A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH
Page 71
Page 72
Page 73
Page 74
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
• A little over a year ago (in June of 1985 to be precise) contract hire history was made at Goose Green. Wigan, when one of the largest and perhaps bestknown Leyland dealerships in the North West — 11. Woodward and Son — diversified into a new sphere of operations and created Woodwards Contract Hire Limited.
Senior management thinking was to take advantage of the climate created by the recently enacted tax concessions favouring contract hire and rental in what was then, and still is now, an exciting, expanding market.
Little did they realise how successful the venture would prove to be, for not only has the fledgling commercial vehicle contract hire subsidiary enabled Woodwards to move away from a single vehicle manufacturer environment, but it has done so in a very honourable, acceptable and, more importantly, profitable way. Indeed, so successful has been the venture that just 14 months after its birth, Woodwards Contract Hire has extended its operations to the London area where, at Bow, it has recently opened a new branch to serve London and the busy South East. This is the first of a planned series of depots and satellite branches which, if all continues to go well for the company, will provide contract hire and rental facilities under the Woodward banner, across the nation.
Operators of every type, freight forwarders with TER aspirations, express couriers now have available to them in the South East a one-step vehicle hire 'shopping' facility offering every type of commercial vehicle in the market, ranging from 3.5 tonnes gvw to 38 tonnes 6 x 2s, bodied to suit virtually every type of useage, on a 24-hour availability basis. London's newest commercial vehicle contract hire depot is situated at Bow, in the capital's busy East End. Reasons given by managing director Terry Rimington for this location are threefold: the company has existing contracts in the area and is curremtly negotiating with potential clients in the region; the area is earmarked as a distribution growth area; and communications by road with the rest of the country, via the London Orbital road and the Motorways, is excellent According to Rimington, who has a lifetime of truck rental experience in the North West, the company's plans are to be a major force in this facet of the road transport industry within three years. He firmly believes in his company's ability to capture a sizeable proportion of this market in the South East and has firm plans for providing a network of offices, depots and satellite depots across the country.
For the time being, though, he has one important aim — to get the message across to the industry that Woodwards is a multi-vehicle, multi-franchise contract hire and rental operation, offering a 24hour service to commercial vehicle users — "A true 24-hour service," he reiterates.
• Woodwards has a long and distinguished pedigree in the road transport industry, tracing its history back to 17years-old Noel Woodward who, in 1919, Set up a modest business repairing and selling cycles and motor cycles from a small shop in Formby. on Merseyside.
The business was shortly upgraded to include motors, with the acquisition of a 'heavy wagin'. Cars were soon added to the growing commercial operation with Woodwards running its own haulage business — an activity which continued in the family tradition until the early 1970's.
The various business facets of the company expanded rapidly in the mid1920s and thus not only was Woodwards forced to take on larger premises in Formby, Lancs, but it later added major branches in Salford, Liverpool and Wigan — at strategical locations in the then fast developing industrial heartland of the North West.
The firm has a strong connection with Leyland which goes hack more than half a century, and in 1950 the company made history when it was appointed as the first Leyland Comet dealer franchised to sell in the Merseyside area. Prior to this, however, Woodwards was also a distributor of other makes of commercial vehicle, including Atkinson, Corruner and Seddon commercials.
Since those early days the business has developed on the princople of fair dealing and first class service to valued customers, and throughout all levels of the company there is a commitment to such ideals not only on sales, but also on service and the supply of parts.
Over the years, moreover, such high ideals have not been confined to the company's customers, important and vital though they may be. Fair dealing has also been applied to the workforce, and it is a tribute to these company policies — devised by the Woodward family many years ago — that many of the staff have been with the company all their working lives.
In the early sixties, the link with Leyland became stronger when the company became solely franchised with what was then Britain's premier vehicle manufacturing group, for the promotion and sale of its flourishing commercial vehicle products.
The business expanded to Manches ter, when Woodwards — still a family business — took over Leyland dealer W. Senior of Pendleton, in 1963, later moving to a new, purpose-built depot in Salford, commanding a prime site at the end of the M602 motorway.
There were similar development in Liverpool when Woodwards purchased a Leyland depot at Aintree, which is now an important service centre for trucks, as well as being a major sales point for Sherpa vans and Roadrunner light commercials.
By comparison, Wigan is a more recent development. Opened in 1979, it offers modern workship facilities (making it ideal as premies for its then unborn offspring, Woodwards Contract Hire Limited), in addition to being a sales and service point for Leyland trucks and Sherpa vans.
In 1984 the Woodward family sold its majority interest in H. Woodward and Son Plc to Bridgend Group Plc, and the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bridgend in August of that same year. Also involved in the distribution business, albeit in another equally important field — that of electrical and security equipment — the group is committed to the expansion and development of such parts of the commercial vehicle business which are Woodwards strengths, with both contract hire and spot hire viewed as major growth areas. short a period as a day, or for a week, and so on; contract hire, for a fixed term and an agreed mileage with, generally, payment arranged on a monthly basis.
Included in the latter is maintenance to manufacturer's and Department of Transport specifications; replacement of tyres; road fund licence; regular servicing; while vehicles can be painted in any requested livery and fitted with additional equipment according to a customer's specific requirements.
Contracts can be structured from a two year period, to five years depending, again, on a customers' requirement. In addition, they can be tailored exactly to the operation. For instance, if there is a requirement for vehicles to be serviced at night, then this can be be done. According to Rimington, "An operator can have a replacement vehicle delivered to him while his vehicle is taken away for service or maintenance and thus he needn't have a vehicle off the road or miss out on a load.
On contract hire, Rimington continues, "It will be appreciated that an operator will know precisely what his transport costs will be, month by month, over a three year period, and he will not have to make allowances for unknown factors such as a replacement gearbox or the thousand and one things that can, and sometimes do, go wrong with vehicles under rugged working conditions."
Where breakdowns do occur, the company's standard contract for vehicle replcement is 24 hours but contracts can be arranged to allow for replacement when the vehicle is off the road longer than four hours. (Standby vehicles can even be allowed for 'bad starter' vehicles, if necessary.) As stated earlier, short term rentals can be arranged for any period on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, and the cost includes any mileage covered during that period. Again, delivery and collection is free, and the Woodwards fleet, running into several hundreds of vehicles, is kept up-to-date with new, or near new vehicles to suit all requirements.
Backing the whole Woodwards service is a Freephone centre which offers existing customers, or potential clients a communications facility covering 24 hours per day, to cover every conceivable eventuality.
As far as London and the South is concerned, arrangements have been made with reliable agencies to attend breakdowns and provide what amounts to a rescue service, following the welltried systems adopted by the motoring associations.
States Rimington, "The customer must be able to phone the London office if his vehicle is broken down, and we must replace it."
As well as the physical provision of any kind and type of commercial vehicle, the company offers finance facilities where these are appropriate. In addition to truck rental and contract hire, outright purchases can be arranged through Woodwards' regular dealerships. Hire purchase deals feature in this aspect of its business, as one would expect, "You shouldn't have to go anywhere else — its a one stop shopping business," remarked Rimington, adding that comprehensive insurance coverage is available as a separage entity, since insurance is traditionally outside the normal scope of contract hire agreements. • WOOD WARDS sited their newest branch at Bow, only three miles east of the centre of London, because of its convenience to the motorway network. "We are close to two tunnels — the Blackwall, linking London's north and south circular roads, and the Dartford tunnel linking the M25 Orbital road with the country's main trunk motorways heading north, south, east and west," explains Rimington.
Communicationwise, the new office and depot in convenient to hauliers and other road transport operators servicing Britain's main south-estern dock areas (Felixstowe, Dover, Shoreham, Portsmouth and Southampton), the industrial provinces (the Midlands and North), and, of course, the currently prosperous in terms of employment and population, South. One other important factor influencing the siting of Woodwards' first venture outside the North West and to the eastwards of London is the Channel tunnel.
Included in the Bow facilities are a secure compound for the parking and standing up of vehicles, covering an acre plus new, presitge offices including a reception area (where, in addition to doing business, customers can partake of coffee, etc) the rental manager's office, a contract sales office, and an administration office.
For vehicle record purposes, the branch will be linked into the company's extensive Apricot Xen computer system, enabling vehicles to be called forward for service and maintenance, for the renewal of road fund tax discs, MoTs and suchlike.
In charge of the complex, including the operations and administration of the depot and offices, is London depot manager Michelle Clucas who, until recently, was the company's Wigan-based rental manager. Clucas — whose business career has been entirely connected with vehicle rental — is supported by one time airline stewardess Kathleen Bibby as London Rental Assistant. Supporting Michelle Clucas and Kathleen Bibby are three contract hire sales persons servicing the London area, who are extremely mobile and have a reputation for being "any place, any time" within the new region. During office hours there will be a duty salesperson in attendance, backed up — as stated earlier — by a one call Freephone service. 'To complete the depot complement there are two drivers for the collection and delivery of vehicles, as outlined above.