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THE
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YOUNG
ONES
YES is a thriving section of the Road Haulage Association aimed at young operators. Three leading members tell Commercial Motor what it has to offer.
• Down the corridors of power at the Road Haulage Association there is a new and growing voice demanding change in the transport industry — the Young Executive Section.
Set up in 1976, YES at first looked doomed to obscurity when its membership plummeted in the early 1980s. But in the past three years, the group has enjoyed a revival and is now fast becoming a significant mouthpiece in the industry.
Steering YES at the moment are three northern RHA members who have all been instrumental in the group's revival. Richard Llewellyn, project manager for Econofreight is chairman; Jon Reyner, sales and marketing director of Geoffrey Reyner Transport is vice-chairman, and Val Entwistle, who works for the RHA as assistant manager (special projects), is national secretary of the section.
It was Entwistle who initiated the first YES meeting after the group had been dormant for years. "I was looking at the YES idea and I realised it had been lying around for ages. So I thought — let's have another go. Several people turned up for the first meeting, all very keen. And since then its gone from strength to strength," she says.
Now three years later YES has blossomed and has more than 160 members. It also recently unveiled an updated set of objectives:
D Making the group a focal point for all people developing a career in road transport.
LI Offering young operators management training.
Raising awareness of transport changes and legislation.
D Giving members a wide range of transport contacts. D Developing European contacts.
However, one of YES' most important aims is changing the image of road transport. Last month the group revealed its Master Haulier' concept — a quality stamp for companies meeting specific standards of operation.
YES first floated the idea to the RHA last year and was asked to prepare a more detailed paper on improving the industry's image and training.
The proposal YES finally submitted was a detailed quality scheme concentrating on five main areas: education, training, road safety, environment and image. In each area, hauliers would be required to meet tough operational standards. They would be subject to regular RHA visits, often unexpected, to ensure the operation was still running to the same high standards. And if a firm's standards were found to have dropped, it would immediately lose its master haulier badge.
Although there is still lots of work to do on the scheme, YES hopes to have it in action within the next 12 months and says eventually it wants most of the RHA's 11,000 members to try and become master hauliers.
"Haulage has an image problem. The industry has too high a public profile. Instead, through our master haulier scheme and YES, we want to raise the profile of the RHA. And make this an industry we want to work in," says Jon Reyner.
YES insists its master haulier concept is not an alternative to BS5750. It believes the two schemes are complimentary.
"Ours is an achievable standard which deals with the practical side of transport operations. We are concerned with image and BS5750 has nothing to do with image. We believe operators will also see our master haulier qualification as a step towards BS5750 — like a confidence booster," says Entwistle.
MASTER HAULIER
By developing its master haulier concept, YES believes it has shown it is not just a talking shop. Indeed, it has also taken steps to improve transport's public image within each district. Members have started giving talks at schools and are trying to encourage more young people into the world of road transport.
Richard Llewellyn says: "Road transport is a necessary evil. The public wants their goods, but they don't want them delivered by a heavy lorry. Nobody will ever love the lorry — but we can help them understand."
Young Executive Section triumvirate of Richard Llewellyn, Jon Reyner and Val Entwistle aim to change the image of road transport with the Master Haulier concept. YES heavily promotes training within the industry. It runs regular weekend seminars for members on legal liability, company audits, marketing, management techniques, warehousing and tachograph legislation: "No other RHA section runs training courses like ours. YES courses are helping young operators to see their responsibilities. They have certainly opened people's eyes," says Llewellyn.
Young hauliers are often frustrated by national training schemes: "because they show a lack of realism about everyday transport operations," says Llewellyn. YES training courses are designed to tackle everyday transport problems.
"As we are at the sharp end of the industry we know what we want and what we need," says Reyner." So people who lecture us are in the industry and they understand the problems we face."
YES has now linked up with a French transport training school to help members prepare for 1992. A contingent of French hauliers has already attended a YES meeting in Britain on hauling abroad and a group of YES members next month will be making a return visit. "Through our link-up with AFT we are getting leads into France and Spain — both as an association and haulage companies," says Reyner.
NORTH WEST
At home, YES is trying to boost its membership for the 1990s. At the moment groups in the North-West, NorthEast, Midlands and East are all very active. But, all three admit attendance in the South and Scotland "is terrible".
"Both areas have terrific geographical problems. Some hauliers from Scotland and the South attend national events, but it is a long way to go from Inverness to the Midlands," says Entwistle.
However, with the launch of the group's newsletter, YES is confident that membership will grow over the next few months. The newsletter is to be circulated to all potential members as well as the more established faces. The appointment of Bob McKinnon from Kilmarnock on to the RHA board has also boosted confidence in YES as he has promised to try and help hauliers become more active in YES in Scotland.
Entwistle is particularly encouraged by the numbers of women joining the group — they now make up around a third of the membership.
YES is also very good for contacts within the industry and all three boast that members do help each other solve operational problems — even though they are competitors outside YES. "If anything YES is a good business proposition. I got my membership fee back within my first week through all the new contacts I made," says Revner.
1=1 by Tanya Cordrey
Contact YES on (0204) 71521.