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Riva South
Page 47
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Gary Richards
Southampton-based Riva South was founded by Gary Richards in 1989. He runs eight trucks. The fleet includes 7.5-tonners, one 18-tonner, a 32-tonner, and a 38-tonne HGV. He also operates 10 vans. Consignments include everything from printers to legal documents.
Although domestic hours regulations can affect van couriers (see panel overleaf), operators in this sector are not weighed down by masses of legislation. This, in part, would explain the rise of the infamous "white van man". There are professional outfits out there like Black Cat and Riva, but the lack of red tape means that any Tom, Dick, or Harry can run a courier firm.
The Department for Transport has cottoned on. Recently, Richards received a questionnaire from the DfT. It asks him what vehicles he runs, if they are hired out to other companies, vehicle movements, and so on. The unspoken message being that the DfT is focusing its attention on van operators.
He started out with vans, but added heavier vehicles to his armoury in 1996. "It was the courier side of the business that made Riva; there is a vast difference between the two [van and truck] sectors." Haulage is governed by an array of rules and regulations, but vans are not. "There is no governing agency for small vehicles," Richards points out. "I have never known the Department for Transport check our vans — but everything is logged against an operator's licence."
Riva profits grew steadily up to 1996. The introduction of HGVs made it tougher to enjoy such financial benefits. So why on earth continue to run them? Like King, Richards puts it down to customer demand. The trucks were an add-on to our business," he says. Customers who use a van operator may need bigger vehicles, which means they may well abandon the van firm. If the operator has trucks in his fleet, the customer is likely to stay.
Richards reckons that van couriers enjoy profit margins of around 15% — three times higher than most haulage companies. But it is only a matter of time, he predicts, before the mass of legislation governing HGVs will filter through to couriers. We wonder if he has a preference for vans or trucks. "Neither. At the end of the day we do it to make money!"