THE RELAXATION IN CABOTAGE RESTRICTIONS TRANSCOSATAL leaves fresh fruit and vegetable haulier
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Transcosatal unmoved: "I think in the UK it's
traditionally difficult for French companies to find 1968. CONTACT: Patrick work so I don't think it will change much at all," says Cossin, head of international international operations manager Patrick Cossin. operations. FLEET: 50 Mercedes "We already find it hard enough to get decent SK and Actros tractors with 50 backloads out of Britain—we have had to come reefer semi-trailers and 80
back empty most of the time." skeletals for ISO containers.
Despite this, the company is well used to operating
in the UK. It's been sending vehicles over here every TURNOVER: FFr250-300m
week since 1992, mostly to markets such as Covent w26.010.
Garden and New Smithfield as well as to some super
markets. "With the opening up of Europe's frontiers it seemed like a good idea to break into the UK back then," Cossin explains.
He says the main problem in delivering to UK is the very narrow delivery windows the company is usually given. Despite this, his drivers generally like coming to the UK. "Of all the European countries, the UK is usually their favourite," he says. "The motorway system there is OK and the signage is generally good, too. And UK companies are usually understanding—we had a driver fal ill once at a destination and he was very well looked after."
Cossin is not so happy with Britain's 38-tonne limit "Because of this our vehicles are often not fully used," he says. "It's annoying because quite often a UK client will want to take delivery of, say, 23 pallets, but the weight restriction doesn't allow it."
The company's work with fresh fruit dates back to its origins in 1968 when it was formed as an amalgamation of two smaller firms. Initially it specialised in bananas but over the years it has expanded to encompass every type of fruit and veg, although bananas still forrn a large part of its turnover. Its work is split roughly evenly between imports into Europe from the COte D'Ivoire, Morocco, Israel, Central America and Cameroon in the winter and exports from France across Europe during the rest of the year.
Transcosatal operates from six French depots including Dieppe and Le Havre in the north and Marseille in the south. The company hauls its fruit and veg with 50 reefer trailers and 80 skeletals for ISO containers, drawn by around 50 Mercedes-Benz tractive units—mostly SKs, which are gradually being replaced with Actros tractors. Typical monthly workload for the tractors is around 12,000km, says logistics manager Thomas Bodel.
With mileage like this, fuel consumption is critical and a rolling programme of tractor replacement is designed to ensure the company gets the best possible returns. Bodel reports: "With the Actros we use between 32 and 341it/100km; with the SKs, it's more like 37-401it/100km."
THOMAS BODEL (left) and la PATRICK