Reaping the
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rewards
The owners of James Removals have put in a great deal of hard work since it began in 1995 and are now finally seeing the benefits
Words: Roger Brown / Images: Tom Cunningham James Removals, which is based in Blackheath, south-east London, has a simple motto: excellence through effort. One thing is for sure, the company is reaping the rewards of all the hard work that has been put in since its humble beginnings in 1995 carrying out small local removals and deliveries using a Ford Transit Luton.
The irm, which operates out of a 10,000ft2 purposebuilt warehouse just off the A2, is now one of the best-known removals specialists in south-east London.
MD James De-Machen tells CM: “I used to help out with my dad’s small removals business at the weekends when I was still at school studying for my A-levels.
“Afterwards I went to college to study a year’s foundation course in business management, and then started James Removals with business partner James Goodwin at a site in Bromley to help out dad with the Transit. Things have grown from there.” The company has been based at its Blackheath site for the past six years and has extra storage sites in Maidstone and Erith, Kent.
About 90% of its work is household removals and storage, while the remaining 10% is commercial – a recent example being a large irm of solicitors in the City of London that needed ofice furniture and iles etc moving to a new site.
Relevant machinery
De-Machen says: “We can move furniture or heavy items such as pianos, stone baths or sofas, in or out through windows, French doors or onto balconies.
“Sometimes it’s a case of relocating machinery, safes or plants just a short distance. Whatever the job, we use specially designed relevant machinery for each job, whether it’s a hoist, platform lift, ladder lift or even a crane.” At the height of the property boom years, James Removals picked up a lot of jobs shipping furniture out to Spain, for people selling up in the UK and retiring to sunnier climates.
According to De-Machen a lot of the company’s removals jobs to continental Europe at the moment are to France. On long journeys the cabs are sometimes double-manned to enable the drivers to keep within their hours and get customers’ goods to their destination in the shortest time.
“We have transported horses abroad, delivered a plant pot worth £8,000 to a customer’s garden in Spain and carried a ive-year-old Harley Davidson with 12 miles on the clock to Spain,” says De-Machen.
Unusual jobs
The company issues its drivers with Esso and Total fuel cards, but De-Machen encourages them to ill up abroad because of the cheaper cost. “We also tell drivers to keep their eyes open at Calais for illegals and stowaways – fortunately it hasn’t been a problem for us so far,” he adds.
Unusual jobs the irm has won include transporting a spiral staircase, a £27,000 grand piano, and 40 containers to a warehouse for the movie remake of the 1970s cop show The Sweeney.
James Removals also regularly transports cars in trailers itted with sliding false loors and ramps. “We often transport vehicles that have no road tax, need repairs done or need moving to a new house to save the client driving long distances,” De-Machen explains.
“Recently we delivered two cars to Norway, including a rare Ford Mustang.” A major source of work for the company last year was from Greenwich Council, moving furniture from council tenants in a nearby estate that was being demolished, and taking it to new properties. It has a similar arrangement in Islington, north London.
Says De-Machen: “New housing is already going up in Kidbrooke to rehouse the tenants. We’ve been doing more of this sort of work in the last few years, and price each job individually.” James Removals was recently contacted by a person with a 10-bedroom house who decided to rent it out in the run-up to and during this summer’s Olympics. All the furniture and household items were put in storage.
“The job required 20 containers: it was a big place and it was a lot of hard work,” says De-Machen. “But hopefully there will be more of these sorts of jobs coming onstream over the next few months.” Is there such a thing as an average job in the removals business?
Typically, the irm will transport items for a client using four of its standard one-tonne wooden removal crates – 7ft x 7ft x 5ft.
Eight of these can slot easily into the irm’s lagship MAN TGX XXL (see box), ive in the Scania P-Series rigid, and three in the latest addition to the leet, a brand new Isuzu Forward.
All the irm’s crews are trained removals people, assisted by three ofice-based staff. De-Machen believes one of the reasons for the irm’s success is its employees and keeping hold of good staff. “The drivers take pride in the leet and James Removals does not employ agency staff, all our staff are well known to the company and reliable.”
Small workshop
Vehicles in the 15-strong leet range from a crewbus to a 34-tonne drawbar, including Scanias and MANs, Ford Transits, a Renault Master and a 1998 Mercedes-Benz 817. It is awaiting its new addition – a low chassis Renault Master which has been in build for the past 12 months having just returned from Holland for modiications. Inside the warehouse there is a small workshop where maintenance and repairs are carried out.
“The MAN is used for more long-distance work, or when four or ive jobs need to be carried out in a hit,” De-Machen explains. “We believe one of the beneits of running the Isuzu and MAN is that there is no need for AdBlue.” James Removals works closely with Warrington-based bodybuilders Unique Van Bodies (UVB) to create its lightweight, specially-built ibreglass trailer bodies with aluminium frames.
Like many operators in the capital, De-Machen believes the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) and parking are two major areas of concern. The company is a member of the British Association of Removers (BAR), and De-Machen regularly raises his concerns at its meetings.
Parking nightmare
“There are lots of jobs in which we have to send two vehicles, because parking can be a particular nightmare,” he says. “Greenwich and Bromley allow us to stop and unload vehicles without a permit, but some councils are different.
“With Lambeth, it’s £50 for a parking space, plus a £100 admin cost. In terms of local authorities they all have different regulations and you can waste half a day just organising parking for one job.” However, despite these frustrations, De-Machen is conident the business can continue to grow and remain the premier removals company in the area.
He adds: “We are located in a good position, near the M25 and the Dartford Crossing.
“What we can promise customers is effort, excellent
service and a lorry for every size of job.” ■