BENCO TRANSPORT
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To survive as a small haulier in the West Country you need to be able to offer something special: Brixham-based Benco Transport owes its survival to the engineering skills of its owner, Cohn Davies. The company specialises in moving machinery and boats, and before becoming a haulier Davies ran a marine engineering business so he is able to use his specialist skills to tackle these difficult leads.
"Being an engineer helps considerably from the point of view of moving the machines," he says. "None of it worries me. In the marine engineering business we used to take engines out of boats and put them back; they would weigh up to 10 tonnes."
Based on the South Devon coast, Banco is well placed to take advantage of the business to be had from the many marinas in the area_ He has been transporting boats for about two years. Work comes in via flyers distributed around the marinas and through recommendations from
satisfied customers. However, even though the beats may be worth up to 1150,000 and demand specialist skills to be transported safely, clients still try to screw him down on rates.
"In the South-West everybody is looking for the cheapest price they can get," says Davies. "If someone phones up for a price on a job there is always someone out there who is going to do it chew. They are not worried if they are properly equipped for the job."
For boat transport Bence uses an airsuspended King step-frame trailer. The company's depot on the outskirts of Bilicharn boasts a well-equipped 120m2 workshop which Davies uses to maintain and convert his vehicles. He has modified the King trailer so that it can be quickly adapted for carrying machinery or boats. He cut the middle out so it can take a keel and added folding props. When machinery has to be carried these can be folded away. With the pads and adjusters removed the trailer is back to a standard step-frame.
lie has also fitted a 30t/m Hiab crane behind the cab of his hreco 480E38 tractor—this allows the firm to tackle awkward machinery jobs. "For example we get regular work moving cardboard compactors and bins for a company in Dartmouth which can weigh up to four tonnes each,' says Davies. They lift them on with a fork-lift and we rift them off on site."
To keep the work coming in Davies has a flexible attitude to the kind of jobs he will tackle: "We will move macNnery in house if they want it. In Plymouth a company wanted machinery moved around their factory so we went along with a load of tools and trolleys and jacks and moved them. In the early days we also did welding and fabricating in stainless steel as well as doing the machinery moves."
On the marine side he is willing to go wherever the work takes him, including runs abroad about six times a year. This brings its own difficulties when you have a boat on the trailer. "Height and width are the problems abroad, and permits are needed to go down through France and Spain," Davies explains. "You get a high route and a low route. Under four metres high and three metres wide you haven't any problems. But if you are higher or wider than that then you have to use the roads they tell you to and they won't allow you to go on the motorways like they do in this country."
The company has also been involved in relief convoys. Last year Davies took a 7.5-tonner to Albania, loaded with clothes, shoes, blankets and food destined for Kosovo.
Davies runs Bence with his son Ben. They both drive and Ben takes care of administration, but Coln is not optimistic about the future: "I think I will survive because of the specialist work, but he would be better off getting out of transport. I would say to him go and look for a proper job.
"When you look at building something up for his future It's demoralising when you get the rates that we get," he adds. "The fuel's going up and everything else is going up and we're not getting a rate increase. I'm not saying it won't change but I don't see prospects in this game for him at the moment."