AGENCE DE TRANSPORTS ROUT1ERS ROUENNAIS (ATM).
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BASED: Rouen. FOUNDED: 1991. CONTACT: abrice Roimonci, sales partner. FLEET: 12 vehicles, mostly tractor/semi-trailer combinations plus one 19-tonne Renault rigid boxvarl.
SPECIALITY CONTRACT: General unit load haulage. TURNOVER: FFr35-40m (£3.6-£.4.1m). FOUNDED IN 1991 as the transport and haulage division of parent company LTI, which includes a forwarding agent, an airfreight division and a warehousing and packaging arm, AT2R offers parcel delivery, part and full-load transport, container services and rental vehicles.
Its fleet comprises a dozen vehicles, mostly Iveco, Mercedes, Volvo and Sonia tractors coupled to curtainsiders and one or two tilts, with a single Renault 19-tonne rigid. The fleet is part-owned, part-rented. "With those we hire we have only maintenance costs and fixed costs," says sales partner Fabrice Raimond. "But we are now tending to buy more. When we started it was easier to hire vehicles in as a new business. But now, we are big enough 10 warrant owning our own fleet." The company hauls anything packed or in unit loads. A large percentage of its turnover is generated by groupage, which explains the extensive use of curtainsiders, says Raimond: "We prefer them because they are lighter and faster to open and close. Doing a lot of groupage work, we need to open and close the trailers a lot. But we'll always keep one or two different sorts for specific products, like tilts for automotive ports. It can be easier to strap parts into tilts."
Among the automotive sites it regularly services is the Vauxhall Vectra assembly line at Ellesmere Port. The company also delivers chemical goods, including shoe care products and mosquito sprays for Sara Lee, and general chemicals for ICI Paints and Rhone-Poulenc. Its UK operations include two grou page departures a day plus a number of full trailers; typically 10-15 a week. Like other French companies, AT2R finds backloads a challenge in Britain. "We don't generally come back full," says Raimond. "It's very hard to find the loads."
UK work has always been part of the company's activities; it now accounts for 30% of its turnover. Like others, however, Raimond is frustrated by tight delivery windows. 'You often need to arrange delivery times 48 hours in advance, and if you miss one you then have to rearrange," he says. "If you arrive either too early or too late it can create a lot of paperwork. On some occasions we have had to wait up to two days for another slot. So sometimes, we have had to leave a load with a partner company—which raises our costs."
AT2R always crosses the Channel via CalaisDover, but never through the Channel Tunnel. "It's just too expensive," says Raimond. "Besides, with hazardous goods, they've got even stricter since the fire. Some 50-60% of our hazardous freight can't go that way."
But hazardous freight isn't always easy by boat: "Sometimes the ferry might refuse you, particularly from September to December when bad weather is more likely."
With a number of partner companies around Europe, including RH Freight of Nottingham, AT2R is unlikely to take advantage of cabotage. "We have a very satisfactory partner in England which takes groupage loads off us for onward delivery and gives us return groupage loads for France," says Raimond, "so we'd prefer to put the horse before the cart. If we need to look into it one day we will, but for now, it would be premature."
Nor does he expect many other French companies to do so. "Your sea crossing protects you," he says. "It makes things that little bit more expensive—and it's also a strong psychological barrier."