Hauliers turned wreckers
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THERE is no one knows better what a haulier needs by way of service than an ex-haulier. A new vehicle recovery service on the M2 is the latest proof of this. In 18 months the proprietors have built up a substantial fleet of wreckers which is fully occupied.
This latest development in recovery services began when David Rackham started his Auto Renovations service with a base at Strood and a repair shop at Farthing Corner on the motorway. Now he has 22 trucks equipped to get anything up to 120 tons out of trouble.
The former haulier turned wrecker began his service purely for cars, but it didn't take him long to realise that the need on M2 was for a heavy wrecker service.
Now he handles anything up to 25 trucks a day rising to 60 in the summer. "I got out of the haulage business because it became too competitive, there is too much backstabbing in it for me," he said.
From Dickens
Mr Rackham has a fleet of the white and red wreckers— all with such names as Peggotty, from Dickens. They range from a Land-Rover right up the scale to ex-Ministry Scammells. In the middle he has Ford D800 trucks fitted for towing.
When CM visited the Strood workshop Mr Rackham had a Leyland FG ready for painting after its conversion to a wrecker role. He thinks that he has a vehicle for almost any recovery job going.
Mr Rackham has very downto-earth views on the business of being a wrecker: "I understood when I started that I would never be the biggest in the business; that doesn't bother me—but I do want to be the best."
And to help him on his way to being the best he has equipped his trucks with equipment like the Harvey Frost 100-ton winch and two sets of Holmes gear.
This is one wrecker that makes no bones about specialising in truck recovery. "The holidaymaker can always get the next ferry to the Continent, but the truck has a booking and he's in trouble if he misses it."
He has managed to establish a service that is open for business 24 hours a day and his trucks bear the slogan ''''3am club member" in recognition of a hand of hardy wreckers who work around the clock.
Mr Rackham reckons to have pulled most types of vehicle out of the mire. He began as a specialist in plant recovery with his big four-wheel-drive truck pulling tractors out of fields and equipment that was bogged down, out of the muck —as well as cars from the River Medway.
And to help his work along Mr Rackham is keeping a stock of spares that may put some main dealers to shame. He reckons that what he has not got in stock he will have in 24 hours.
The service has improved and to show just how much it has improved Mr Rackham has only to look at his books which show a turnover increase of 1,500 per cent since he began the service.
Mr Rackham covers the whole length of M2, but just 11 miles from the motorway another ex-haulier, Mr Ken Anderson, has started up a heavy-duty wrecker service serving the southern end of the area.
Mr Anderson left the haulage business when margins became too tight for a profitable operation. Now he runs three wreckers which he has built himself and is offering to do the same kind of building or conversion job for other would-be wreckers.
"Once a vehicle has broken down on the motorway it just stands there until someone runs up its back," he said. He intends to keep his operator's licence and to go back to general haulage when there is an upturn in trade.