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quickly. From 1910 until the late 1970s, the Bedfordshire location
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of Rogers Transport was an ideal base for its agricultural work, moving everything from flour to farm machinery. But in the early 1980s a call from 3M—which automotive and stationery products, among er things—changed all that.
"They had been let down by a haulier and had an Jonathan Rogers. "Our transport manager at the time was keen to get the business and took the job on, even though we didn't have a vehicle available. So we hired one, lie drove it to HuN and made the delivery himself. It gave us an opening and we eventually managed to win the whole distribution contract" It was a move that soon took the company away from its agricultural roots and into the high-street distribution market Through the rest of the 1980s and '90s the link with 3M remained as strong as its bonding products, with Rogers Transport delivering anything that needed an antic. Since then, it has taken on business from other household names, such as Price's Candies, Independent Land Rover dealership, Rogers of But transport remains the core activity thanks to changing trends in retail distribution logi tics, the company's Bedfordshire location has conti lied to prove valuable. Rogers explains: "For exam Price's Candles used to be based in North London. property rates rose it moved first to the fringes oft capital and then up into Bedfordshire.
"We are situated in the heartland of the distrth 'don market and most of our work is drawn from area south of London up to the M62," he says. it's coincidence that that's where most of the mutat: Is concentrated as well."
As with the 3M contract, the Price's Candles wo developed steadily, from a foot in the door two yea ago to the exclusive transport supply contract Rage Transport clinched last year.
Since the move into high-street distribution work, Rogers Transport has become more sensitive to security issues. It's part of the service. For a start, the retail loads are far more valuable than the average agricultural load. The company could be carrying anything from clothing to electrical goods so there's a much greater risk, which is reflected in the insurance rates for goods in transit.
"We use a lot of curtain-sided vehicles because we have to,' says Rogers. "Na matter where you go with one of those, whether its a secure lorry park or not, as far as the insurance companies are concerned they are exposed to danger."
Preferred suppliers
l'he company is one of the preferred suppliers when t comes to collecting goods from suppliers and it's sot just a question of supplying vehicles on a daily oasis. "We actually handle more goods in than out," Rogers explains. "It's a 48-hour collection service. Fhey fax the details and we arrange collection of wders from the suppliers. At peak times, we also randle deliveries to stores, but at this time of year Vs mainly collection work."
Given that the UK's current driver shortrge tends to be more pronounced wherever :here is a concentration of distribution cornranies, there is always the possibility of .ecruitment problems if drivers move on. Most of the drivers around here who want to le home each night are working for compalies such as Asda," says Rogers. "We have a at of drivers who are quite happy to be away or several nights during the week and we've 'tied our system around that."
Another proven way to attract and retain 'rivers is to give them trucks they enjoy driving, The :urrent fleet is a mixture of Volvos and Ivecos. "We will Nays look at used vehicles when adding to the fleet, iut aver the past two years all of the ones we've added lave been either new or used Ivecos," he reports. To a legree we've been pushed down the 'new' route by IC larrison, the local Iveco dealer."
The latest fleet additions are a brace of 180E Iveco
Teeters and two Eurostar 420s, all delivered last month. "I don't think there's a bad truck on the market," says Rogers. "The dealer has bent over backwards for us—it's all about good service in the end."
That's also true when it comes to dealing with highstreet retail clients, particularly during seasonal peaks in demand. "Our busy periods coincide with consumer demand," he adds. "The busiest is from 1 September to 31 January. First there is the build-up to Christmas, then the January sales, followed by the collection of everything that didn't sell."
During peak times, there is a lot of movement between suppliers, distribution centres and stores. That means there is no need to look for return loads. In fact there are some occasions when vehicles have to be sent out empty in order to return with an inward load.
"When the shops are trying to get everything onto the shelves we've been known to send a vehicle out on a Saturday morning to South Wales, say, simply to bring back full loads Christmas crackers for instance," says Rogers.
But from high capacity in the winter monti Rogers Transport moves into a quieter period duni the summer. "Over the past three years it's been o aim to address this," he adds.
Three fronts
To date the company appears to have been successl on three fronts. Transport director Steve Dit reports: "We have a warehousing activity but thal work that has always been seasonal, too. A lot of ce clients have their own warehousing so they don't nei ours unless they run out of capacity.
"We could always find warehousing work for four six months of the year, but for the rest of the time tl demand has always been low," he adds. "So when v were approached to lease it out, complete with forl lifts and racking, it seemed like a good opportunity. is all year-round income."
Drew explains that fleet utilisation has risen wi* the addition of Homebase as a customer. This follov collaboration with Tibbet & Britten: a relationship tit developed after both companies became tramp° services suppliers to Debenhams.
"Because Homebase is so involved with gardenir products it has helped remove part of the trough workload that had become a regular summer featui of our calendar," says Rogers.
Third, and most recently, the company has begun short-term paper distribution contract for logistio firm AA Griggs. "It is the first business not related I the high street that the company has had for sort time," says Rogers.
You get the feeling that it may not be the last.