BASED: Swaffkorn.
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FOUNDED: 1972, Swaffham.
PROPRIETOR: Mike Forder, director.
FLEET: Eight tippers, buys new and used. Most recent purchase is a new Volvo FL7 with a Wilcox tipping body and Edbiro gear SPECIALITY CONTRACT: Agricultural and building work. TURNOVER: £450,000.
Tipperman Mike Forder is uneasy about the future. The recent past, when recession in the building industry threatened the livelihood of transport suppliers, still haunts him.
He shudders when he recalls 1989, the worst year in a series of bad years. Before that dismal period he ran 12 vehicles; half of them had to go. Now he is back up to eight and considering diversification. What he wants is curtainsider work.
Robert Forder, Mike's son and TAS's transport manager, takes up the story: "It's just knowing how to get a foot in the door. We've quoted for several jobs and are still waiting to hear." He is not convinced all enquiries are genuine. A few companies, he believes, invite quotes simply to put pressure on the rates of existing hauliers.
But what about the oft-stated argument that tipper operators who hung on through the bad times are reaping the benefit, because there is now a shortage of tippers? Mike Forder agrees that the company benefits when there is a glut of work but overall the picture has been depressing. He has found himself competing with raiding parties of tippermen from the North and the Midlands, desperate for work. goes on. When CM arrived, late in the afternoon, TAS's vehicles were returning from their day's work. Most had been on the road since 05:30hrs. As Forder puts it: "What you don't get done by lunchtime you will never get done in the day. An early start lends to productivity."
Despite his gloom about the building industry, the work is, in fact, quite diversified. Sugar beet and lime represents about half of his revenue with aggregates and road building contracts accounting for most of the rest. British Sugar is a major customer with frequent deliveries to its plant at Downham Market. The only contract which is not local involves collecting turf dressings for golf courses from a Norwich company for delivery to courses all over the South of England. Return loads include road building materials, grain and waste.
Forder is so incensed about local road conditions that he has lobbied two Norfolk MPs, Gillian Shephard and Henry Bellington, who respectively represent the constituencies where his business and home are situated. The Transport Secretary has responded by saying that traffic in Norfolk is not as great as elsewhere in the country, so the county takes low priority for road investment. Forder is not impressed—he wants the A47 upgraded and a flyover at the King's Lynn roundabout. "As soon as you
come back into Norfolk, your journey time length ens considerably," he says.