Waiting at the gates of Europe
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Felixstowe has been the home of Crossways European since September last year. Part of Crossways Frating, the MAN dealer for East Anglia, it is a parts and service operation aimed squarely at the rising truck and trailer traffic expected to use the port in the near future. Already, a quarter of the traffic through the port involves foreign lorries.
The operation is run by Peter Coleman, aftersales service manager, and Adrian Taber, workshop manager, with 10 technicians. While Crossways European is primarily a service point, it is backed by the sales office at Crossways Frating at Colchester and its manager, Roger Barnes: "There are a lot of transport companies in the dock and it is better if they have the convenience of talking to someone there rather than having to make the journey," he says.
It was Peter Coleman who set up the Felixstowe operation, transforming a sudden opportunity into a going concern within a matter of weeks. It took two months to uprate what were existing workshops owned by P&O Roadways to meet MAN's minimum franchise requirements. A number of new staff had to be found during the following weeks and all the local operators had to be told that here was a new place to go for service.
"When P&O owned the workshops (they remain on P&O land) it was already an MAN service point. That was about to be lost, then we heard of the plan," says Coleman.
P&O was servicing a number of its own trucks and trailers at the site in Sub Station Road. Crossways European managed to hang on to contract maintenance deals for 45 trucks, a good start for the business. It also maintains 100 trailers for P&O, but not under contract, a part of the business the team are eager to expand.
Coleman explains that work in a port such as Felixstowe is linked to ship movements and, to a lesser extent, the weather. When a ship comes in, be it a ro-ro carrying accompanied and unaccompanied freight, or a deep-sea vessel loaded with containers, their mechanical breakdowns come and go with a flurry. Similarly, if the winds are high when a container ship is being unloaded the work stops and maintenance takes another surge. "Operators then tend to do all those jobs they have been too busy to get around to."
The site's customers include Total Oil, Tracto, Hoyers and Russell Davies. The workshop may be an MAN service point, but it is not afraid to take in work on other marques. Some newer service centres will not entertain other marque's customers on the basis that it it not worth upsetting a loyal customer by making him wait when the workshop is fully booked.
With such a mix of truck and trailer, domestic and foreign traffic, Crossways European simply cannot afford to be so choosy. "There is no conflict," says Coleman. "And the site is an aid to sales." The team believes getting someone else's customers in the door and then giving them a good service is one of the best ways of creating new sales.
Occasionally the workshop is called on to fix large pieces of plant moving through the port. A recent example involved repairing an oil drilling rig destined for Iraq. "Well tackle anything," says Taber, "and that includes anything arriving by ship."
Crossways services are sometimes called on by the shipping lines. Trucks and trailers, especially those with environmental control equipment carrying flowers and the like from Holland occa sionally need attention on ship. Flat batteries can mean engines will not start. Also, trailers can get damaged by tugs.
One skeletal trailer in the workshop had sustained severe tailend damage when it was in collision with a dock tug. Its chassis was bent and the rear crossmember was half torn away. The straightening of the main rails would be contracted out, but the bulk of the repair would be handled by Crossways. Welding and other work are done in accordance with suppliers' standards for customers holding BS5750 accreditation, says Coleman.
"You have to be prepared for anything these days. You get cases where the driver has forgotten to undo one of the twistlocks. The crane lifts the container and the truck is left hanging from one corner." Some types of repair jobs do disappear, however.
The advent of trailer air suspension produced a spate of bent landing legs: "We don't get the bent leg scenario that we used to. Rocking feet have seen to that," says Coleman.
Apart from offering all the usual service dealer facilities, such as tachograph calibration, parts delivery and the allimportant DKV service, Crossways European is actively expanding some of the more specialist services. Getting some
trailer component repair done under warranty can be a problem for operators. Recognising this, Crossways is now a Rubery Owen-Rockwell service centre, able to carry out all manner of repairs more quickly and easily. Recently it also became the sole UK MAN agent for Dutch-built Esteppe high-roof conversions and top sleeper pods. These can now be specified from new or retrofitted through Colchester or Felixstowe. Crossways even organises the shipping.
With truck sales flat on the floor according to Roger Barnes, there is little companies like Crossways can do except stick to what they know best. The creation of Crossways European was timely, providing an alternative form of income to selling. The site has yet to realise its full potential and the team is confident it will be able to do so when sales return and international traffic increases. They are not expecting too much competition either.
"I don't think anyone could get started here given the cost of land. With everyone wanting to be in or just outside the dock gate, it's at a premium. Here we are first in line when they come off the ship, it couldn't be better," says Coleman.
"For the moment consolidation is the name of the game. When there is an upturn in the market, we will be here to tackle it."