IT'S BIG BUT NOT TOO BIG
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Starting out from a small room and one truck, Brian Rodwell has built Leicester Heavy Haulage into a thriving heavy haulage operation running 32 vehicles and he is optimistic about the future.
• Almost 16 years after setting up on his own, Brian Rodwell believes his firm, Leicester Heavy Haulage, is nearing its optimum size.
With a turnover of ,£1.6 million, a new depot, 32 vehicles and 50 trailers, Rodwell says the company can manage well without incurring additional overheads, We can compete," he says, "because we've got lower overheads. Our head office is at this depot. We don't see any advantage in having numbers of depots splattered about the country. The benefit we have operating at this size is the close personal contact with our customers. That is one of the major items that customers do enjoy and they prefer, rather than dealing with a depot manager who has to phone them back with any particular problem or price."
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Rodwell has built his firm up from very humble beginnings. He left a job as area manager with the Pointer Group to set up in direct competition in the Leicester area. "I started in a 12 foot by 10 foot front room with two telephones, a desk and one vehicle. That was in November 1972. Within six months I'd got six vehicles and nine trailers.
"Now I've got drivers who have been with me 14 or 15 years, who I've known for 20 years," he says. "They came across just after me because the company I worked for closed in Leicester about 12 months after I left. It closed down because I left, because I'd taken most of its work." Since the start the company has taken on general haulage to supplement its income from the movement of abnormal loads. "The balance was probably 30% abnormals and 70% general for the first few years, but we've gradually moved it round to about 50/50. That will remain, I would have thought."
By taking on general haulage work Rodwell can get the maximum use out of the company's ERF-dominated fleet: "We have a fairly high utilisation of the fleet at the moment," he says. "Its been fluctuating quite a bit during this holiday period, but generally we are able to keep busy because many of the trailers and the nucleus of the vehicles we operate meet C and U regulations and can carry normal as well as abnormal loads." Rodwell feels this year will follow the pattern set in 1986. "In the first half of the year movement of goods was very erratic," he says, "and the number of loads available varied from week to week. We get the impression that from now to the end of the year it will get very busy again. We have several contracts pending at the moment, but I wouldn't like to highlight any particular one."
To meet this demand Rodwell has just bought two new ERFs from local dealer Cossington Commercials. He has enjoyed a close relationship with Cossington from its launch. When Rodwell began operating Cossington even allowed him to park six of his vehicles on its premises. The relationship is now mutually beneficial 25 of Leicester's 32 trucks are ERFs.
The latest vehicles illustrate the two sides of Leicester's work. One is a 16.26tonne E6 which will be dedicated to general haulage work, while the other is a 6x4 E14 tractor rated at 75-tonnes GCW for heavy-duty applications.
Rodwell says it is a pity ERF cannot be persuaded to build trucks above 75-tonnes gross, especially considering the uncertainty over the future of Scammell.
"I would hope," he says. 'That Scammell will remain as Scanunell and continue to build trucks in the same way as they have for so many years. We feel they are good vehicles, particularly with the Cummins engine."
Rodwell is not enthusiastic about Daf engines for heavy haulage work: "If Daf build Scamrnells, they obviously won't fit the Cummins engine," he says, "and we favour the Cummins engine for heavy haulage work because we can fit engine brakes on the vehicles."
Though the engine brakes are fitted by outside contractors, all maintenance work on the company's fleet is carried out at Leicester's depot at Ellistow. The depot was bought for £250,000 last Christmas and provides 1.5ha of storage, workshop and administrative space. Rodwell says the new depot gives the company lots of room to expand as and when necessary. "This was the local area workshop for the National Coal Board," he says, "and we belive they operated up to 50 vehicles here. This situation is ideal for us." The company is some 3km from junction 22 of the M1 and 12km from the new M42 link; "right in the heart of the country's motorway network."
GAINING EXPERIENCE
The company's entire fleet is based at the new depot, and each vehicle is allocated to a particular driver. Six drivers specialise full-time in the movement of abnormal loads: "You can't contend with width and weight without gradually gaining your experience," says Rodwell. "When we've got a keen Class 1 driver who has been with us some time on normal loads, we send him out as a mate on an abnormal load and gradually school him into doing the larger loads and wider loads. He gains his confidence and we gain confidence in the driver."
Before Leicester Heavy Haulage takes an abnormal load out on the highway it puts in two or three week's work checking the route and liaising with the police, local authorities and the public utilities. Part of this work is done by director Joe Henson, who joined the company five years ago from Econofreight.
"If a route needs checking Joe Henson has to physically go out in the car and measure between bollards and the like, physically checking the route," says Rodwell. "It's part of his job to ensure the vehicle can pass along the route."
Meanwhile Rodwell's two sons, David and Stephen, liaise with the various authorities affected by the load. David Rodwell has worked for the company for the past five years and brother Stephen joined last Christmas. Another son, Gary, is currently awaiting '0' level results and is expected to join the company in the future, probably in the workshops. Their uncle Jim, Brian Rodwell's brother, is the company transport manager, while Brian's wife Diane is a company director.
With this level of family involvement it is hardly surprising that Brian Rodwell says: "I see the company carrying on as a family business. There's no chance of it being otherwise."
Rodwell is confident that Leicester Heavy Haulage can continue to thrive as a family firm in a market he describes as "highly competitive". For one-off jobs the experience of Henson and Rodwell in heavy haulage can prove invaluable in finding and winning orders. For more regular work — with the public utilities, the Ministry of Defence and the like — the company is large enough to compete against the biggest heavy hauliers, while offering the personal contact in which Rodwell puts so much store.
Rodwell predicts that the heavy hauliers who will face difficulties in the next few years are those which are operating with old fleets of vehicles: "People with older equipment will find it difficult to compete under the new legislation." he says. 'We're confident we'll be thee because we keep reasonably up to date with our medal equipment."
il by Richard Scrase