A new haulage service has logged on to a growth
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industry where motorists are increasingly buying cars via the Internet. Paul Newman reports on the onward march of technology.
espite some recent highprofile failures, the growth of e-commerce continues. It's predicted that by 2003 up to zo% of new cars bought in the UK will be sold via the Internet. After that, British car retailers will have to face up to the removal of the block exemption which has protected their exclusive dealership networks from EC competition laws.
Enable was set up in March 20 icic) by AutoLogic plc, which also owns the car distribution giant Walon, to service the new e-commerce companies which will be selling directly to the public. The man chosen for the job of operations manager is Mick Hill, who has been in the car distribution trade since the early 1970s. "Walon has 350 transporters and delivers more than a million cars a year, but it doesn't handle enclosed transport. This was seen as a potential area of growth, and Enable was set up by AutoLogic to address the need for an enclosed car transport company for home deliveries throughout the UK," explains Hill.
The company runs a fleet of single, twoand three-car enclosed car transporters, and numbers among its customers all the major car manufacturers, as well as e-commerce companies such as Virgin Cars.
Enable moves 50-60 vehicles a week for Virgin Cars, which acts as an agent for customers wanting to take advantage of cheaper prices on the Continent. "Their business is growing quite rapidly," says Hill. "The customer logs on to virgincars. corn and decides what car he wants to buy. Virgin gives him a price and an estimated delivery time." The next thing he sees is the Enable truck, driven by a trained handover operative, delivering his new car to his doorstep.
"The car is purchased from the dealer in Europe, bought into this country and taxed on the customer's behalf by Virgin. It's then prepared by us to UK showroom standard, which is higher than the Europeans demand. We clean the car and give it a full check over, but don't do the PDI—this is done by the dealers, because the book has to be stamped by the supplying dealer. We also check the car is to the right specification and has no dents or scratches. It is then driven straight out of our undercover valeting bay into the back of one of our trucks," says Hill.
Hill's drivers are all interviewed by him and trained for the hand-over process. "You can't just go by a CV. You need to speak to people," he insists, "We have 17 'delivery representatives', and they are paid a salary and get an incentive bonus for achieving a good or excellent handover of the vehide."
Feedback about the quality of service comes from the manufacturers, and so far it has all been positive. "BMW phones every customer and asks how the delivery has gone, and they feed that back to me," says Hill.
All Hill's drivers get intensive training on all the models they are expected to deliver. BMW sent a team to Enable's depot to train the drivers on its product line, but not all Enable's customers are as efficient. 'We're delivering every conceivable make of car, so it's very difficult to get product training from all the manufacturers. So I rely on giving my guys time enough to go through the car and understand it."
Enable's fleet of Mercedes 815s and 0 1323s are equipped with the European strapping method of putting a chock into the punch deck flooring and strapping from the front of the tyre over the top of the tyre and down back into the floor. This allows the cars to be held securely without using the manufacturer's lashing points, which vary with every company. "This way the tie-downs don't touch the body of the car," says Hill "The advantage is that if you have normal lashing points you have to lash to the body of the car, and manufacturers don't always supply instructions on how to tie the car down. So drivers have to be trained on each make of car the company carries. With this system the chocks for the lashing points are the same for all vehicles, and it's a much safer and more secure way of holding the vehide."
The company covers the whole of the UK for home deliveries, and also makes regular trips to the Continent for car manufacturers. Enable's delivery schedule is customer-driven, but Hill rationalises the trips whenever possible. "It is quite expensive to go all the way up to the north of Scotland with one car, so it's better for Virgin to say to several customers that they can have their cars delivered on a certain day. The problem is if a customer wants it delivered on another day. If that's the case I will do a special run. At the moment Virgin asks me to schedule deliveries to the best of my ability to give them the best return, and if I can I do," says Hill.
So far Virgin Cars is the most successful company trading on the Internet, but other companies are starling to operate in the sector. They bring their cars to Purfleet on open transporters, and Enable picks them up for the .home deliveries. Enable doesn't prepare these cars, but still offers the full handover service on delivery.
It's not all home deliveries, though. Enable also handles cars for customers who would prefer them not to be on show as they are transported. This could include cars prepared for a show, prototypes going to or from testing, or the results of crash tests. "These can be forklifted and side-loaded," says Hill.
In choosing his fleet, Hill was constrained by the special demands of home delivery. "We have to deliver to Mrs Jones at the top of Acacia Avenue, so we decided at the very beginning that we wouldn't use very large vehicles, because we had to get them into those spaces," he explains. He opted for 7.5and 13-tonners. He has also had a trailer built which is pulled on a 5omm ball to make it suitable for use with both the 7.5and iktonners.
In its first year of operation Enable has built up an impressive client roster. This includes Alfa Romeo, BMW, Fiat, Ford, Honda, Jaguar, Land Rover, Le_xus, Rover and Vauxhall, as well as the major car rental companies. It has carved itself a niche, and Hill is proud of the company's quality of service: "Nobody does the job as well as us. We have done very well in the first year, and with the predicted growth in Internet sales there has to be somebody there to deliver. We are there, and we are the very best at what we do."