IllEARAT of
Page 44
Page 45
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
HAULAGE
Hauliers in the West Midlands owe a lot to the motor industry. From the heart of England the British car industry once matched any in the world and has now been joined by foreign manufacturers eager to take advantage of local expertise. The experts in question include hauliers such as J&J Reason who are able to provide the most sophisticated timed delivery services.
The company sends up to eight loads a day into Peugeot's production line and is linked by computer to provide a rapid call-off service each morning. "Now I've been asked to quote for a service delivering every 18 minutes," says Reason's general manager Alan Reason. For such an opera tion, even to contemplate arriving late is unthinkable—not that arriving early is necessarily greeted with a round of applause.
Take Honda at Swindon: "They will penalise you if you are more than 15 minutes early," he says. "You must be there no more than five minutes before or one minute after. If you get in their black book more than three times in a mouth they will ask their supplier not to use you again."
So how does Reason manage such an exact brief? "Drivers wait outside at 6:30am and pull into their yard at five to seven." Honda, it seems, does not welcome a congested yard—hauliers must come in, tip and take out their empty stillages without any delay.
Closer to home. Reason delivers into Rover, Land Rover, Leyland Daf and Jaguar. Including the Coventry base, it has three depots within 15 miles of each other, providing a storage and distribution service for the motor industry and other industries: "Three warehouses totalling 3,700m2 and they are all full," says Alan Reason proudly.
Last year the company was accredited with quality standard I509002, now almost a prerequisite for being considered by motor industry suppliers who themselves are required to have the standard by car manufacturers.
Not all the company's work is so time-sensitive: it also distributes cutting machinery to coal faces and works extensively in the agricultural sector, including the delivery of new tractors. John Reason, Alan's father, founder of the business and these days its transport manager, says that engineering companies account for 60% of turnover. Within this sector he includes motor companies, tool makers, forges, driveshaft manufacturers and shopfitting companies.
An international service is offered in partnership with French hauliers from whom the company receives loads for local distribution and backloads British goods to the Continent. A similar service to Dublin is in the pipeline, again involving none of Reason's trucks: "A partnership deal can work very well," says Alan Reason. "I can offer my customer the service without any outlay on equipment" He is now in charge of the business that his father has built up over more than 40 years and he has inherited an asset of some value, since the purchase of its Coventry HQ 12 years ago and two other depots since. "One of the best things we did was to buy commercial property and build this depot ourselves," says John Reason. He paid £25,000 for the site and says a neighbour turned down Om for a similar site recently.
In his youth John Reason was more than just a quick thinker; he was a professional speedway rider and rode for England. A passion for sport has not deserted him. Why, for example, do his trucks have a sky-blue livery? Simple: he's a director of Coventry City Football Club.
Ah, the tales he can tell about meeting Robert Maxwell or Alan Sugar in the directors' box. But that's another story...