y ou have to be mad or in a powerful position
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to voluntarily pull out of a contract which regularly supplies work for 200 of your trailers. But that is exactly what John Raymond Transport did when it shocked the haulage industry by telling British Steel it would no longer work for it because the rotes were too low.
Not that the Bridgend company spent much time making a public Fuss about the issue: Jonathan and Andrew Raymond, the brothers who run the operation, are far too self-effacing to encourage publicity. When CM met them they seemed reluctant to discuss the issue in detail: 'We could not make the job pay, we had made that point to them for several years," says Andrew simply.
The British Steel work is being replaced by palletised loads, chemicals and an increase in work for existing customers. The 200 coil carriers which formerly carried steel out of Port Talbot are being replaced by curtainsiders: "More appropriate equipment," says Andrew, who adds that the operation is also achieving better utilisation of vehicles on both UK and Continental work. A modest amount of BS continental work has ben retained.
The company has built a strong relationship with some of the Japanese manufacturers who are increasingly drawn to South Wales, using a manufacturing base in the valleys as a doorway to a wider European market. It has a four-vehicle dedicated just-in-time contract for Sony servicing two local factories, delivering TV tubes manufactured at the first plant to the second. A similar dedicated contract, delivering materials within the manufacturing process, exists for Diaplastics and keeps six vehicles Fully occupied. Raymond also works for Matsushita, the owner of the National Panasonic brand. It is currently carrying out trial runs for Ocean Technical Glass, a joint German/Japanese firm. One of its larger regular contracts is 300 loads a week for a Rockwool factory. So maybe the decision to drop British Steel can be placed into context: "Things are going much better now than in the early nineties," says Andrew. "South Wales was very badly affected by the recession but to some extent you have to make your own luck." Evidence that Raymond is surviving life after British Steel is provided by the fact that it is adding a further 2,800m2 of warehousing to its existing 31,000m2. Transport manager Andrew Wilkinson envisages busy times ahead, spearheaded by the Cardiff Bay development which, as well as providing "yuppie" waterside apartments, will also have space for factory development: "We are in the ideal position to benefit," he remarks. Wilkinson is responsible for overseeing the 190-strong fleet which has been modernised to the tune of 76 replacement vehicles since October 1995. A fly in the ointment continues to be the Cl 1.50 LGV
fee for the, now
two, Severn Bridge
crossings.
"It's a major charge that has to be taken into consideration," says Wilkinson, "especially when quoting for new workâon some jobs you can't avoid taking that route."