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matters by John Darker, AMBIM
Continental operations
ESTABLISHED British operators of Continental services are naturally somewhat reticent about the financial viability of the business but discussions with some well-known operators suggest that it is highly competitive and can all too easily prove to be a loss-maker.
Regular back-loads from places near to delivery points help to lower the outwards rate and hence improve the competitive position of the operator. The recent initiative of the Transport Association in trying to make contact with road transport firms in the Common Market, who can operate reciprocal services with British operators, highlights the importance of back-loads. One prominent operator tells me that there is a dearth of good agents in Europe and that the charges made by the few really live people tend to be high — the figure of £5 a load plus 10 per cent of the back-load haulage rate was quoted.
There seems to be an unarguable case for something akin to the Baltic Exchange — providing a market for chartered ships and aircraft — in the European road haulage framework. Most operators pay lip service to the idea but despite frequent canvassing nothing has so far materialized. CETI — the international consortia of furniture removers -arranges many back loads for member firms and this suggests that specialist agencies dealing with a limited range of products or geographical areas may be the answer.
If the parallel of the telex-linked traffic control centres of British Road Services is pressed a single co-ordinating agency is attractive in principle, though its constitution could provoke argument. Perhaps the various operators' associations in Britain and Europe could arrange a joint traffic exchange network of offices in the main industrial areas? If there was a Common Market equivalent of the National Freight Corporation such a body could provide traffic exchange facilities for both public and private enterprise vehicles.
I talked recently with Mr Donald Jackson and Mr Colin Dunlevy, Continental operations executives of Cawthorn and Sinclair Ltd, of Birtley, Co. Durham. Mr Dunlevy had just returned from a stint at the company's new base on a five-acre site at Lc Havre. The base is in touch with a chain of agents in major European business centres.
Cawthorn and Sinclair were one of the earliest transport groups to exploit the roll-on troll-off ferry services to Europe. The company began operations in 1964 with five exploratory trips between May and December. A further five trips in the first four months of 1965 convinced the Arm — and its local customers — that regular services were feasible. Most of the early trips were to France but as confidence expanded more distant destinations were covered. Today trips to Portugal or Athens are purely routine.
A crucial decision to be made by all operators to Europe is whether to send driver-accompanied vehicles or to arrange with an agent to collect the trailers from dockside and make the delivery and, if possible, arrange a return load.
Reliability factor
Cawthorn and Sinclair have looked at the economics of the alternative methods of operation several times and remain convinced that the extra costs of sending a driver-accompanied vehicle are more apparent than real. The reliability of the service is greatly enhanced when the driver goes all the way to the delivery point and this reliability makes the service easier to sell. But quite apart from this aspect, trailer maintenance and replacement costs are much lower with this form of operation. A trailer in its fifth year of service on Continental operations was in the Birtley body shop — at the time of my visit. It was in generally good order. A similar trailer subjected to handling by a host of anonymous parties in Europe would, it was considered, have been ready for scrapping.
Partly owing to the difficulty of permits for some destinations in the Common Market, Kangarou operations are being evaluated by a number of British operators. Mr Dunlevy felt that it might pay an operator to send trailers on the French Railway's Kangarou service if there was a consistent flow of traffic of the order of one trailer a day for a year. Even this guestimate was qualified: "You'd need a fit man at the other end to ensure customer satisfaction ..."
What motivates a British haulier in setting his sights on Europe? A few brave souls with adequate finance may lay on a service on a popular, or fresh, route and then try to drum up traffic in both directions to sustain it. I suspect that most successful operations are customer-inspired from the start.
Cawthorn and Sinclair are fortunate to have their Birtley depot a mere stone's-throw from a large manufacturer of earth-moving plant. Loads of such equipment consigned for the firm's French factory, with the chance of some return loads as part of an international company's production planning, helped to launch Cawthorn and Sinclair's regular services. A leading manufacturer of TV tubes in Sunderland, with a large customer outlet in France, provided another welcome source of traffic.
Cawthorn and Sinclair do not undertake groupage traffic. Most of their vehicles carry a full load with a single drop; occasionally, two or three deliveries abroad are involved. Groupage operations are frequently arranged by specialists firms such as forwarding agents. The typical general haulage road haulier might well blench from the documentation and other problems inseparable from this kind of operation.
The Common Market Commission, and other interested parties, are currently much exercised with the problem of the constitution, legal and commercial framework within which European companies would operate. The giant, mainly American, multi-national companies have set up European manufacturing and distributing organizations in the face of bewilderingly diverse national company legislation. When this situation is clarified the successful integration of British with Continental haulage companies will be eased.
Continental operations
Cawthorn and Sinclair decided fairly early on in their Continental operations to set up a subordinate French registered company with an office in the centre of Paris. A free-standing, 16-vehicle fleet under purely French management and employing French drivers resulted. The French company specializes in international haulage and it is able to assist the parent firm in England with back-loads and operatiOnal advice. But most back-loads are arranged in advance by Birtley traffic office.
The many legal and commercial problems surmounted when the French company was set up are said to have caused a ripple in French government circles; I understand that legal changes made following the establishment of the Paris-based firm have prevented any similarly constituted British-controlled