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A s a youngster Tom French was alway nated by the

20th January 2000
Page 37
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Page 37, 20th January 2000 — A s a youngster Tom French was alway nated by the
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trucks that came and w his father's farm in Cronberry, Ayrshi captivated in 1968, he bought a Atkinson tipper and started his own business, delivering bricks for a local When the brickworks closed French g agricultural haulage for a while, mainly transporti tie, but as the area produces a lot of coal and w turned out that there was more local work for b pers.

Concentrating on coal and grain haulage Fren developed his business steadily over the past decades, buying at least one truck a year, and gen a turnover of 15.5m last year, slightly up on th before. He now has a workforce of 55 and a fleet Volvos. He plans to keep the company at this size taking radical steps to boost profitability.

In April the company invested in Trak Man state-of-the-art satellite tracking system from Electronics. This was a major purchase that Fren been mulling over for a good couple of years after it at a truck show—and he's over the moon with i very good," he says. Praise indeed, from a tad 'We can check distances, drivers' hours, the time at customers' depots, basically anything about any vehicles. It wasn't cheap, and it probably costs us a £12 a vehicle a week to run, but it only takes about hour to install in each vehide and it's put an end to expensive phone calls." French hopes the system will also cut down on expensive waiting time. "A lot of the farms that we collect grain from only have space for one vehicle at a time, and they are often busy when you turn up. Then the shoot can take 20 minutes," he says. "Now we can find out and store information about a vehicle's stopping points, we know how long a truck has been held up, which makes it easier to charge customers for waiting time. I know fp a week sounds expensive but its nothing compared to paying a driver to stand about doing nothing."

Farm collections

It's not only farm collections that keep trucks waiting. One of the company's biggest and longest standing contracts involves moving a million tonnes of coal a year from a local mine to a railhead some zokm away. This ties up a few trucks most days, and has done for is years. but since privatisation the increasing unreliability of the rail service has put the contract in jeopardy. "We're totally dependent on the rail link for this job," French explains. "Up until last year we had a good rapport with the operator. But now we're constantly faced with delays or trains not turning up, and having to find other work for those vehicles. We can stock 5,cioo tonnes of coal at the railhead, but as the rail service deteriorates further it will affect us badly."

The tracking system will store data for three years, so the company will be able to identify longterm problems such as the frequent delays that threaten this particular contract. It also offers accurate information to check up on any complaints about speeding and the like.

In a further bid to boost the performance of French's fleet, he has decided to start replacing vehicles on a five-year cycle. "Over the next eight years we'll change the fleet," he says. We can safely get five years from a modem truck without spending any money on it; then we'll buy a new one. We buy all our vehicles—leasing is too expensive. We've had most makes in the past but went over to Volvo in 1970 when the company started making trucks at a factory nearby in Irvine. This made it easy to get parts, so the after-sales service from our dealer in Glasgow has always been good. The factory is due to close this year, but that won't change our choice of vehicle."

Most of French's turnover comes from coal. Scottish industrial coal is delivered to factories and power stations in the South, with trucks picking up domestic coal from York on their return journeys for local coal merchants. When the company started to haul coal many of the pits had their own rail links so deliveries were mostly to local customers.

Opencast mines

Modern opencast mines don't have rail links, so the coal has to be taken to a railhead which could be some distance away. The contracts are bigger than they were, but there are fewer of them.

Around 30% of French's business comes from a whisky distillery about 4o miles away. Tippers collect grain from farms from Doncaster to Dundee and bring it back to Cumnock to be distilled. Like the coal haulage, this work has changed. It's certainly become more competitive, with rates under ceaseless pressure.

"It's a vicious circle," says French. "We keep having to tighten our belts to meet more and more competitive rates but it's not enough. We try and squeeze the people we buy from, and the customers would pay more, but they can't afford to because local coal prices are so deflated. Farmers are having a bad time as well, but grain prices are better than coal."

The company has always been based on a five-acre site close to the M34. French has recently bought another so-acre plot next door, but is adamant that he has no plans to expand as it would make the business unwieldy. "Another zo or 30 trucks could mean working more out of the area and return loads could become a problem," he says. "We're fine as we are,"

• by Emma Davies

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Locations: York, Glasgow

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