URES dealing Truck operators are making more out of their
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vehicles, keeping them out on the roads for longer periods in a bid to stay in business. But the gruelling schedules are not only taxing on the hauliers, there is also a knock-on effect on the franchised dealers as they come under increasing pressure to provide repair and maintenance, even in the small hours... CM takes a look at how five dealerships are following the trend.
• Carciff Truck Centro
Leyland Daf dealership Cardiff Truck Centre's service department operates a night shift, and is open on Saturdays and Sundays too, says managing director Ray Nessbert. As Leyland Daf dealer council chairman, he calculates that 95% of the marques dealerships are providing a round-theclock aftersales service compared with less than 50% a few years ago.
Hauliers will pay a premium— a modest one—for out-of-hours maintenance, he reports, and that's good news for his business. The bad news from his viewpoint is that manufacturers tend not to be willing to pay a premium for out-of-hours warranty work.
Hauliers prepared to subcontract their servicing invariably want dealers to open workshops close to their premises, but that's not the only solution, says Nessbert Running mobile workshops is another option, and one that Cardiff Truck Centre (CTC) has pursued.
"It's an approach fleet operators are especially interested in," he explains. "For example, we have an arrangement under which our fitters and a mobile workshop will go to John Raymond's depot and service four or five trucks at a time."
That means the vehicles don't have to be shuttled back and forth between the depot and the dealership, increasing downtime and tying up drivers who would be better employed doing something else.
More and more firms, big fleet or owner-driver, are swinging towards contract maintenance because they like to be able to predict their costs; and dealers have to offer suitable agreements, says Nessbert. Those who want to retain the work in-house using their own fitters expect support too, and CTC provides out-ofhours parts deliveries.
The service is used mainly by the Royal Mail's big workshop in Cardiff "Sometimes we get them contacting us out-of-hours but it's rare for anybody else to," says Nessbert.
• Manchester Truck Centre
Operators are increasingly looking at outsourcing the management of their workshops in a bid to cut outgoings and improve efficiency.
Manchester Truck Centre (MTC) has responded to this trend by taking on the running of British Steel's vehicle workshops at its plant at Shotton in Cheshire. The steel maker is hoping to cut its costs by ro%, says MTC dealer principal David Quinn, and is subcontracting non-core activities.
MTC, one of the biggest Foden dealerships in the country, has had to be flexible.
Apart from maintaining trucks, it's responsible for forklifts and the complex's own ambulances and fire engines; 280 vehicles and pieces of equipment in all. It even takes care of a boat. Quinn reveals.
The Shotton workshop is allowed to take on third-party work, which helps reduce overheads.
With sites at Sandbach and Salford as well as Shotton, MTC is owned by Faber Prest, a steel haulier in its own right. It operates some 40 trucks and 8o trailers hauling steel out of Shotton under contract.
MTC is no stranger to out-ofhours servicing at its dealerships, says David Quinn. "We've always offered it, and we're about to put on a night parts man," he says, "Customers want round-the-clock servicing almost every day of the year."
However, in his experience they're not willing to pay a premium for it.
The launch of the Alpha means Foden is starting to nose its way into several mainstream distribution fleets, says Quinn, which means MTC and its fellow dealers will have to get more used to offering contract hire and contract maintenance packages. "Sixty to 70% of trucks sold by Volvo and Scania are supplied subject to contract maintenance agreements, and we've got to head in that direction," he says.
• KTS Trucks
Hauliers are no longer mesmerised by the idea that they've got to own all their vehicles outright.
"It's the use of a truck over, say, three or four years that they're interested in, and what it's going to cost them per kilometre," says Sandy Young, managing director of Renault VI dealer KTS Trucks. "They want to control their expenditure."
As a consequence, dealers must be capable of stitching together finance and repair and maintenance agreements that will meet all requirements, and delivering aftersales support whenever and wherever it is required. KTS also runs a truck contract and spot-hire operation—KTS Rentals—with a i60vehicle fleet.
With a site near Faversham in Kent, and another one at Mitcham in south London, which opened i8 months ago, KTS has a big territory to cover. It embraces Kent, Surrey, Sussex, and much of south-east and south-west London, and the coverage provided by its own depots is supplemented by independent service dealers at Crayford and Maidstone in Kent. KTS workshop opening hours are long—from 6am to wpm on weekdays, and 8am to 5pm on Saturdays—but not round-theclock. "But if a job isn't finished when the shift comes to an end, and the truck is desperately needed, then the technicians will work on until it is completed," says Young. "Even if they don't leave until 3am."
KTS also operates two mobile diagnostics vans, each carrying £30,000 worth of equipment, which can go out to help operators maintaining vehicles in their own workshops. "They're rather like mobile servicing bays," he says.
While he won't completely rule out taking over the management of a customer's workshops, he's wary of doing so. Odds are that they would have to be equipped with the same sort of advanced diagnostic kit that KTS has in its own servicing departments, and that is expensive.
"The days of the grease monkey lying under a truck in a pool of water in the middle of the yard have gone," insists Young.
"One of the problems the industry faces now is that good technicians are scarce. Historically it hasn't been very good at training, and it's now paying the penalty."
While contract hire is growing in popularity, dealers face the problem of persuading operators away from short-term agreements. While they may match the duration of a contract, they can pose problems in the used market when still-young trucks come up for sale.
It's a difficulty that was hi lighted recently by leading independent used truck dealer Robert Reynolds (CM 28 Jan-3 Feb). While he detected a healthy demand for high-horsepower 1993/94/95 twin-steer tractors on air priced at around £22,000 to £23,000, later examples were priced too close to new vehicles to have an appeal, he said.
• Omen Trucks
Ipswich-based Mercedes-Benz dealer Orwell Trucks has responded quickly to the growing demand for allinclusive repair and maintenance agreements among hauliers anxious to predict running costs. We support more vehicles subject to Mercedes' own maintenance and repair contracts than most dealers in the country," says managing director David Grant, who is also chairman of the M-B commercial vehicle dealer council.
Now a round-the-clock operation, Orwell offers a mobile diagnostics service with four vans operated by technicians equipped with hand-held testers. They can also call on the latest Star Diagnose package to deal with serious electronic diagnostic problems.
With branches at Norwich, Colchester, and Newmarket as well as Ipswich, Orwell covers Norfolk, Suffolk, and north Essex for Mercedes. Transport companies are increasingly pressing dealers to set up workshops close to their premises, and Grant believes it could be useful to have representation in King's Lynn and Diss, given the size of his territory.
Orwell already has arrangements in place at Haverhill and Sible Hedingham to meet the needs of some hauliers, and Grant is happy to consider running operators' own workshops if potential problems with the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employees) Regulations 1981 (TUFF) can be sorted out.
Sometime ago Grant recognised that a technician shortage could develop, and over the past seven years Orwell has developed art apprentice training scheme at all locations. His efforts, and those of other dealers, to provide a 24-hour service to customers could be hampered however by the Working Time Directive. "I'm worried about its long
term implications," he admits.
• Duffields
Duffields has so wholly owned sites operating within a 9,000 square mile sales territory stretching from Norfolk to north London. It is not only the largest independent dealership within Volvo's UK network, but a perfect example of the trend towards "mega" dealerships with multiple "satellite" service sites.
Managing director Tony Sadler has a clear view on where the haulage industry is heading— and where it will lead dealers: "On 5o% of our parc we're carrying out all service and maintenance work and that'll rise to 70%," he says.
While more hauliers want their trucks serviced by a dealer they don't want it done in "working" time. So 75% of Duffield's servicing business is done outside those hours.
"If it's scheduled downtime it's got to be done when the truck is not in use and that's usually overnight or at the weekend," reports Sadler. "There's been a complete switch so we're now operating at our peak through Friday, Saturday and Sunday— and we don't charge extra for it.
"We're under pressure to come up with one rate. We have to set labour rates, warranty and contracts at levels operators can plan for." Planning is one thing, doing is another and Sadler sees more and more hauliers wanting to pass workshop management, and in some cases the workshops themselves, on to a dealer. "Many operators also don't want the burden of records and maintenance management and they're wanting to put it out to a com pany that will protect public safety and vehicle reliability."
But won't that change the responsibility for maintenance under an 0-licence? Sadler is adamant that the buck must always stop with an operator. "It has to be—the operator is the one that holds the 0-licence."
Servicing is just a part of what Duffields is planning to offer. Six of its sites are ministry test stations and testing will be extended to other sites—not least to keep that precious uptime to a minimum, as Sadler explains: "One of the reasons we do it at our Enfield site, even though there's a DOT test station nearby at Edmonton, is that the traffic can be so bad in north London that it can take an hour in each direction to get there and back. Operators can't afford to waste time like that."
Duffields is hoping to offer warranty work at an operator's premises in the future and possibly even on-site annual tests. But will such services pay their way?
If they do, they're unlikely to make dealers any richer overnight.
"We have a turnover of L6im with a 2% return on revenue. It's a sad indictment of the industry—and one that we all know about," says Sadler.
• by Stove Banner and Brian Weatherley