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Freightliner: the future

23rd February 1985
Page 34
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Page 34, 23rd February 1985 — Freightliner: the future
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THE MOVEMENT of ISO containers by road/rail was pioneered in Europe by British Rail in the Sixties. Since then Freightliner, an independently managed subsidiary of BR, has become the world's largest overland road/rail container carrier. Freightliner is active in four principal product sectors, deep sea, Europe, domestic distribution and Ireland.

I asked managing director Bryan Driver: Where are you. now and what does the future hold for the domestic market?

"The decline in the manufacturing base of the UK economy

in the past five years or so has been reflected in the volume of business handled by Freightliner for the domestic market," he replied.

In 1984 this business represented 29 per cent of the com pany's throughput in volume terms, said Mr Driver. The domestic sector remains an im portant feature of the com pany's overall business strategy and marketing/sales activity has been focused on the need to penetrate deeper into the distribution cycle.

"To provide for the changing needs of the market, the com pany has adopted an extremely flexible operating stance, and is piloting a new 'added va:ue' distribution service — in asso ciation with professional hauliers — under the brand name of Freightpoint. "This was launched in the spring of 1983 to seize opportunities for

part loads, multi-distribution and conventional break-bulk and distribution business." Question: How successful has the service been?

Answer: "Since the launch of Freightpoint we have made substantial progress and there are eight contracts in operation at present, with distribution projects currently being progressed for another 10 customers.

"An influential factor in our success has been the undoubted advantage we have of a nationwide network of depots linked by fast rail trunking services, which are less costly than road haulage, especially over longer distances. Also, with a container fleet of 10ft, 20ft, 30ft and 40ft boxes, we can offer customers a greater degree of the type and size of unit which affords the maximum economy."

Q: Do you see Freightliners as likely to erode the dominance of roll-on/off trailers to Europe? A: Containers and ro-ro traffic grew at the same rate in 1983, said Mr Driver, and he predicted that containers, with a share of 38 per cent of the European market, will be increasingly involved in movements between the UK and Europe.

Dealing specifically with Freightliner, Mr Driver said that since the company had assumed responsibility for marketing the Harwich/Zeebrugge service on January 1, 1983, the volume of container business on this route had increased dramatically.

The first action which Freightliner had taken was to become a totally integrated transport operator — instead of providing a service to other operators as a sub-contractor — offering Freightliner's own containers on a one-way or roundtrip basis at competitive doorto-door prices. In the first year there were 10,000 container loads to/from the Continent in Freightliner's name and this figure had risen to 14,000 in 1984.

The prospects are exciting, he said, and he forecast major growth in this sector with between 70,000 and 90,000 container movements predicted for this year including 17,000 in Freightliner-owned containers.

Q: Do you expect a slow growth in your road fleet?

A: "No, but we do not expect it to decline either. The size of the road fleet reflects the volume and type of work that we move by rail and customers' preferences, but the method of acquisition of road vehicles allows for a certain amount of flexibility in the number of vehicles we use."

Q: How many vehicles are now 38 tonnes?

A: "We operate a fleet of about 450 vehicles that we own and, in addition, we control on average a further 50 vehicles to

which we sub-contract traffic. Of our own vehicles about 30

per cent are currently operating at 38 tonnes and most of the new vehicles we are buying will be 38 tonnes with three ex/es on the tractive unit to overcome the known problems of potential axle over-weight."

Q: What is your vehicle replacement policy?

A: "We have a nominal eightyear life for all heavy commer cial vehicles due to the relatively low mileage that they perform. However, the replace ment policy is determined by careful monitoring of the maintenance budget and replace ment when vehicles become uneconomic to repair. Each vehicle is costed individually and a forecast produced on which this decision is finally taken." Q: Will there not be a strong tendency for transport operations to be centred around the ports in southern England?

A: "Yes, I agree. Since the 1970s there has been a change in the shipping lines' port strategy, which has resulted in the polarisation of activity in the southern half of England with the ports of Felixstowe, Tilbury and Southampton being the most favoured.

"These developments have benefited Freightliner with a large concentration of traffic re quiring long-distance movement in the UK."

Mr Driver said he saw the ports in the South and South East continuing to dominate in the future with the fulcrum moving more towards the East.

An interesting potential development, he added, is the proposed deep-sea container port at Falmouth, but there are road and rail infrastructure problems to be resolved, and financial backing must be found for a project that could cost £70m.

The future of Southampton could have a considerable bearing on this project.

Developments at Harwich in the shorter term at Bathside Bay will present further opportunities for Freightliner's deepsea and European growth, he added.

Q: What about the deep-sea sector?

A: "1984 saw Freightliner as the market leader in UK distribution of deep-sea boxes with a 43 per cent market share."

Appraising the future size of the deep-sea container market for overland operators, Mr Driver said that economic forecasts predict a continued growth in UK trade of four per cent a year until 1988, and new trade areas such as India, Pakistan, South America and China are emerging with considerable potential growth.

A trend for Freightliner will be the development of joint ventures with a small number of major road hauliers, he said.

Such arrangements will operate as a partnership with the pooling of resources and the marketing of a comprehensive service for shipping lines and agents — sharing the risk and rewards, he explained.

The first such venture with Russell Davies Ltd, based at the Port of Felixstowe, had recently been announced, Mr Driver added, and will be marketed under the brand name Masterhaul.

"The prospects for deep-sea are exciting," Mr Driver said.

"We expect this sector, which represents almost half of the total company business, to grow at the rate of at least five per cent per annum," he added.

CI Lastly, I wonder, do any of your containers now go East via the Siberian land-bridge?

A: "No, our activity in this sphere is confined to a limited number of movements in privately owned containers."

Tags

Organisations: MOVEMENT of ISO
People: Bryan Driver

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