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Beating air freight on weekly service from France

25th July 1975, Page 41
25th July 1975
Page 41
Page 42
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Page 41, 25th July 1975 — Beating air freight on weekly service from France
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

by Paul Brockington

AROUND 2,500 vehicle horns are produced in a typical working day by the Klaxon-Mixo company at a factory in Evreux 801cm (50 miles) north of Paris, and horns are being supplied to an increasing extent to UK car and commercial vehicle makers in the Midlands. On a recent visit to Evreux I was told by Miss Chanta Legier, secretary of the export department of the company, that sending goods on a weekly road-sea-road service provided by Javelin Transport Services Ltd of Wellesboume, Warwickshire, was quicker, better and cheaper than any air-freight fine could do it or by any other known means.

The Ford D0707 boxva.n Which is normally used for the run carrying up to 3.048 tonnes (3 tons) of equipment is one of eight vehicles in the Javelin fleet of up to 16.26 tonnes (16 tons) gvw in the UK. They are employed to operate a nightly service between Elmdon and Heathrow, and are available for emergency work carrying urgently needed pieces af valuable machinery, spare components, high-grade raw materials and so on direct to the user or to a port, sea or air, the routine work of the fleet being mainly associated with storage and distribution. Two vehicles are reserved for stand-by duty to undertake emergency work, and these are driven by part-time drivers in responsible jobs who are offduty for days at a time.

Javelin was started by Mike Sayer, now a director of the company, who is a qualified economist and was formerly involved in the RI-IA cost and productivity scheme as a management consultant. In his view the total distribution concept will have to be applied more universally by small hauliers as well as large companies if the industry is to prosper.

Mr Sayer points out that the inclusion of 'packaging, storage, distribution and invoicing in a service offered by a haulier can be a great boon to clients; and in the case of Continental operations the haulier should 'be responsible for clearance at the ports. Management is blamed for much of the driver discontent in the country and this criticism is directed at two types of company.

One is of the type run by a technocrat who is unaware of driver problems. And the second type is exemplified by a 'haulier who progresses from owner-driver to the owner of a sizeable fleet and lacks the professional ability to make the best of his vehicles or his drivers.

No permit

The Ford D0707 used on the Evreux run has a gvw rating of 7,488kg (7.37 tons) and a nominal payload capacity of 4,877kg (4.8 tons), but because the operative payload is restricted to 3,048kg (3 tons) its gvw does not in practice exceed 6000kg, and it can therefore operate on the Continent without a permit. The vehicle runs empty to Evreux; the time occupied in arranging and collecting a forward load would reduce the profitability of the operation.

On the Evreux service the Ford is driven by George Matthews, a Javelin director, and on the day I 'accompanied him we left Wellesbourne at about 5.45pm and booked in before 9pm on the Townsend Thoresen 11pm night fern Le Havre. We were on road again at gam the foil ing morning (a Thursday) had reported at the Mali Mixo factory by 11am a covering a total road dista of around 320km (200 mil While the company ha! warehouse in Paris and Javelin vehicle sometir collects a load there, pre ence is given to maintainin regular flow from factory fl to the decks of vehicles delil ing equipment to custom On the accompanied run 2 t of goods were availaole collection instead of normal 3 tons, but this N sufficient to meet commitme in the UK and dispatchint reduced load was obviou economic despite the ft charge payable for transpi The vehicle had been low by fork-ilift truck with pane packages soon after micid Serious delays on the ; crossing are unusual, but ii pertinent to note that on one occasion that there wa long delay and it would in been impossible to arrive at Klaxon-Mixo factory in non working hours, a phone call to a director elicited an assurance that he would be there to supervise loading after hours. In the event this saved up to 24 hours on turn-round time and is an example of cooperation of a type which is compared very favourably With typical UK practice by Javelin. And this View is shared by other operators to the Continent with whom I have discussed unloading delays.

According to Mike Sayer and Cyril Goddard (the third director of the company) the arbitrariness of the ,majority of UK factory and warehouse regulations in restricting delivery times unreasonably adds about 30 per cent to transport costs overall. And such :arbitrariness was the cause of frustration on the accompanied run on the way back.

Overslept

Booked on the TownsendThoresen llpm night ferry to Southampton we were off the boat at 7arn and would have been on the road well before 9am after clearance if someone had not overslept. As It was there was an extra delay of two hours and it was impossible to drop part of the load due that morning at the export packing service depot of Chrysler (UK) Ltd, Banbury, before the 1 larn closing time for handling deliveries. There was no hope of getting permission to unload at a later time and the goods had to be stored at Wellesbourne over the weekend pending delivery on the Monday.

The time saving of some days compared with an air freight service is credited to the relative simplicity of customs and clearance procedures. This is notably so when the vehicle is driven on a regular run, is booked on the ferry well in. advance of the sailing, by the same driver each time who is familiar with the routine and who is well known to customs officials and to the staff of the shipping agents at each end.

At one time Klaxon-Mixo employed a French haulier to transport a container load of horns from its Paris warehouse to Le Havre on an artic, the semi-trailer of which was picked up at Southampton by a UK operator. This was unsatisfactory in part because of the *delays and uncertainties incurred in dividing the load into smaller units at container ports and transferring to lighter vehicles for distribution. These were additional 'to the extra delays and work involved in transfers from Evreux to Paris and sorting the load in the warehouse.

On the current Javelin run the vehicle returns on a Friday and this necessitates short-term storage of at least a greater part of the load at Wellesbourne for later distribution, but the small size of the loads eliminates complexity. And Javelin has been called upon to rectify faults revealed at the last moment Which has, for example, involved fabrication of brackets for a batch of horns.

Nine drops

When the vehicle returns earlier in the week it may make as many as nine drops at different manufacturers' premises. All the Klaxon-Mixo horns ordered by UK vehicle makers are carried on the Javelin service which has been operating since December 1974.

Starting with the smallest vehicle, the Javelin fleet comprises a Morris flowt van, a Ford Transit 35cwt truck, two Mercedes-Benz 306D 40cwt trucks, a Bedford KDL 8,636kg (8.5-ton) gvw lorry which can carry a payload of 5,948kg (5.85 tons), the Ford D0707 Which is equipped with a 22.64cum (800cuft) box body, a Ford turbo D1616 16,257kg (16-ton) gvw lorry capable of carrying a payload of 11,790kg (11.60 tons), and a Seddon 13-4-T6.354 16,257kg gvw truck , with a payload capacity of 10,161kg (10 tons). Rates for the hire of a vehicle and driver vary from £1.87/hr plus 6.25p/mile for the Morris van to £2.89/hr and 10p/mile for the 16-ton vehicles.


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