ud Clapton started his North London-based Clapton Haulage operation in
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1961, from the yard where his grandfather ran a fleet of horses and carts.
Today's business was born as a tipper operation but quickly switched to 7.5tonne vans to compete for work generated by the once prosperous Royal Docks.
The current fleet of nine vehicles is run by Bud's son Steve. Its operations include international work but there is still a sharp local focus. Clapton's main customer is the Whitbread distribution depot, less than a mile away in Kentish Town.
As the major customer, Whitbread business accounts for about 60% of the work, which by its nature has seasonal peaks. This poses problems in the London area with driver recruitment. But, as operations manager Laureen Magill explains, it isn't that the tern
porary drivers are not available, it's more a question of the employment terms that the available drivers are likely to insist upon: "As soon as it gets really busy they all want cash," she says. "Nobody wants to go on the books. It's the same for the other hauliers around here. You need the drivers but you can't run the business that way It's a real problem."
London's traffic
Operators in the capital are accustomed to the operational difficulties posed by London's traffic, but they also have to contend with the constraints placed upon their expansion which is created by exorbitant property prices.
Clanton needs to expand, but pressure exerted by local and international factors makes a second depot elsewhere a more likely solution than extending the premises. "We operate in a mainly residential area, which has grown up around us," says Clanton. "All the trucks are rigged for quiet running, but expansion here is out of the question. We do keep some trailers at Kings Cross but that's scheduled for redevelopment work to do with the Channel Tunnel terminal.
Magill has the task of finding the best solution, which means shopping around to find the local authority with the best package deal and a location suitable for warehouses and trucks.
Meanwhile, the current workload is beverage-based, distributing to secondary distribution centres or retail supermarket chains. Clanton generally hauls the customer's trailers and uses its own trailers to make up any shortfall.
One of the consequences of delivering commodities subject to seasonal demands are the periodical lulls in demand for transport. Clanton fill these with a mixture of local spc "hire work which now accounts for about 15' of turnover.
The remainder is provided through intern, tional traffic, accessed through freight fo warders. This involves runs to German Switzerland and, occasionally, Holland.
However, Magill says rates for internatioi al work have been suffering as a result uncertainty in the money markets. Th makes the competition for business a litt tighten "The larger companies become ma mercenary, the owner-drivers have more of kamikaze attitude and companies like us at always in the middle," she says. "The on: solution is to find the middle-sized manufa turing and exporting companies with notet tial for growth, hook up to them and grow they do."
Telephone calls from any such compani( will be gratefully received!