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From humble beginnings as a hay merchant, Alan Haywood has
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grown his business into a 17-vehicle general haulage fleet. And, as Dominic Perry learns, that growth was almost accidental.
t's one of those uniquely British winter days where, at two in the afternoon, it still isn't properly light and is now thinking about fading into dusk. The world is shrouded in gloomy fog a rid looks fuzzy as though viewed through the bottom of a pint glass.
When CM steps into the reception area at Alan Haywood Haulage and Storage just outside Chesterfield. there's no-one there. In fact it looks like the Marie Celeste—there's a radio burbling away in the background, the computer's still switched on and there's voices coming from somewhere.
Five minutes pass, during which CM contemplates blundering around the darkened warehouse looking for signs of life, and then a man dressed in a thick coat, hi-visibility vest and thick gloves pops his head round the door.
This is the man we're looking for—Alan Haywood himself He's just been out unloading a trailer, hence the clothing and momentary delay. It's also clear from this that he's a boss who's not afraid to get stuck in when occasion demands it.
Alan started out as a hay and straw merchant back in the late 19705 driving his own truck. However, he soon realised that this seasonal work was leaving him idle for parts of the year and, in 1982, he started on general haulage. This state of affairs continued until 1998, when he decided to give up the hay and straw work to concentrate solely on the haulage side of the business in partnership with his wife Judy. Both his son and daughter work for the company as well.
Now the firm runs a fleet of 17 vehicles and owns zoi.00m2 of warehouse space with a turnover of around irm a year. Not bad considering that only four years ago it was almost forced out of business when a customer went into liquidation leaving it with a crippling five-figure debt.
Warehousing move
The customer in question was Demaglass, which at the time was one of Chesterfield's biggest employers, in terms of both its workforce and its transport needs. "Demaglass was the biggest debt we've had to face.' says Alan. -We only just managed to keep going. It was hard at the time, we didn't have many trucks then. In fact it was at the same time we were taking on the warehouse and it was probably that that kept us up and running."
The warehousing move was unplanned to say the least. At the time the company was renting half its present yard and a small workshop area, with the current warehouse space taken up by a waste paper recycling firm. However, when this went bust Haywood was offered the warehouse by its landlord. Although, as Judy Haywood 0 explains, it wasn't without complications: "The warehouse was full to the brim with waste paper—the landlord let us have it a little bit cheaper so that we could afford to pay someone to come in and remove it all."
Its first client was another Chesterfield company that had hit hard times—a valve manufacturer which was closing its Chesterfield factory but wanted somewhere to store the enormous number of moulds it had amassed over the years.
These took up over half the warehouse— a godsend for the embattled firm. Now the space taken up by the patterns has reduced, as many have become obsolete, and these days the warehouse is full of cardboard packaging materials for two separate clients, plus the output from local firms, such as flue kits. It's been such a success that nearly 25% of the company's income now comes from the warehouse.
Suilliding murals
Aside from this there's the small matter of a growing haulage business too, something that Alan says has really taken off over the past three years. The company buys good quality, second-hand vehicles. At present there are ir Volvo tractors—to FHt2s and a venerable Flo—plus four Mercedes-Benz rigids. The artics pull either the firm's curtainsiders on packaging work or another customer's reefers hauling confectionery. -1 never intended to run this many trucks," admits Alan. "It just seems to have built itself up."
Not that adding extra trucks to the fleet is popular in all quarters, as Judy confesses: "He'll say '1 think we need another truck' and I'll just tell him no, because we don't need another headache."
The most striking thing about the attics are the murals adorning the back of two of the cabs, painted by local sprayers R&E Lakin, something that Alan feels has been well worth the investment, particularly when it comes to attracting drivers: "We've tried advertising before but there are so many agencies and logistics firms offering the drivers exorbitant wages that we can't
compete with, so we had to look at it in a different way. Ours now come to us simply by word of mouth; since we started painting the trucks, we've actually had drivers ringing us."
And, as anyone will tell you the success of a haulage firm rests with its drivers. Alan adds: "We can be sitting here doing our job the best we can, but without good drivers it's all for nothing.
"Personality is key. Customers don't want abuse from drivers, they'll just pick up the phone and that's us off the contract," he adds.
As we talk, Alan's mobile squawks into life: it's one of his drivers phoning in to tell him of the inevitable motorway hold-up following a crash, not what you want to hear when 90% of your deliveries are timed. Our main concern is to do a good job for the customer and the only way to do that is by being there on time," he says. "Ideally, we want the drivers to get there early, but you can't rely on the roads these days."
Good service
Drivers average about three nights out every week, but Alan does try to help with this: "I know they've got home lives as well," he says. "So I try and get them back. You can't guarantee it, but they seem to understand that. Our drivers aren't nine-to-five people, they'll go at two in the morning if the job requires it. We tell them that when we take them on—there's no fixed start or finish.
"But that's the key. It's so cut-throat out there at the moment that the only way you can compete is to offer good service with clean vehicles and drivers that treat the customer well," he finishes.