FACTFILE FEN•SPEDE BASED: Methwold, near Thetford with additional storage space
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at Brandon. FOUNDED: 1980, Methwold Hyde, distributing air management kits, PROPRIETOR: Bob and Susan Wilkins.
FLEET: FL6 17-tormer; Mercedes 814 7.5-tonner; Iveco Ford Cargo; Iveco Ford Daily five-tonner. Buys used.
SPECIALITY CONTRACT: Air management kits.
TURNOVER: E250,000.
When Bob and Susan Wilkins launched their haulage business from
Iaa council house in the village of Methwold Hyde in 1980, the neighbours descended on them in droves. But far from being angry the neighbours had come to lend a hand, loading air management kits stored in the front and back garden of the Wilkins' fledgling business into an ageing Bedford. Despite such understanding neighbours, the Wilkins soon moved to more appropriate site in nearby Methwold and have developed Fen-Spede as a specialist in lightweight freight The air management kits still account for 80% of the business. They're manufactured in Framlingham, Norfolk by Hatchers and by Aerodyne in Perivale, Middlesex. Fen-Spede delivers them to truck manufacturers and to bodybuilders.
The fibreglass kits are easily damaged and require careful handling: Fen-Specie was approached by Aerodyne after it learned of the firm's experience with Hatchers. 'You give these kits to a carrier and they just fling them around," says Bob Wilkins.
Fen-Spede's base includes storage space for the air spoilers and a timber shop in which Fen-Spede makes packaging to the manufacturers' specifications, including crates for Iveco Ford and pallets for Volvo. A rented factory unit in Brandon provides extra storage. Given the location of truck manufacturers, most of the company's traffic is to the North of England with backloads including cable and foam, soft fruit and plants. A recent contract involved delivering 850 shop fitting units to 500 Tesco stores. The company's small fleet of rigicls goes everywhere "from Aberdeen to Plymouth," says Susan Wilkins. Some Fen-Spede vehicles have extra-long bodies to maximise loads of the air management kits, which, are light but bulky. One FL6 17-tonner, for example, has a 32ft curtainsider body; a Mercedes 814 has a 21ft box and a Cargo runs with a 22ft curtainsider. In the way of family businesses, the Wilkins' son Robert, is a driver while Susan's uncle works for them as an ownerdriver. Bob still takes out occasional loads—"I am the clearer-upperer"—and one of the two other drivers is a cousin.
Bob Wilkins reckons they have the right vehicles for the job: "1 wouldn't consider artics unless someone gave me a written contract with good rates," he says "We can earn more with our little rigids."
Like other hauliers in the region he agrees that the roads leave room for improvement, to [:Jut it mildly. "The Al 7 is the main road from the north," he says, "and it's dreadful." But this cloud definitely has a silver lining: "Poor communications are an asset to us because the big boys won't touch the job," he says cheerfully. While Susan Wilkins is Norfolk born and bred, Bob's origins are northern. His father was a miner who fell ill with "miner's lung" so the family relocated to Norfolk for the cleaner air. Prior to moving into haulage full time he was a builder who occasionally ran compressors back from Manchester for a customer.
Sometimes the light
weight freight theme is taken to an extreme. A recent backload from Manchester was a single piece of wedding cake to be delivered to a Knightsbridge hotel for an American wedding guest who had forgotten his sugary souvenir and was flying home that day. Some haulage jobs are tough; that run was, no doubt, a piece of cake.