L ate afternoon sun casts deep shadows across the yard of
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tipper operator Jonas Crowther where director Graham Crowther is keeping busy, knocking a football about. And why not? His four-tipper operation has been up since dawn tipping and collecting stone at quarries in North Yorkshire and has arrived at that end-of-day lull awaiting the vehicles' return to their base in the village of Harden.
There's no shortage of tipper work in this part of the world, even if the rates leave something to be desired: "There's a real shortage of eight-wheelers," says Graham, adding that business is as busy in winter as summer: "Folks have been screaming out for eightwheelers for the past 12 months."
Graham attributes the shortage of equip
ment to low rates over the years forcing many small operators out of tipping work.
Crowther's tippers spend most of their time working at Threshfield Quarry, owned by Tarmac. "The rates could be better," admits Graham, "but at least they pay quickly." A cheque arrives every week, payment for work carried out three weeks before.
In the Crowther scheme of things, Graham is taking his turn to be managing director. Brothers Nicholas and Andrew are directors, as is father Jonas. "We all muck in together," explains Graham.
The firm has passed its centenary having begun life delivering domestic coal and still supplies fuel to mills and delivers to 500 domestic customers.
The firm employs three drivers with two owner-drivers on standby during busy periods. A pair of Volvo FL6 17-tonne curtainsiders means Crowther is not entirely reliant on tipping work. To prove the "mucking in" theory of operation, the brothers are not averse to getting behind a wheel themselves. The day CM visited, Andrew returned driving one of three Volvo FL10 tippers while, earlier in the day, Graham picked up cotton from Oldham in a curtainsider.
"Most of our work is in Yorkshire, but the curtainsiders rove around a bit, " explains Nicholas, sitting in the office which was formerly the living room in one of a row of three cottages built in 1776, purchased by the brothers' grandfather. Curtainsided work includes regular deliveries and pickups for Bradford Platers, a nearby mill specialising in metal finishing. The job takes Crowther south as far as Slough and north to Newcastle.
A new job involves a weekly run to Scotland delivering wool for a merchant near Keighley. Crowther regularly moves machines and looms. Heavy industry is not entirely dead although as Graham recalls: "We used to do a hell of a lot of textile haulage but that's mostly gone."
The tragedy at Sowerby Bridge, in which six people died as a result of a runaway lorry in September 1993, still casts a long shadow over haulage in the region. "It's been hard work round here since the Fewston business," says Nicholas. The Vehicle Inspectorate recently pulled in three months' tachographs and penalised the company for a speeding offence by docking three-months from its 0licence. At least there were no hours offences.
"We rectified the situation by installing speed limiters ahead of next year," says Graham. "To be fair the checks were needed to clear out some of the cowboys."
As Commercial Motor prepares to leave, the last of the tippers return home. Nicholas Graham, Andrew and explains the Nicholas Crowther. routine: up at 04.30Ius, tipping stone collected the previous day, before going to the quarries for their first load at 06:30Ius. A returning vehicle carries limestone dust ready for a tip at 05:30hrs the next morning.
Crowther's depot is surrounded by a rich hinterland of fields, owned by the family, used for grazing. Graham gazes across the valley: "We won't sell these fields because someone will build houses and, before you know it, begin placing restrictions on our vehicle movements." He kicks the ball into touch.