lain saill The recession's chill winds have yet to ruffle
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the mainsail of boat haulier Bugler Transport — luxury cruisers are as much in demand as ever. No sector of the industry can claim to be completely recession proof but Bugler Transport, which specialises in delivering luxury motor cruisers to the South of France and Spain, reckons its wealthy customers are showing little signs of treading water.
"Small boats have almost disappeared," explains founder Reg Bugler," but the market for luxury cruisers just goes on."
The Poole, Dorset-based business claims to be busy all year round with new boat deliveries in spring and summer and a host of international shows to take boats to throughout the autumn and winter. At last month's London show at Earl's Court Bugler took 18 loads into the arena.
Bugler is run by father and son Reg and Chris Bugler and relies for 75% of its business on boat manufacturer Sunseeker, based nearby in Poole. Reg says Sunseeker is the "Rolls Royce" of boats having won the Queen's Award to Industry twice. Consequently he says he has "no worries" about depending for so much of his income on one firm.
Bugler delivers to Sunseeker's continental customers in an operation that can cost £8,500 per delivered boat, with the cruisers themselves worth as much as £500,000.
But why deliver boats by road? Chris Bugler admits that the boats could But Chris reckons that manufacturers competing with each other to produce longer boats will eventually exasperate the powers that be. "The French transport authorities will say "enough is enough—it's a boat, sail the bloody thing."
Chris, 22, joined the firm when he left school at 16 with an 0-level in technical drawing—he had been inside truck cabs since the age of 12 and was always determined he would join the business straight from school. Now he drives regularly to the Continent as part of the 17-vehicle fleet and is often away for weeks at a time during the busy summer months. The company employs five drivers full time and has up to four continental runs a week, usually doublemanned.
The cruisers are carried on low-loaders with trailers designed specifically for carrying boats, mostly by trailer manufacturer Miles & Nunn. One trailer can winch boats straight up its back and the trailers can extend to 24.5m to accommodate boats which measure 16m or more with a load height of 5m.
The trailers are built to Bugler's specification which at present includes the construction of a modular trailer where the chassis is extendible and the bridge comes away so boats of various sizes can be dropped in.
With high loads like these, careful routeing is critical to avoid bridges and the boats are loaded stern to bow to get them low enough on the trailers.
Many of the loads are more than 3m wide which require special permits from the French authorities —the wide loads are not allowed on motorways and are limited to 501un/h with a reduction to 30km/h in towns.
Chris says he enjoys the challenges of the job: "It took me an hour and a half to get through one French village because it was so tight the trailer had just half an inch either side in one place." Some of the trailers include special hydraulic lifts to help clear big loads at sharp corners, bridge walls and roads with bad camber.
As well as its own escort vehicles, Bugler's loads are accompanied across France by the CRS, the famed riot police whose charge for the service includes meals, fuel and hotel bills. They are expensive but, as Chris puts it "If you've got the CRS with you, you don't get hassled by the gendarmes."
The gendarmes offer an escort service too but its three changeovers can lead to delays whereas the CRS can go right across France. Booking for the service is obligatory—from three weeks to two months notice depending on the time of year. A considerable waiting list can build up in the summer when there are many boats on the move.
Not all Bugler's work is continental. Last autumn it delivered racing driver Nigel Mansell's boat to Felixstowe and loaded it on to a container ship bound for Fort Everglades in Florida. In a larger operation, it loaded boats heading for the Tokyo boat show.
The European boat show season begins in earnest in September with the UK's Southampton show. From then on, Bugler is busy delivering and collecting cruisers from a variety of European destinations as the shows follow in quick succession. Barcelona, Paris, Dusseldorf, Hamburg, Ghent, Amsterdam and Oporto are among the bigger venues: smaller shows, such as a secondhand boat show at Chichester, fill in the gaps.
Bugler is also contracted to transport hulls and decks between the three Sunseeker factories in Dorset and Hampshire. Sunseeker owns 50% of Bugler subsidiary Mainline Consignments.
Reg Bugler, a former carpenter and joiner, set up in haulage in 1968 when he began work as an owner-driver running an old egg van he bought for £75. Much of his early work was delivering plating for British Leyland. He eventually went into partnership with a local haulier who had been working for Sunseeker and, although the partnership withered, his contact with Sunseeker survived. In 1980 he began working for the boat manufacturer full time. Sunseeker had been considering forming its own transport operation and entered a partnership with Bugler.
Despite delivering such valuable cargo Bugler has never had a boat broken into on its stopovers: in France it parks up at Les Routiers transport cafes. "All we've had taken was a stereo from a boat on a ferry," says Chris.
The company aims to get return loads where it can and if boats are not on the agenda Bugler takes onions out of Granada, satsumas out of Valencia and champagne from Paris.
The mixed fleet includes Mercedes and Daf Spacecabs with the company preferring to buy good-quality used vehicles rather than new, although it does have some new trucks in its fleet The company has a building subsidiary running three tippers and has built its own depot on land it purchased in 1985. The site includes a transport cafe, originally run by Reg's wife and now leased, plus other units built by Bugler and let to tenants. The transport operation turns over Lim and is "fairly profitable", says Reg.
Despite having established a specialist international transport operation with a tidy sideline in property development in barely a dozen years, Reg claims not to be ambitious: "I'm quite happy to plod along, put a bit of petrol in the car and get home."
by Patric Ctmnane