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Eagle Couriers started life in 1985 and spread its wings
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soon after its conception. Tim Maughan paid a visit to the firm's Edinburgh base and heard how Eagle expanded its van operation to Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Dundee.
The business graph on David Bennett's wall shows a striking increase in company turnover. Bennett, managing director of Edinburgh-based Eagle Couriers, explains. "My brother and I used to own a retail travel agency called Bennetts Travel. A big percentage of our turnover was in business travel: we got into this market when the Scottish oil industry took off.
"We put one car on the road to deliver tickets to our customers in and around Edinburgh—this idea was unique at the time, and it made our company very successful. The company grew, but we couldn't cope with the demand."
The Bennett brothers sold the travel firm in 1985, and David Bennett concentrated on running a courier outfit, His brother does not work directly within the company, but today he is a shareholder.
"The timing in 1985 was perfect," he enthuses. "In the first two years, we saw our workload increase by 200%."
Bennett wanted to take a back seat, but he found that he was sucked into the maelstrom. "I was going to take it at arm's length but I found that the business could not cope; I had to be part of it. I thought I had semi-retired, but I was working 12 hours a day," he says.
As Eagle Couriers grew, Bennett looked across the Central Belt to Glasgow. Between 1987 and 1999, he snapped up two courier firms based in the city: Arrow Express and Roadrunner Couriers. "Everything went whoosh!" he remarks.
He also bought out Aberdeen firm Dash Couriers in 2001. Today, Eagle Couriers also operates out of Dundee.
Do your homework
Eagle vehicles shuttle between Edinburgh, Glasgow. Aberdeen and Dundee, but the majority of work is conducted internally within each city. Bennett has been busy buying companies, but he asserts that you need to do your homework before you take the plunge.
"I used to ring companies out of the blue," he explains. "There is a learning curve involved here. You need to identify if the company is on the down or the up. It is a case of looking at the rates structure—if the margin is good, then it's worthwhile."
In any circumstances, he says that it's never worth going near a firm which is suffering.
Staff can become anxious when their company is in new hands, so Bennett reckons that any changes in livery, uniforms and so on must be introduced carefully. "It's important to have a gentle transition," he says.
After 16 years running motorbikes, he is now phasing them out. Although supreme at slicing through traffic, he explains that their susceptibility to bad weather and pricey repair bills make them something of a liability.
Ninety vans operate under the Eagle umbrella. Fifty-eight of them are owned by self-employed drivers, but these vehicles bear the Eagle livery. Unlike his office staff, these drivers are not eligible to join the company profit scheme. "I believe in people," he says. "I really do think they should share the rewards.
"The office staff are the front line of communication, and it's important that they look after the customer."
Residual value
Bennett's vans are mostly on contract rental, although larger vans are bought because, he believes, they have a strong residual value.
The Eagle fleet concentrates on transporting office documents on an express delivery basis. This is cut-and-thrust work, with vans jostling for position with cars, buses and other CVs. Trucks are most definitely not on the agenda.
" HGVs are extremely expensive to operate and manage and they are governed by a lot of regulations," he says. "We used to run at 7.5 tonnes, but not any more; the biggest vans now are 3.5 tonnes."
Small vehicles are more straightforward to run than trucks but, like all CVs, they are subject to congestion. With the subject of city centre gridlock on the agenda, Bennett's face becomes deadly serious. He says: "Something needs to be done about congestion in Edinburgh. We should have a Park and Ride scheme—all you need is a field! At the end of the day, I am for anything that helps ease congestion in the city.
"Commercial vehicles should be perceived in the same way as public transport, because they are the lifeblood of the city." he adds. Congestion charges are likely to begin in Edinburgh in zoo6 (CM 20-26 Feb 2003). Eagle Couriers also owns a secure storage subsidiary with 510m.` of space, which is used to store business documents, although Bennett acknowledges that information technology has changed the face of the courier sector. "The courier business as a whole is going into decline. Electronic information is taking over. There were 15 courier firms in Edinburgh 15 years ago, but now there are just three."
In order to keep abreast of change, Bennett plans to diversify. The nature of the fleet will stay the same, but the work undertaken is steadily moving away from office paperwork. For years, Bennett's team has provided a 'value-added service' which sees drivers setup, rather than simply deliver, equipment such as computers.
"I am looking at niche markets such as delicate light-engineering parts. In the future, we will have more drivers who are technically trained to deal with these loads—they'll be able to deliver the parts, such as printers and computers, and then set them up in offices," he predicts.