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• When Martin Read bought his fourth truck last year,
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he went for the biggest Volvo available. Read, a tipper ownerdriver, works for aggregates carrier Foster Yeoman, and reckons he is probably the only UK operator running an F16 with a tipping semi-trailer.
Read, who set up his business seven years ago, graduated from an F12. He had an F7 rigid and an N-registration Atkinson Searcher before that. He bought the 251,000 Globetrotter-cabbed unit partly for tax reasons, but he finds its cab, handling and performance are better — its power rating is 351kW (470hp), compared with 298kW (400hp) on the F12. "The performance isn't 100%. Power drops off during the day, butits rocker arm assembly is being modified at its next service," he says.
The air stack on the 4m high Globetrotter meant that at first the cab was too tall to fit under the gate of Foster Yeoman's depot at Theale, near Reading, so Read had to have his cab reduced by more than 60cm. The top of the air stack on the F12 had been the same height as the roof of the F16 and Read had tried to buy the lower standard cab, but at the time it wasn't available for the F16.
Read's is one of only six artics on Foster Yeoman's fleet, although the quarrier has 50 to 60 rigids on its regular list of subcontractors. Although Read is based at Theale, his work takes him all over the company's six quarries and depots around the south of England. This month he is working on the Isle of Grain, near London, where Foster Yeoman is shipping in stone from its Highland quarry. For much of last year, he worked on the M25 four-lane extension at Staines.
Read built his first six-wheel Atkinson from a wreck he bought for 21,500. His uncle, also a haulier, had offered him the pick of the tippers in his yard, but Read did not want to be saddled with a loan. Instead, he bought the body and tipping gear secondhand. Before passing his HGV test and starting his business, he served an apprenticeship as a vehicle fitter with Foster Yeoman.
INSPECTION TEST
The mechanics on the Atkinson were so good, he did not even have to adjust its brakes before putting it in for its first inspection test before it could go on the road. Two years later, his uncle sold him his eight-wheel F7. That too he kept for two years. He bought his first artic, the F12, when Foster Yeoman convinced him that artics "were where the future of the firm lay".
Like many owner-drivers, Read finds the going rocky. Work with Foster Yeoman has tailed off slightly, he says. He gets little notice for his jobs; he is often told the previous night where he will be the next day, and he has no written contract. But being on Foster Yeoman's books does mean work is regular. "The company regulates your earnings through winter — they don't allow one driver to earn more than the rest," he says.
MIXED FEELINGS
Read has mixed feelings about his artic. "With artics you rely on big jobs, but when you do work, you earn a lot." He feels the owner-driver sector has become too competitive and that many operators are encouraged to get into debt. "There are too many people in the game now coming in and cutting rates. Too many are getting trucks on HP. Some leasing schemes mean blokes pay back £1,600 per month for five years — it encourages them to break the law and skimp on maintenance." Read comes from a haulage background.
His uncle's tipper company was founded by Read's great-grandfather 100 years ago with a horse and cart. His late grandfather wanted to set him up in business, but Read wanted to go it alone, and besides, he "didn't want the hassle of running more than one truck". His father, who does a lot of work for ARC, and his wife's two brothers are also in haulage.
THREE ATTEMPTS
Although Read took three attempts to get the CPC exam he needed to set up in business, at 21 he was the first Foster Yeoman fitter to pass his HGV first time. He spent three months working for the company in Saudi Arabia when it opened a quarry there.
In 1982, Read moved from his family home in Somerset, where he had been based at Foster Yeoman's Merehead depot, to Theale, where the company had just opened a base. He felt there would be more opportunity to start a business in the region and stayed in lodgings for six months while he and his wife looked for a house. They have now settled in nearby Thatcharn.
One of the advantages of the bigger F16 is the double-sleeper cab. Although Read spends only a few nights away from home, he appreciates the extra comfort. He bought his Craven Task trailer from Foster Yeoman, and does not see the benefit of fitting it with air suspension. "You lose half a tonne and we're paid by the load", he says, "If you're carrying six loads a day up the M2, at £3.50 a tonne, and with a 24.5-tonne payload, you lose £1.75 a trip.
"A lift axle takes another quarter of a tonne off. You have a little leeway on how you load it, but I don't think you really benefit."
MAXIMUM PAYLOAD
He will replace the F16 after another two years "depending on what my accountant says". He has kept each of his vehicles for two years, but he might have to hold on to this one longer. He is not impressed with the modern British truck ("the English motor's gone all to pieces") and feels all vehicles today are built too light: "The manufacturers are going for maximum payload but I don't think they're as safe as they should be." He is impressed with Volvo's service: "With them, I've had everything I've found wrong set right."
He paints his standard white cab midnight blue. "It's my colour — it makes it look different, there are thousands of white trucks," he says.
Read and his truck have made a lady's wish come true. His retired neighbour always wanted to travel in a truck, so Read took her with him for a day.
by Murdo Morrison