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Never say die
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Fancy losing your biggest customer and having to appeal against the loss of your 0-licence? No, neither did LE Jones, but the Welsh haulier has come back fighting...
Words: David Harris! Images: Tom Cunningham
LAST YEAR WAS A tough year for all hauliers, but some had it tougher than others. For LE Jones and its sister firm, LE Jones International, which operates from Ruthin in north Wales, 2009 was a year best consigned to the depths of memory.
Trouble began back in 2008, when LE Jones found itself in Wrexham Magistrates Court, where 19 drivers at both companies were convicted of a numher of hours and tacho offences.
In total, 10 LE Jones drivers were convicted of 85 offences and 11 LE Jones International drivers were convicted of 91 offences.
But that wasn't the end of it. Things got even more serious in April 2009, when Deputy Traffic Commissioner Miles Dorrington decided at a public inquiry to revoke the company's 0-licence in the wake of the offences uncovered in the court case. Both companies, alongside director Trefor Jones and operations manager David (Dave) Hughes, were poised to lose their good repute.
But the [inn refused to take the decision lying down. It successfully appealed to the Transport Tribunal, vs hich ruled that there was no intentional non-compliance, and that, instead of being put out of business, LE Jones and LE Jones International should have their operations curtailed and monitored.
The firm was allowed to operate 16 trucks and 48 trailers on the LE Jones 0-licence, and four trucks and 12 trailers on the LE Jones International 0-licence, provided tachograph records were regularly monitored. This was a smaller authorisation than it had previously held (40 vehicles and 105 trailers at LE Jones, and 30 vehicles and 50 trailers at LE Jones International).
At this point, it looked like disaster may have been averted at least the company could carry on trading.
They think it's all over
But as if that close call of having its licences revoked was not enough. the firm was almost immediately faced with the prospect of losing work from one of its biggest customers.
Anglesey Aluminium Metals, which was then the largest employer in north Wales, cut hundreds of jobs and stopped smelting aluminium at the end of September 2009.
LE Jones had carried 15 loads a day from the plant, but was forced to re-tender for a much smaller amount of work.
Taken together the court case and
the lost business — this made for grim reading. but, to its credit, LE Jones came out with all guns blazing.
Now, its operations manager. Hughes, reveals: "The decision by Anglesey Aluminium was not good news, for sure, but there is still some work there.
"Where we used to do 15 loads a day, we are still managing to do nine or 10 loads, although Rio Tinto [which owns the plant] plays its cards pretty close to its chest, so 1 don't like to look too far ahead:
Remarkably, and contrary to earlier reports. Hughes adds that LE Jones has not only avoided making redundancies, but actually taken on 12 drivers in the last quarter of 2009. It now employs 44 drivers directly, and at any one time is using 15-30 subcontractors.
Even more surprising, it has bought another haulier. Freelance Transport, based in Bridgnorth. Shropshire, which has added 75 vehicles to its total fleet.
The connection came about because LE Jones has long-delivered aluminium to Rridgnorth Aluminium, from which Freelance takes onward deliveries to Bridgnorth's customers.
Hughes reveals that the purchasing of Freelance gives LE Jones another depot and more work.
Further expansion
In addition, LE Jones has increased other parts of its portfolio, including delivering food for Tesco to its food DCs. And, to make sure it addresses its previous legal problems, the firrn has employed a new transport manager, Richard Nugent, who "is excellent on compliance", reveals Hughes. Another big customer for LE Jones is paper firm Corporate Solutions, for which the haulier takes paper from the Midlands to Ireland. Hughes says the paper business, part of the Smurfit commercial empire, "stood by us in difficult times': Last year may have been tough for LE Jones, but it has done nothing to dampen the company's spirit.
If 2009 is remembered as its annus horribilis due to cutbacks at its biggest client and legal problems of its own making. then 2010 could be a year when a lot of hard work comes to fruition, This 'never say die' attitude is something other haulage firms fighting setbacks might want to learn from. •
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