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GREENHOUSE G1101111'111
Page 56
Page 57
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Through all the turmoil in the industry, it's good to find a traditional family haulage firm like R Adams & Sons doing well after 50 years.
Turn up mid-week at Warwickshirebased haulier R Adams & Sons. alongside the idyllic rural backroad that is now the A34.just south of its intersection with M40, and the chances are you will ask: where are the trucks? What are those summer houses and garden sheds doing at the bottom of the yard? Am! in the right place?
Well, not exactly.The haulier and the garden buildings producer are sister companies sharing the same premises The trucks are out earning. And the transport office? Try one of the display summer houses.
Enter it and the semblance of a busy transport operation is immediately restored — a cacophony of sound from endless phone calls, with Mark and Andy, sons of the founder, Ralph Adams, co-ordinating events like con
ductors of a symphony orchestra.
Although founded in the mid-'50s, it took a move of premises in the mid-'90s to kickstart the company's growth.A move from just the other side of the M40 provided the additional space to accommodate a purpose-built workshop and a fleet that has now grown three-fold, to 15 tractors and 18 trailers.
Sticking with bulk
Founded on lifting coal from the Yorkshire fields and tipping at any number of coking plants and factories in that one time powerhouse of British industry, the West Midlands. the company has stayed faithful to bulk.These days coal has largely given way to grain,aggregates and scrap — local grain to mills nationwide and across the Channel; aggregates to the main infrastructure and building projects in the region; and scrap to foundries in the UK and for export.
"For future growth we will be concentrating on more stable, growing markets such as materials recycling," says Andy Adams.
Except for a couple of flats, all the trailers are 65yc3 bulk tippers and all but one or two are from Rothdean in Gloucestershire.They all have a similar spec bar the need for steel bodies for the scrap business— a sector where Adams is not averse to expanding; the firm can get a better rate for scrap than it can extract from the hard pressed farming industry for grain,for example.
"We can keep a trailer for up 10 10 years, so it's important that they arc up to the job, look
smart throughout the period and provide that edge on payload," says Mark Adams."Although we source the occasional trailer from elsewhere, we have yet to find one to beat a Rothdean.
AU 15 of the tractors are 6x2s.Adams likes ERFs, so not surprisingly all bar three are from that stable: the bulk are ECs, including two high-roof ECTs: one with MAN 460 power, the other depends on a 420hp Cununins.Two new ECTs are due soon, both with Cummins engines.Albeit reluctantly,Adams is swapping raw power in favour of trimmer fuel bills.
All the trucks are bought outright, and once any workshop package attached to a deal has expired routine servicing and maintenance is brought in-house.
Adams, a firm believer in the use of genuine parts. has an imprest stock deal with local MAN ERF distributor AquilaTruck Centres. After some initial hiccups with tractor/trailer brake balancing it has overcome any irregular pad wear problems across its rigs. Mark Adams, who runs the service side of the operation, explains:"We had to experiment with a number of different disc pads before we hit on a long-terrn solution."
Staff turnover is minimal. In fact such is Adams' reputation for paying top dollar that the last time they recruited, a fellow operator decided to throw in the towel and came °ye' with two of his drivers!
Adams believes in and works to the 'one truck, one driver' philosophy —Andy readily cites the instance of a vehicle standing idle ft two weeks while its designated driver recovered from illness.
Policy pays dividends
Despite its potential cost implications, he an Mark are convinced that adherence to this policy pays in the long run because it gets till best from both vehicle and driver. However, both Andy and Mark are seriously coneerne that the idea of one truck. one driver could sink without trace when the torpedo of the Working Time Directive hits home in 2005.
They are already working hard to ensure If any such shot is well above the waterline and will not impede their continued growth. •