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ONE-WAY RAFFIC
Page 43
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The trouble with running a bulk tanker operation from Northern Ireland is that hauliers have to look harder for work, explains Haulage Services of Belfast.
competitive," Dobbs recalls. The company took on its first tanker when it won a deal with Harp brewery in Dundalk, and since then has moved into tankers.
QUALITY MARK
Haulage Services is now going for BS5750 and believes it could be the first haulier in Northern Ireland to be awarded the quality mark. It will be a marketing tool, but Dobbs says the code will also save the company money by making sure all its practices are economical and correct. This means carrying out deliveries on time and not sending a truck where it cannot be accepted. "I don't see much future without it," he says. "People have welcomed it and customers expect it."
Northern Ireland is not the easiest place for haulage, admits Dobbs. "It is such a confined area. You're a few hours to the sea or border so it's difficult to run long trunk operations. The border is closed at night for customs clearance. This confines you. It's harder to get productivity."
Haulage Services is a mid-size operator in Northern Ireland terms. Big fleets include Northern Ireland Carriers, Montgomery and the Milk Marketing Board. UK national hauliers like TNT have a strong presence, but the industry is dominated by locals, says Dobbs.
There has always been a mythology of cowboy hauliers running overweight trucks in Ireland, but standards are improving, he says, often through coercion. "There are Department of Environment weighbridges all over the show here now, and everything is being weighed going on to boats too."
The company has recently moved from the city to an industrial estate in Mallusk, outside Belfast. Nearby are two truck dealers and Walter Alexander's bus factory. Its operation, including its maintenance, is computerised, and it is introducing a new livery to its trucks. The site has good motorway links to the South, Belfast and Larne.
Northern Ireland is picking itself up slowly since the dark days of the 1970s and early 80s, Dobbs believes. "It's always the outlying areas which are the last to benefit, but there are one or two good companies coming in now. Property values have gone up. Lots of factories closed down, but now there is a slow growth again."
D by Murdo Morrison