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Quality pal's dividends
Page 9
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Barry Proctor, who owns Barry Proctor Services of Stoke-on-Trent, has just bought himself a fleet of Corgis... and it's all part of his determination to reap the benefits of employing happy drivers.
I've just put an order in for a fleet of 20 new trucks, all topspec, high-powered artics. All in all, the package comes to the princely sum of £1,300— not bad for a small fleet of Scanias. Actually that should read "a fleet of small Scanias", given that the trucks I'm talking about are about a foot long, have a payload measured in grams and running costs of approximately nil.
You see Corgi has very kindly decided to produce two limited edition models of Barry Proctor Services' trucks, selling for £.130 a pair, reflecting, I like to think, the amount of effort we put into our fleet.
For instance, back in the real world I've just shelled out in the region of £95,000 for a new artic — a rather handsome R-Series Scania V8 580 with all the trimmings, as it happens —with another four (two Mercs, a Daf and an MAN) on the way before March. I'm sure some operators out there would think me foolish to splurge that much on a vehicle where the paint job alone, a fantastic airbrushed effort, cost about £6,500. No doubt there are those in the industry who would think me an even bigger fool for spending the cost of almost 2,000 litres of fuel on a few toys.
Well, more fool the critics. They will be the companies in a few years' time who are scratching around for drivers, seeing their fuel bills rocket or who are paying devil-may-care agency drivers to put whacking great dents in all their motors.
You see, quality attracts quality. If you treat your drivers with respect and buy them kit that reflects their status as ambassadors for your firm they will return that favour a thousand-fold. You'll see less accident damage caused through simple carelessness; better fuel returns as your drivers concentrate on driving sensibly and efficiently; and an all-round cheerful good humour among your staff that might prevent them from shouting, swearing and delivering spittle-flecked rants at hapless customers and losing you future work. It's a quality you can put a once on and one that even Corgi cant model.
"More fool the critics. T will be the companies in years' time who are sat around for drivers"