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TEEING OFF
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Everyone knows a cabover makes the best use of an artic's legal length limit, so why does Bulmers Logistic run the UK's biggest fleet of bonneted Scanias?
Tim Maughan investigates.
M's visits to haulage depots Linevitably involve peering at flat-fronted HGVs.Nothing wrong with that, of course,but once in a while it's refreshing to see something different. At the Teesside base of Bulmers Logistics we clap eyes on the unmistakable outlines of Scania T-Cabs.They certainly make for unusual viewing: but what on earth are these bonneted beauties doing in a container fleet?
MD Johnuthan Bulmer explains:"The Scania T-Cabs fly the flag.The customers love them, the drivers are proud of them and they have excellent residual value. We run 20 of them, which makes us the largestT-Cab operator in the UK," Based: Phone Founded: 1968 Turnover: _ £16m__ Contact: Johnathan Buimer, MD Bulmers was founded in 1968 in Mahon, North Yorkshire.The firm still has a there, but since the late 1990s its chic operating centre has been at Teespoi and Bulmer wanted everyone to km that his company was in town.Aside from a fireworks display, or an aeror pulling a banner, he knew that distin vehicles would do the trick.
Fourteen years ago the likelihood Bulmer operating even a single T-Ci any other truck for that matter,seemed remote.
He gained his HGV Class 1 in 1987 and joined th family firm to haul a range of agricultural and genei haulage work. "But the bottom dropped out of botl of them," he reports. "I was earning bugger all and s I decided to leave the firm. I got a job as a grain and fertiliser sales rep, which paid decent money am provided me with a company cai But haulage was in his blood and in 1990 his parents persuaded him to return to the haulage fold. But times were still hard in 1992 turnover was barely £120,000. "By the late 1990s it was becoming unfeasible to sustain a growing operation in Malton," he says Expansion into theTeesside base gave Bulmers essential breathing space.The firm now runs more than 130 wagons and maintains satellite depots in Hull and Manchester, turning over 116m. It's one of those occasions where using a cliché is unavoidable.., how did this phoenix rise from the ashes?
Bulmer's answer is simple: its renaissance was down to a willingness to diversify and relocate. Et obviously picked its new home carefully in 2001 the combined port of Teesport and I Iartlepool handled 51 million tonnes of cargo, making it Britain's second busiest port. And ports mean containers, which in turn mean skeletal trailers.-We have 50 skeletals,26 sliding skellies and four hulkers," says Bulmer.
Largest in Teesside The trailers transport 9.0in containers coming into and out of the country. Locally made polymers are a common load.
"We are the largest container haulier on Teesside," says Bulmer. So what are the benefits of working in this sector? "The ability to drop and swap quickly," he replies.
A specialist dockside crane can relieve a skeletal of a container in a matter of seconds. There's no unloading curtainsiders or flats in this type of work.That said, the T-Cabs do occasionally haul other kinds of trailer." We dabble every now and then with curtainsiders, vhich we haul abroad," he explains,"but we ire not specialists with this type of work," Skeletals characterise this firm, and the nore Buttner talks about them, the more ittractive they sound:"We are in direct :ompetition with tankers. We may go to a :ustorrier with a container load of polymers md then find that the factory can't take the oad.This is not a problem because we can irop the container at the nearest railhead, or rther storage site, until the customer can take he load on," Polymers can be stored in containers for lays,or even months. It would hardly be 'caustic to keep a consignment in a road anker for this amount of time.
The firm's extendible skellies handle 6.0, ).0,12 and 13.6m containers: "This means that se can mix and match for our customers." Bulmers' tractors haul 80 tipping skeletals on behalf of United Bulk Carriers and also move containers for Geest North Sea Line.
Repairs
Bulmers Logistics does not own a single container, but it does repair them. During a site tour we see a team knocking damaged containers back into shape."There are 18 fulltime fabricators here." Bulmer reports.
Container department manager Glynn Plunkett says his team works on 250 containers a week. Some of them need repairs: others are inspected.
With an established team in place a lot of tasks are delegated, but it was not always like that at Bulmers:"I used to be the fleet engineer, transport manager and do all the work of a managing director," he reflects.
Dave Nicholson, a CPC holder, was appc ed general manager two years ago.Nowadi says Bulmer. he concentrates on costs: "Ho to save the company's and customer's mon and buying trucks.
The firm keeps four hulkers at the Malto site to transport grain and sugarbeet. So Buliners retains its agricultural identity.bu this line of work is dwarfed by port operations. As Buttner says:"You've got to respo quickly to changes in the market."E