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MARITIME

4th April 2002, Page 36
4th April 2002
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

"We carry anything that the oil firm

want us to." Bruce Chisholm, Ashley Industries

0 its way to two local hauliers: ME Saunders and Sons, and Steele Removals and Haulage.

The Saunders fleet numbers 21, including 3.5-tonne flatbeds, tippers, and 44-tonne artics. We meet codirector Roly Saunders at the starboard side of HMS Albion (to landlubbers, that's on the right). It is flurry of activity. High above us, workmen move to and fro on the scaffolded decks of the ship.

ME Saunders' has 30% of its busi ness connected with BAE Systems. The firm's trucks deliver loads to the Bulwark and Albion, but more commonly Saunders vehicles transport maritime consignments from other Barrow sites. The Bulwark and Albion are just part of the BAE Systems Barrow operation—on top of this project is submarine production. BAE Systems Barrow workforce stands at 4,000, and the firm occupies more than 169 acres of land in the town.

Its UK maritime division alone is a major employer—it employs a further 2,500 personnel on the Clyde. The English and Scottish sites are closely linked, which means that Saunders trucks regularly make the 180-plus mile trip up to Strathclyde: "We are up in Glasgow every day," says Saunders.

Fleet auxiliary

BAE Systems Marine is in the final stages of making the Wave Knight, a Royal Fleet Auxiliary tanker, at Greenock. This means that Saunders

trucks regularly undertake : Barrow-Greenock journey to get cc ponents to the ship.

The Saunders trailer fit includes flatbeds, which are used transporting loads such as st plate, and curtainsiders, which cal more sophisticated and delicr maritime consignments.

"We move a tremendous amoi of steel plate to and from BA Barrow shipyard," Saunders repo r "But we don't know from one day the next what we will be carrying. RAE rang us up this morning; we had to take three hydraulic rams to Sheffield for refurbishment."

In this sector firms like Saunders must be prepared to mobilise HGVs instantly. The rams, for example, are specialist pieces of kit that are used to lift and slide nuclear submarines, A blue-chip customer like BAE Systems needs apparatus like this serviced and ready for action. That means the hauliers it employs need to have the right gear, and must field it when needed—no questions asked. Incidentally, 11 of Saunders' trucks are plated at 44 tonnes, which allows a payload of 29 tonnes.

Saunders says: "We got a call at 8.10am yesterday. BAE wanted us to move some wooden patterns from Barrow to Penistone in South Yorkshire. We had a truck at the shipyard at 8.35am, then we picked up the patterns and got them delivered."

For light, just-in-time loads, or the "emergency" jobs, as Saunders refers to them, he mobilises the company's four light flats: two 3.5-tonners and two 7.5-tanners. Half the firm's entire fleet has been mobilised at the same time to fulfil BAE's requirements.

Steel plate is used to build a ship's hull—but the complexity really begins when the rest of the vessel comes together. Mike Smith, BAE Systems spokesman, explains: "Shipbuilding is largely an assembly industry, and components come from a wide vahety of subcontractors. These ships are hotels as well as fighting units, which means pumps and electronics have to be installed, as well as things like showers. Everything that the guys [the sailors, pilots and troops] need has to be provided."

Flexibility is vital in this sector. During the construction of a ship it is by no means uncommon for one component to be swapped for another at the last minute. That means another order for a vessel like Bulwark—and another HGV movement for the likes of Saunders.

Barrow-based Steele Removals and Haulage also transports loads for the shipbuilding industry but the firm has 10 CVs assigned to household and office removals, and some of this work is Continental. Five other trucks and a van concentrate on running for BAE Systems. Like Saunders' trucks, the Steele fleet often has to be mobilised at the drop of a hat.

Freight team

Partner Dean Steele says: "BAE's freight team call us; sometimes we get advance warning but generally we get notice at the last minute."

Spare trucks are set aside in case things get busy. "But we don't get paid to be a standby operation," says Steele. Hauliers like Steele recognise that the maritime sector has its own unique set of pressures, and that flexibility is vital.

"If the shipyard is quiet then two units can be transferred to removals work," he says, but conversely, if work at the shipyard becomes frantic, removals drivers are assigned to BAE duties.

HMS Albion is due to enter service later this year, and that means roundthe-clock shifts at BAE are common. No surprise, then, that operators like Steele ensure trucks are available day and night. Steele says: "We tend to have one or two drivers on 24-hour call—some of our drivers don't mind being dropped in it at the last minute."

The Steele depot is just 1.5 miles from the shipyard. "We are on their doorstep so we can act straight away," he points out.

In some ways Barrow's remote location is actually a strength. The town is flanked by sea to the east, south, and west; the peaks of the Lake District lay to the north. It takes a considerable amount of time to reach the

0 nearest motorway. "It can take 45 minutes to get from Barrow to the M6 in a truck," Steele reports. And it's a bad road—if there's an accident the traffic gets held up because there's only one lane either way."

Put simply, it means there's not a lot of other operators around, so Steele chooses to specialise, in removals and maritime transport. He says; 'We are a shipyard town and there is not a lot of work around for general hauliers.

'We are very grateful for the support that BAE Systems gives to local companies like us," he says. When the shipyard gets busy so does Steele. As he puts it: "When they are on tire we are on fire."

Saunders and Steele provide an invaluable local transport service, but their work represents a fraction of

the movements needed to sustain BAE's Barrow operation. "There are hundreds of subcontractors here," says Mike Smith, "and it is their responsibility to ensure components reach the ships."

The components come from a multitude of factories right across the UK (the majority of equipment installed in a ship like the Albion is still British made) and this equates to a lot of HGV movements: "We have a fair amount of trucks coming in and out of the yard," says BAE's Smith, When Albion and Bulwark sail from the shipyard the future is bright, for RAE Systems as well as Saunders and Steele. The Barrow workforce will be heavily involved in the manufacture of the new generation of Royal Navy warship, the Type 45, and the next generation of RN attack submarine, the Astute class.

This is among the most advanced technology in the world—but HGVs are still needed to put these machines together. "BAE does operate some trucks but it [haulage] is not our core business," Smith says. "For specialist transport it makes more sense to use the experts. We very much appreciate the flexibility of the hauliers we use, and the high quality service they provide. Road transport is vital."

On Teesside, the essential nature of haulage is all too clear. Shipbuilding ceased here in the 1980s but maritime matters are still important. Aside from ships, the UK is a major player in the world of offshore oil and gas production. North Sea oil and gas is big business—and Britain is, by far, the largest producer of both oil and gas in the European Union. The statistics are truly awesome. in 2001 the UK produced 2.22 million barrels of crude oil a day from the North Sea. Atthough in decline (production was 2.8 million barrels a day in 1999) there is still a lot of oil to be brought to the surface— the UK has a proven five billion barrels of oil under the North Sea (see panel).

Sea floor

You need oil rigs and production platforms to find, drill, and pump oil from the sea floor, These platforms are enormous and, as with Bulwark and Albion, a lot of components have to be assembled before they can do their work. Again, road haulage plays its pivotal role. This type of work gives a whole new meaning to "heavy haulage". One Teesside firm, Brambles Heavy Contracting UK, moves loads of 400 tonnes on the public highway.

The company is a division of Australian-owned Brambles, which specialises in transporting heavy engineering consignments. Like BAE Systems it has global reach, with divisions in Holland, Spain, Malaysia and the United States.

Brambles Heavy Contracting UK bought Econofreight, a heavy contracting firm, in 1990. Carrying equipment for the offshore oil and gas industry generates 40% of Brambles' UK turnover. "This work varies from transporting transformers to oil refinery columns," says branch manager Henk Schuringa. The firm also carries offshore modules and ship sections.

Unlike Saunders and Steele, Brambles knows well in advance when it has a move coming its way. "We get two months' notice and the work tends tc contract-based," says Schuringa.

Like shipbuilding, this work is ct acterised by a multitude of firms c( ing together to bring a project fruition. 'Shell, for example, will IA an order with an engineering firm, u in turn places an order with differ manufacturers," he explains. "T then place orders with subcontr tors, who in turn come to us." This is haulage at its most spelised. From time to time the firm nsports loads weighing over 2000, Ines, albeit over short distances. aerally this sort of work is classed a site move, meaning that the firm fts loads across a customer's )perty. In 1999 Brambles hauled 75 Bulwark's 2,023-tonne bow secfrom BAE Systems' fabrication Ti to the slipway.

Conventional trucks can't pull such ;e loads, so Brambles runs a fleet

HYSPECs—Hydraulic, Serfveiled, Electronically Controlled idular transporters. The parent firm erates 144 across the globe: 82 of im in the UK.

The fact that such a hefty proper ri HYSPECs are fielded in this LIntry suggests that the UK oil and

I sector is busy. "We have recently on a revival of offshore work here,

J there are a lot of projects coming ," says Schuringa.

tanning

Inning is vital, as he points out. An rig component made in the UK ght have to get to another country. e subcontractors tend to do as ich work as possible on a particu' component, then it is dispatched 'assembly.

For example, an oil rig was recently t together in Norway, but its parts ire manufactured in Britain, France, Netherlands, Germany and Poland. jobs like this Brambles looks after ? entire transport operation.

"We draw up a masterplan," says Schuringa, "which means we have to look at all the logistical requirements. This includes organising sea transport, transport to the site, and site handling."

The firm employs risk assessors, as well as CAD (Computer Aided Design) personnel whose job is to work out the mathematics involved in shifting the loads. "Everything is tightly controlled," he adds.

Weight scale

Further down the weight scale, Brambles runs a Unipower ballast tractor which can haul 800-tonne loads, spread across 26 axles. And it's not every firm that can have an 800tomer "further down the weight scale"! Like those carried by the HYSPECs, loads of this magnitude are restricted to site moves. But the tractor also hauls payloads of up to 400 tonnes on the road—no wonder a Unipower unit costs 1150,000.

We meet Chris Bullock, Brambles' site operations manager. The view from the depot is dominated by chimneys and plants—Teesside has the most highly concentrated mass of heavy industry in Britain. Offshore oil and gas machinery can be seen just beyond the perimeter fence.

There are 11 Class 1 drivers at the depot, Bullock reports, and each one is an experienced titter, so vehicle maintenance and servicing is done inhouse. "A lot of components for the offshore oil and gas industry are imported from the Continent," he says. "But some parts are made on Teesside. You have got to cater for the sheer weight and size of the loads, and it is not a question of getting a phone call and moving the same day. A job is planned weeks in advance."

Brambles operates more conventional trucks, too. Three Oafs and a Volvo are based at the Teesside site. They haul low-loader semis which are called upon to move the firm's HYSPEC units and plant connected with the North Sea oil and gas industry, lnvergordon-based Port Services specialises in transporting equipment for the offshore oil and gas industry. The firm's depot is yards away from the Firth of Cromarty, the deepest natural harbour in the UK. North Sea oil rigs are brought to the port for maintenance: Port Services field 12 tractive units and 25 trailers, including step-frames, to deliver vital equipment to the rigs.

Managing director Les Clark reports that, unlike many other haulage sectors, the North Sea oil and gas industry is not subject to seasonal peaks and troughs. But operators serving this business do carry highlyengineered, often delicate items.

"We tend to transport a lot of drill casings and blow-out preventers," says Clark, "and obviously this has an effect on our insurance premiums."

Insurance costs are higher than for a general haulage outfit, and the right trucks have to be available, often at a moment's notice. Billions are made by North Sea oil and gas firms, and some of this money seems to fitter through to the hauliers who shift materials on their behalf. So do rates in this sector take account of more costly overheads? "Yes, they do," affirms Clark.

With the sort of equipment we saw in action at Barrow it's obvious that profits need to be ploughed back into the business, but there's no doubt that firms as specialised as these are, to some extent, able to demand a reasonable rate for the job. But they have one thing in common with their counterparts in general haulage...they aren't saying what it is!


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