts
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again with 60 vehicles
by lain Sherriff
LAST SUNDAY was open day at Western Harbour, Leith Docks, Edinburgh, when Willie Russell invited more than a hundred business friends to look over his latest venture. Although he is not retiring from his Transport Development Group interests until December 31, Mr Russell, who founded Russell of Bathgate Ltd back in 1939, has already started on another transport career. His guests were customers, DoE officials, trade union officers and the On Monday, October 7, Willie celebrated his 60th birthday with the opening of his two new companies, Three Sisters Leasing Ltd and Storage Services (Leith) Ltd.
Three Sisters Leasing was established because Willie Russell believes that manufacturers of consumer goods require all their capital for their principal business and therefore cannot afford to tie money up in vehicles.
Last Sunday resembled a miniature Commercial Motor Show at Leith when Willie paraded his Atkinsons, Leylands, Scanias, DAFs, Fodens, Fords and Albions. All are already on lease to customers and there are more on the way. Any day now the fleet, which began work a week ago, will reach the sixty mark, and Willie Russell is optimistic about its expansion. "It could very well double in size," he says, "by the end of next year". Most of the vehicles are plated at 32 tons gross although there is a Scania 11G, with a sleeper cab, capable of operating at 40 tons gross, and a Leyland Marathon at 38 tons gross.
The fleet includes artics, flat platforms, tipping bodies, rigids with drawbar trailers and refrigerated van bodies, all tailored to the customer's requirements. The latest additions to his fleet are 18 Albion Clydesdales with 24 ft platforms fitted with hydraulic tail-lifts and operating at 16 tons gross.
Maintenance records
Because the vehicles are on lease and the responsibility for maintenance lies with the customer, all his vehicles have been fitted with automatic lubrication. Nevertheless, his foreman, Jim Johnson, is to pay regular calls to customers to inspect the maintenance records.
For very good commercial reasons, Willie Russell was unwilling to name his customers, and it would be difficult to identify them as his, since the vehicles are painted in the customer's own livery. No doubt vehicle manufacturers will note that he has given the vehicles only a one-year life before replacing them. Whether or not they are replaced wi similar makes and types will depend t4 large extent on how they stand up service, and how efficient t distributors' after-sales service is.
Although Willie Russell is not loc ing for any trouble from such expensi vehicles in the first 12 months, the thir ing behind the quick changeover poli is based on the necessity for oomph dependability. Every customer has be given a guarantee that if a vehicle shot break down in service, he will plied with a replacement iediately no matter where the break,n occurs. The replacement service udes trans-shipping loads on the if necessary.
return for his guarantee of total Willie Russell requires a antee from his customers that they lease the vehicle for not less than year. However, he already has some omers on two or three-year .racts.
otential customers describe the kind .affic which they intend moving, and ie, drawing on his experience, ests the vehicle specification that best meet their requirements. in a week of the customer signing :ontract, the vehicle is on the road in xaours.
there others may have to queue up new vehicles, Willie Russell orders chassis first, has it delivered, then :s for the customer. Once the ract is signed, all he has to do is d on the extras which the ification demands and paint.
pparently, there is no danger in fling this vehicle-before-customer nique because he tells me that with money position being what it is, and more own-account men are ig up outright vehicle purchase and icing up to lease. Indeed, this was Willie Russell found himself in the ng business. His first customer was in who phoned him one evening to Eire who, in the East of Scotland, :d vehicles. Willie Russell said he Ed make enquiries and let him know. only inquiry apparently he made of himself. "Why don't I do it?" he d. Next morning the inquirer had a ie call to say that Willie Russell's company, Three Sisters Leasing, J meet his requirements.
vo weeks later the contract was A and the vehicles were on the road. , of course, that lead time has been d. Although the fleet comes from a dozen different manufacturers, are only three makes of semi!l.'s involved. He has settled on le Fruehauf, Tasker and Hoynor trailers for tipping wok. In the interests of economy and efficiency, tractive units and trailers are fitted with the same make, tread and size of tyre.
Body modifications
New bodies or body modifications are carried out by Gray and Adams of Fraserburgh at their workshop 120 miles north of Edinburgh. Willie describes the bodybuilders as being entirely dependable in both their workmanship and delivery time. He has standardized on Tecalemit automatic chassis lubrication.
In the midst of so much talk of crisis, depression and economic gloom, it was a little frightening to hear Willie Russell talk in terms of hundreds of thousands of pounds of investment, yet he did so with such confidence that he has to be admired. "There is no speculation in this," he said. "It is a certain winner. This is exactly the right time to start a business like this."
In acknowledging Mr Russell's resignation from the Transport Development Group, the managing director, Mr. J. B. Duncan, referring to Willie Russell's TDG Company, Russell of Bathgate (Bulk) Ltd, said: "The company as it stands today is a monument to your judgment, energy and foresight." It may well be that these words will be echoed in a few years time when people are talking about Three Sisters Leasing.
The name itself suggests that Willie Russell is looking well ahead. While other members of the Road Haulage Association were discussing the role of women in transport at Plymouth this week, the three newest female recruits to road transport were getting on with the job. The three Russell sisters, Margaret Ann, Jennifer and Shireen, join their parents on the board and in the seemingly unlikely event that Willie Russell will one day retire, his daughters — the three sisters — will be ready to run the company.
Predictions of an impending economic crisis did not deter.Willie Russell from investing £150,000 in another venture; and even before the warehousing .premises of Storage Services (Leith) Ltd opened almost every square foot had been booked by 30-odd customers. Last weekend he told me: "The way things are going I will need to turn my home at Barnton into an annexe!"
Hired in transport
Willie, who started his career in transport more than 40 years ago as a driver, reckons that his experience as a haulier will stand him in good stead in his new role as a distributor. SSL, does not own or operate vehicles, it offers a complete storage and distribution service with Willie Russell supplying the warehousing and the handling. The transport he hires in from hauliers at rates which he negotiates. This relieves the manufacturers of any responsibility for looking for the right kind of transport at the right kind of price, and Willie Russell's connections in the haulage industry in Britain are so wide that he has little difficulty in finding the vehicles he wants.
He is confining his storage activities to dry goods and does not intend to move into the area of refrigerated warehousing. Storage space is charged either by the pallet or by the area, and the rates are 3p per sq. ft. per week. The goods already in store include paper, beer, whisky and tinned goods, and customers come from all over Scotland, London and Eire. The company has 50,000 sq ft of covered warehousing at both Leith and Glasgow and two other similar-sized places are being constructed now at Aberdeen and Bathgate.
With all this land and building now in his possession, how does Willie Russell feel about the Labour party plan to take land into public ownership? "If Mr Wilson wants my land he can have it, but he's going to have to pay my price for the buildings", was Willie's comment.