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Gwent-based Prestige Upholstery Services makes wooden furniture, then distributes it
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across Britain. As Paul Newman reports, the company is busy—but this own account operator steers clear of pricey VED rates...
Tom Latham is a very busy man. Not only is he the transport manager of Prestige Upholstery Services; he also regularly helps out in the driver's seat when the company is a man short, or the work dictates. He has been a driver for all of his working life and came to Prestige in 1980 when it bought out Move Hire Wales, the jobbing haulier he was with at the time. Prestige bought the lot: the entire fleet of Volvo FL6s and the 12 box trailers, and it hired all the drivers, Latham among them. This is how the Newport, Gwent-based furniture maker first moved into haulage.
Until then it had been using contractors to take its output of three-piece suites to its customers, mainly national chain stores and furniture wholesalers. It also gave the company complete control over its entire supply and distribution chain, including owning its own wood mill.
"It goes in the front door as a piece of wood and comes out the back door ready to go into your living room," says Latham. At the time of writing Prestige is on the move—the company is staying on the same industrial estate but is consolidating its operation under one roof
Wood mill
Prestige was founded in i98o by two furniture makers, Geoff Pearce and Richard Woolley. It now employs about 7o people including the factory, wood mill and transport operation.
The original Volvo fleet was eventually changed for Leyland Dafs pulling York trailers, and these were used for about eight years. However, the trailers proved to be too small for the job so Latham decided to opt for mega-trailers fitted with Transdeks which are able to carry up to 6o pieces of furniture instead of 39 as in the original units. The fleet now consists of six Seddon Atkinson Stratocruiser high-roof double-sleeper 38os and 12 trailers.
At first the company was helped out by 0 local Seddon Atkinson dealer Walls Trucks which provided Prestige with parking space until the company got its 0-licence.
The company has a policy of replacing the entire fleet in one go and deliberately chooses six identical tractive units at a time. They are all the same so that nobody's moaning that they've not got a new one," Latham explains. "It's also handy because we know they're all the same age and we can just watch the mileage."
High mileage
The company changes its fleet every three or four years. If one begins to knock up a high mileage it is transferred to shorter routes. "We keep an eye on the blokes who go to Scotland arid as soon as we notice the mileage going up we move them about," says Latham. We try to give every driver a different run all the time so that he doesn't get fed up, especially those that have to do the M4."
As it is entirely an own-account operation Prestige runs on a restricted licence. The fleet is kept busy transporting furniture to outlets from Land's End to Inverness. At one time the company also made fortnightly trips to Holland and Ireland, but ferry costs made this uneconomical so now the overseas deliveries are handled by contractors.
Deliveries can vary between town-centre shops, when display suites are needed, and out-of-town RDCs, so the company avoids having to take furniture directly to customers' homes. However Latham says his drivers need to be familiar with the layout of nearly every major British town.
Prestige also runs two Mercedes 7.5-tonners for deliveries to more inaccessible places such as the Isle of Wight and for particularly difficult town centres such as Southend and Rhyl in North Wales.
The tandem-axle trailers are leased from TIP which fits them out with the Transdek system for Prestige. This allows them to stack the suites four high. "They put in special rails so that the suites don't touch each other and they don't get crushed," says Latham. "The trailers can carry Go pieces."
The bulky nature of furniture means the trailers can be run on a special licence as they are only carrying two tonnes apiece when fully loaded. This allows Prestige to pay only £16o road tax for each of its vehicles.
ji The suites are made to order on a three-week turnrou rid and the company can be turning out up to 450 suites a week with all furniture being branded for the individual stores. Drivers do multi-drops and are required to work regular nights out, making up to 13 drops in two days. This system seems to suit the drivers as Latham says he hasn't lost one for the past eight years.
"One driver has been here 12 years," he adds. "They just seem to like it. They're on their own and when they get back they just drop off the trailer and go." New drivers are given a week's training on the Transdek system and handling the furniture without marking it.
SPECIALITY Furniture manufacturer.
Mobile phones
Mobile phones are fitted in all the trucks but Prestige is looking at the possibilities of fitting Band 3 radios. Drivers ring in after every drop or if they have a problem. This allows Latham control the fleet from his cab, if the ne arises, as well as his office so he always c. ries everything he needs with him.
Details of loads, destinations and trail( needed for the following week are given Latham on Friday. He then tells the dispat( ers who will be doing the runs and where t trailers will be. Latham spends about a third his time in the cab and he still enjoys drivir "I can get out and meet old friends in t warehouses," he says. It also lets him keep touch with what's going on out on the road: can hear if there's any problems; if the drivf have been misbehaving. They know when I' on the road because they get told."
Latham keeps his drivers happy by bei available to discuss any problems they m encounter but, being a very experienced driN himself, they can't pull the wool: "They come to me with problems if they have the: even about divorce! We're flexible and V4 alter the times and the runs for them ar although I give them the runs, I don't mind they want to swap between themselves. Th are good blokes and I normally finish by hi ing a night out with them."