controlling transport operation
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by David Lowe, MInstTA
Godfrey Davis (Car Hire) Ltd
VAN AND TRUCK RENTAL is increasingly becoming an accepted and necessary part of the transport scene. Operators are turning to the rental companies more and more for vehicles on shortor long-term hire to provide the extra capacity to meet increased production demands, to cover when their own vehicles are off the road, to meet seasonal trade increases and to meet the unexpected urgent consignment. No longer is van or truck hiring solely the prerogative of the weekend do-it-yourself furniture remover or the modern-day domestic wheelbarrower.
One of the well-established operators in the van rental field is Godfrey Davis' (Car Hire) Ltd which has a separate van rental division under the management of Mr Derek Redfern, son of the chairman and managing director of the company.
All box vans The division operates more than 1500 vehicles ranging from 6cwt vans to 10-ton-gross boxvans. All vehicles are, in fact, boxvans because the demand for open trucks in the larger sizes is not yet sufficient to warrant purchases of them. The size of the fleet is, I was told, only restricted at the present time by the poor delivery position of new vehicles.
The company has 192 car and van rental offices and 80 locations where vans are based d The van rental division has four main
van centres—London, Birmingham, Glasgow and Leeds—and a further one is planned at Bristol. A regional manager is based at each of the centres.
To see something of what it takes to operate a rental van fleet—an activity of growing interest to operators—I visited the northern van rental centre at Leeds where Mr R. E. Charles is the northern manager. This centre covers an area from Birmingham in the south to Carlisle in the north and acts as a central distribution depot for vans throughout the region, an analysis centre, a service and maintenance centre and a training centre. Some 350 vans are based at Leeds.
The depot is new and consists of a triple-span 1600 sq ft building incorporating a reception office. a training room and other offices, vehicle washing and service facilities. An 8000 sq ft customer and staff parking area is also provided.
The office is manned by trained female receptionists attractively attired in Godfrey Davis uniforms who are competent to discuss with customers all aspects of van rental including basic details of the legal requirements of vehicle operations. The receptionists are all qualified drivers, having been tested by the British School of Motoring and many of them have passed the Advanced Driving Test, something for which the company gladly pays in its own interests.
TIR vans In addition to being responsible for the general van hire in the region of the depot, it also has its small fleet of TIR vans based there and a number of Tourm aster luxury 12-seater minibuses.
The TIR vehicles, which like the whole of the Godfrey Davis fleet including the Tourmasters are mainly Ford Transit-based, are specially prepared by the bodybuilder —Coachwork Conversions Ltd—at an extra cost of 00, including special locks, windows and ventilation apertures. These TIR vans are particularly popular with antique dealers who attend Continental auctions and prefer to bring their purchases back themselves. All inquiries in the region for TIR vans are passed to Leeds and the vans are fully serviced and delivered to the customer. A spares kit is supplied with every TIR van.
No 0 licences Much the same applies with the Tourmasters which are very popular for Continental touring. New models are put on for this work for six months or so during the heavily booked summer season and then they are used for crewbus hiring so that only the very best and smartest vehicles are used for luxury travel. The minibuses are fitted with radio and roofrack and camping gear can be provided if required. After every trip, they are serviced, thoroughly cleaned and any body damage attended to at Leeds before going out again.
The remainder of the van fleet is divided between the Ford Escort 6cwt van, the Transit 17cwt model and 30cwt 415 cu ft model and a 30cwt 420 cu ft walk-through and Ford and Bedford 6-ton carrying capacity 1000 Cu ft vans.
Bodies on the 30cwt models are by Coachwork Conversions Ltd., the walkthroughs are all fitted as standard with gown rails which can be removed if not required.
The 30cwt vans are all below 34 tons plated weight so there is no need for hirers to hold operators' licences to run them.
To maintain a good, reliable and efficient looking fleet, the replacement policy is based on disposal at a fixed mileage. The Transits, for example, are sold as conveniently near 35,000 miles as possible.
Good control
Control and administration of such a scattered fleet which spends most of its time in the hands of almost unknown people and being used for goodness knows what purpose is no easy task. Nevertheless, a good system is in operation and, so far as I could see, it did provide good control. Control, in this sense, can only be, of course, a relative thing because there is no control once the van leaves the premises. They do, however, exercise strict control when the van is on the premises, especially regarding cleaning and maintenance. I was particularly interested to learn that 10 per cent of all revenue is automatically apportioned solely to maintenance and considering the fairly short life of the vehicles in the company's hands, this reflects their awareness of the need and desirability for the fleet to be in tip-top mechanical condition.
On the subject of control, there is one other very important area over which there is no control and that is customer demand. This fluctuating demand can only be met by transferring vans from depot to depot or region to region, hence the regional centres, or by increased purchasing but, as already mentioned, the difficulty of getting delivery of new vehicles hampers this.
Six-part form Documentation plays an important part of the control system and this hinges on the principal item which is the contract with the customer. This is a six-part form on which details of the van hirer. the hirer and the driver are entered together with the insurer's cover note number, a statement of the maximum payload of the vehicle and details of any visible damage to the vehicle as it goes out. The standard terms and conditions of the contract are set out on the back of the customer's copy of the contract and these appear to be quite simple and straightforward.
The six copies are disposed as follows: The top copy is sent to the company's central accounts office in London. The second copy which is an invoice/statement is either compiled immediately on return of the van so the customer can pay cash and keep the copy as a receipt or is sent later if the•customer has an account. A tear-off slip from the invoice has then to be sent to the London accounts office by the customer with the remittance. The, third copy is for vehicle control and, on the termination of the rental, it is sent to the London control office where the details' are transferred to a punch card for filing. The fourth copy is the customers' and is, in effect, an authority for
having the vehicle. Another copy is sent to the regional van centre so that they can see what is happening to the fleet and the last copy is returned at the depot and filed under the date on which the rental is due to end.
Because the Godfrey Davis system enables a vehicle to be returned to any of their depots, not necessarily the one from which it was hired, a Check-in Report in four parts is used; one copy is sent to the originating station and one to London control so they both know the vehicle is back, one copy is given to the customer as a receipt and one copy is kept on file at the receiving depot.
Changing vehicles Should a customer wish to change a vehicle for any reason during the rental period, he may do this at any depot and a similar form is used to notify the originating depot and vehicle control, again the customer receives a copy and one is kept on file.
Among the other documents used is a damage report on which details of damage sustained during a rental are given to vehicle control, the originating station, and one copy is affixed to the vehicle's windscreen until repairs are completed. A safety check is carried out on every vehicle on its return in accordance with a list on a card which is attached to the vehicle and is left with it.
Several internal forms are involved in the system. One of these is a non-revenue mileage ticket which staff must complete to account for all mileage of vehicles not covered by a rental agreement. Every depot sends a weekly business report to the accounts department and each day the depot advises the regional office by telephone at about 11 am how many vehicles are out on rental, how many are in workshops and how many are available. This system facilitates daily control within the region. This telephoned information is confirmed by a daily van fleet operating report which is sent to regional office and from these forms the regional manager compiles a regional utilization report for London control.
A random analysis of maintenance and operational costs is made and of typical mechanical failures because, with so many similar vehicles, an analysis of every one is not thought essential.
Two important areas remain to be covered: insurance and maintenance responsibility. In the case of the insurance, the customer has a choice of his own insurance in which case he has to produce the cover note, or he can use Godfrey Davis insurance at a rate of 12s 6d per day or £3 lOs per week with no excess or a lower premium with a £30 excess. In the case of regular customers who have blanket cover, the certificate numbers are kept on file.
Maintenance of vehicles, Godfrey Davis considers, is their responsibility and in most cases they meet fully all that is required by law. With the larger vans where 0 licences are required, of course, the operator who hires the vehicle (and employs the driver) has the legal responsibility to ensure that the vehicle he operates is mechanically sound. This responsibility cannot be transferred to Godfrey Davis but the standard of maintenance and inspection that I saw appears to leave little for the operator to worry about beyond looking round the vehicle himself,