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E

EM nom TR by lain 5herriff, tkiti

A LAND Of startling contrasts, Greece is one of the oldest civilizations in the Western world yet one of the youngest States. The Greeks were ruled for many years by the Turks until 1835. It is a land rich in natural resources but with a weak economy; it abounds in business brains of the highest ealibre yet it is still under-developed. With a history going back more than 5,000 years. Greece is only now an emerging and developing industrial country. Its people are fiercely patriotic, whether or not they agree with the colonels—there are more national flags to be seen in a suburb of Athens in one hour than we see Union Jacks in the City of 'London in one day.

"Come to Greece and learn the truth" is the exhortation on all mail leaving Greece now and the truth is this—so far as British commercial vehicles are affected—there is a new and ever expanding market for our products and we have already gained an effective foothold.

When travelling to Greece by air the first vehicles one sees on arrival are 5-ton Commers with a 141in. wheelbase and fitted with Hi-load bodies. The hoist is manufactured by Edbro and the alloy boxvan body built by Palmer Coachbuilder Ltd, of Enfield.

Eleven of these vehicles are operated by Olympic Airways, part of the Aristotle Onassis empire—the first were bought in 1966 and tho, most recent four delivered on March 27, 1970.

The vehicles, completely built in the UK, • are standard export models without any special modification. They are delivered in primer and painted at Olympic's own technical base in Athens. These vehicles replaced a fleet of Italian machines which had proved troublesome, according to Mr Anthony Grivas. Olympic's road transport manager. He said: "There was a history of cracked chassis and loading troubles." The loading difficulties, apparently, resulted from the chassis being too high for the purpose.

An interesting feature here is that in selecting Commers, Olympic made its choice on the experience of another airline. Air France also uses the Commer Hi-load and are, apparently, very satisfied; the Olympic vehicles are built to the same specification.

Because Olympic Airways serves Greece almost in the role of a national utility company, the company is permitted to import the vehicles duty free. This is, of course, a considerable saving but it applies equally to any make of vehicle which Olympic might purchase.

One constantly hears complaints about inadequate spares supplies at home which may or may not be justified. It was interesting to learn that Olympic does not suffer from this malaise. A cable to the factory in England, ordering spares, almost certainly ensures that they are on the next Olympic flight from London to Athens. It is this kind of service, plus the quality of construction, which has sold the Rootes group product to Olympic and I understand that buyers who work for Aristotle Onassis must buy wisely. Mr Grivas, with four years' experience of his Rootes vehicles, is well satisfied and, although replacement is taking place only every eight years, the airline is expanding so that there will be room for more Commers. Having established themselves, Commers must start off with a big advantage in Olympic's plans.

The intensely patriotic Greeks are still very much aware of how much their country suffered under German occupation. Where other considerations are equal, the German product is not favoured. Politics undoubtedly play a part in the business considerations of the Greeks and it is perhaps significant that those who have interfered least in Greek political affairs have fared best—the Scandinavian vehicles are extremely popular. This is not to say, however, that British vehicles have been completely ignored; far from it.

The public service vehicles in Athens are almost equally divided between BLMC and the rest. Leylands, Guys and AEC are prominent on the local scene and this is another area in which we can 'make vast developments.

The Greeks have developed a true one-man operation in the psv field. There is no municipal transport service as we know it in this country. Each bus is owned, operated and, in many cases driven by one and the same man. Before a bus is purchased, the intending operator must obtain a licence which, I understand, costs around £4,000. When the licence has been granted and the bus is purchased, the owner joins a consortium of local operators. In this form of group working, each operator contributes financially to the central administration and is allocated a route. Thereafter, he operates that route to the timetable laid down by the traffic office. The fares he collects are his own; they are standard for each route.

The only standard outlay is that which the operator pays into the central fund to defray administrative costs. He is responsible for his own repairs and servicing and is not reimbursed for any time lost due to breakdowns.

At the moment, the standard fare to travel across Athens is equivalent to 3d and operators have been refused a recent application for a fares increase. Athens has a population of 1,800,000 people and an across city bus ride can take fully one hour at peak period.

Selling British On January 1, 1970, British Leyland centralized its various agencies, bringing all the products under one roof at Doucas and Co. This was formerly the Austin /Morris agent and is controlled by the owner who is himself a qualified engineer. Mr. Doucas makes no bones about his desire to sell British products and, again the loyalty and patriotism of the Greeks was exemplified in his opening remarks to me when he said: "I am first and foremost a Greek and if I were to have a second nation, it would be Britain". This is not merely a blind loyalty to a former ally, he hastened to tell me. He firmly believes that with a little change of approach BLMC products could swamp much of the Greek market.

Mr Doucas was critical of much that had happened in the past. He pointed out that in 1962/63 he had sold 250 BMCs against 180 Mercedes and 120 Volvos. The year 1963 proved to be a black one for his distributorship when the BMC 5.1 diesel engine began giving trouble. In addition, the engine did not match up to the Greek MoT demand for an adequate power-to-weight ratio and, in 1964, the sales of BMC's commercials dried up. Failures in Leyland's fuel pumps, around the same time, tarnished the image and Mr Doucas sums up the situation somewhat mildly by saying: "The BLMC market in Greece has not been well served".

Of the future, he has no fears but has already told BLMC that re-establishing the produce as the leader in Greece is not going to be easy and that the company should not look for spectacular results. According to him the Greeks want machines which will run for 200,000 kilometres trouble-free, adequate guarantees of aftersales service and man-size power units. For example he says they want vehicles up to 11 tons carrying capacity to have a power unit capable of developing 240 bhp and 16-tonners 350 bhp. This, of course, is reaching for the sky and I think that, with other guarantees, Mr Doucas could very well get his customers to accept less.

Indeed, he has already made inroads into what was formerly the German market. Recently, the Greek Government called for tenders for 300 refuse collection vehicles, 175 of which were to be built with compaction bodies and 125 with side-loading bodies. Although the BLMC quote for 125 Laird chassis cabs was less favourable than its next nearest rival, all has not been lost.

After the quotes were opened, each of the tendering companies was given the opportunity to amend its figures and Doucas and Co reduced its original figure to a leve) NA here it may even lose money if it gets the order. This the company is prepared to do in order to put the Laird in the shop window. Whether or not Doucas is successful, British vehicles will go in because the most favoured tender was for the British-built Dodge.

It is a matter of deep regret to Mr Doucas that he lost the order for the 175 compaction vehicles. He quoted for the chassis/cabs, while a British compaction body manufacturer, who might wish to remain anonymous, quoted for the bodies. According to Mr Doucas, the body manufacturer altered the conditions of the tender so much that the figure was not even considered. There were almost tears in his eyes when he told me: "We had two of the vehicles here on demonstration runs and I feel certain that the order would have been ours if the British manufacturer had done as he was asked and merely answered the questions without so• many qualifying statements".

Probably one of the best examples of the success of a strong distributor is contained in the story of Perkins. In this case, the agent is fitting 500 units every year, converting French Saviems, Italian OMs and some Spanish vehicles. There have also been conversions to Mercedes-Benz buses.

Import delay

There are 25,000 Perkins engines now in operation in Greece and while not all of these are fitted to buses—agricultural machines and construction equipment use a large number—the reputation of the Peterborough product is high among bus users. I understand that' Perkins' spares are one-third of the price of their Continental rivals and are readily available. Even with an import delay at Athens airport of three days, priority spares are delivered via Manchester and London to Athens in five days.

While operators' licensing is only now being introduced in the UK, there has been a form of operators' licensing in Greece for some time. An intending operator is required to display his competence by showing that he has the necessary finance to run one vehicle. Owner-drivers are the order of the day and only those who owned more than one vehicle before the new legislation was passed are allowed to continue operating with fleets of any size. I understand that there are no fleets of more than five vehicles.

New entries into road transport must prove that they have been driving for 12 years before they are granted a licence to operate and they are required to pay a once-and-for-all licence fee. A vehicle of 16 tons gross is liable for a licence fee of 50,000 drachmas which is about £700.

The licence is granted for three years and cannot be transferred until it has been held for that period. In addition to the entry fee, there is a circulation tax on haulage vehicles of 16 tons gross, of £88 per annum, while own-account operators pay £560.

The lighter the vehicle, the cheaper it is .o purchase an operator's licence. Vehicles not exceeding 4 tons gross do not carry any tax, but, thereafter, the tax operates on a scale. The first 1,000 kilos are charged at five drachmas per kilo; the next 10,000 at 3.5 drachmas per kilo; 20,000 to 35,000 kilos at 2.5 drachmas per kilo. However, this is for the professional haulier, the own-account man is charged five drachmas per kilo for every kilo of gross vehicle weight.

With these kind of charges it is understandable that own-account operators are in the minority but where they do exist vehicles in the light weight categories are the most desirable choice. Payload is always the most important factor in transport; it is much more so in Greece. It is not surprising then the British lightweights are making inroads into the Greek market.

Amstel Breweries, a new company in Greece, operates a fleet of 24 Bedfords for its local delivery work in Athens. Its long-distance traffic is carried by private haulage. The Bedfords are .taken into Greece as chassis /cabs and the bodies are built locally.

Bedfords were selected principally because of their construction. They offer a low loading height which reduces driver fatigue—particularly important in a country where the temperatures are well up into the 90s in the height of summer. These temperatures naturally increase demand for Amstel's product and in such heat conditions any factor which reduces driver fatigue is given high priority. Another fatigue-saving factor is that the cabs are painted white to reflect the sun's rays.

After driver fatigue, the next consideration must, of course, be a financial one and, in this case, the company saves money by not having either spare capacity vehicles or, as it is sometimes referred to at home, a maintenance vehicle.

They are adequately covered for spares. As with the other British products, the supply of spare parts is given top priority and the GM agent carries 65 per cent of the fast-moving spare parts while the operator carries 10 per cent which are considered to be fastest moving. Non-stock parts flown from London are available at a maximum of five days. If the import delay at Athens airport were lifted, spares would be available within 24 hours.

Repair costs In the five years since Bedfords were introduced, repair costs have been so ,low that they have not been recorded. The only major replacements in these first five years on 24 vehicles have been 10 tyres, and most of the vehicles are running on original equipment. The vehicles are well maintained and their tidy exterior reflects the condition under the bonnet.

Once again, with top-class maintenance, replacement of the vehicles will be over an extended period, probably 10 years, but in, such a climate I was assured that the brewery business is expanding and the Bedford agent hopes to catch many more orders.

The other British lightweight which is doing exceptionally well is Ford. The Athens agent has sold 391 Transit vans, 11 Transit buses and two Escort vans in just over 15 months. He estimates that he will sell 300 Transits a year, despite the fact that the German-built Taunus is in against him. The D1000 has only recently arrived in Greece but, again, the Ford agent is confident that it will do exceptionally well at quarries and cement factories. He sees a big future for the chassis/cab as a concrete mixer carrier. The ancillary equipment will be built locally.

Another Ford gaining in popularity is the 15-seat Transit which is being used as a hotel bus. The hotel business in Greece is booming and this is another expanding market into which the British vehicle manufacturer can move.

Soft-drink manufacturers throughout Europe appear to be "hooked" on either Ford or Bedford and Greece is no exception. Ford has recently captured two large Orders—Coca Cola placed an order for 75 D500s, 50 of which have been delivered and are already in service. Another soft-drink company, Eve, has 80 vehicles on order with 12 already in service. The Ford agent points out that thee vehicles are seen around Athens at peak traffic times and the Greeks are showing increasing interest in them.

Undoubtedly, Greece is an expanding market, one to be carefully nurtured and one which needs different thinking from the home or any other European market. The Greeks are more than willing to accept the British product where it can match the opposition. Bearing in mind that there is no home-produced vehicle of any size to compete against our products and given that we have excellent agents in Athens, the future of British vehicles in this market is bright. Already, we are proving our capabilities by providing an excellent after-sales service to customers operating 2,000 miles from the nearest factory.