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OILING THE WHEELS

5th May 1988, Page 62
5th May 1988
Page 62
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Page 62, 5th May 1988 — OILING THE WHEELS
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

In the States you can have your CV serviced in less than 13 minutes. Under Paul Clarke's guidance HDL engineering aims to revolutionise the service sector.

• Servicing of commercial vehicles in this country is ripe for dramatic change, claims Paul Clarke, divisional general manager of HDL Engineering.

"In the United States Jiffy Lube can service a commercial vehicle in something like 12.5 minutes" says Clarke. "Of course you have to take British legislation into account, but you simply cannot afford to ignore that kind of approach."

Clarke plans to bring that approach to Britain through HDL — formerly the workshop arm of Hillsdown Group subsidiary, Blue Rosette Transport.

Eighteen months ago Clarke was brought in from TNT to develop HDL as a separate company within the Hillsdown Group. He believes there is plenty of scope for a strongly-marketed company offering commercial vehicle servicing attuned to operator's needs.

"The commercial vehicle workshop environment in this country is not as professional as it should be," says Clarke, "From our experience of talking to people who have their vehicles maintained externally, it is rare to find complete satisfaction.

"The first thing we did was draw up service schedules, procedures and policies to apply in all our workshops," he explains, "It's a little like the Little Chef philosophy; the customer knows he is going to get the same service from any of our outlets. Even the stationery is the same."

Commercial vehicles account for about 95% of the vehicles serviced by HDL. "We find that hauliers often want the work done on a night or evening shift," "We aim to suit their needs, says Clarke.

"The majority of our work is done between six in the evening and eight in the morning. People want that and they are prepared to pay for it.

"We have one client in Wiltshire who had a particular problem with trailer servicing. We tailor-made a service for him which involves our guys going to his sites to service the trailers at weekends. "Our aim is that if a chap has a commercial vehicle, no matter what he wants — we'll do it. The idea is that he might have a million problems in his own operation, and the last thing he wants to worry about is servicing. We will tailor-make our maintenance to suit the customer — we do fixed-price maintenance contracts for two of our customers."

When Clarke took over at HDL, around 85% of the company's business involved the servicing of Hillsdown Group vehicles. Today that proportion is down to 35%. During the same period the HDL customer base has grown from 90 to over 720 customers, and external sales last year grew by 41%.

Clarke attributes the growth to hard work and a "customer-is-king" approach from his staff. "When you get in the commercial vehicle servicing market, you find it's often the people and their attitude to the customer that's the problem. We look after the customer, something where other people fail in this market."

To provide this high level of service HDL needs a high degree of commitment from its workforce. For the engineering staff, says Clarke, that commitment is helped by good pay, good working conditions, smart uniforms and the satisfaction of working for a fast-growing company.

"I worked for TNT for eight years," he says. "and everything was very professional and very upmarket. I sat and watched the surge of enthusiasm for profitable growth within the company. People like working for a success, and if they feel they are part of that success they will work that much harder."

Built into HDL Engineering's annual accounts is a budget for training engineering staff on manufacturers' courses, to keep up to date with maintenance procedures.

"People are our biggest single investment," says Clarke. "Our workshop managers are encouraged to run their workshop as if it was part of their own business. We quickly learned that we had to structure the package attractively to get the right people.

"All our management staff are in their early thirties and are full of enthusiasm. We will grow at the same rate next year — we've got to. Everybody has worked so hard to build the company."

When Clarke took over, HDL had six workshops: now there are 11 throughout the country and he plans to open a further six in Britain this year, including a large servicing operation in London for which he is currently negotiating. Five of the new workshops have been bought and the sixth is being built in Chippenham at a cost of 2250,000. All this investment has been backed by the Hillsdown Group. "We must justify these projects to the Hillsdown main board," says Clarke, "They are looking for a healthy return on capital employed."

To maximise return on capital, HDL's workshops offer a number of services. For example, several of the workshops will repair and repaint bodywork, and the Avonmouth workshop fits tail-lifts. Clarke wants to build a national network of servicing outlets, with strategically based specialist services. "We find people will bring their vehicles 50-60 miles for painting, but only 15 miles for maintenance."

HDL also has five vehicle inspectors: "They do more than 1,000 vehicles a year," says Clarke, "and they're cheaper than the FTA — 20% cheaper. Since the launch its been very popular and profitable."

Just over a year ago Clarke decided to set up a tachograph analysis service at the company's base at Bilsthorpe, Northamptonshire. "We started with one VDU and two part-time girls," says Clarke, "now we have eight part-time, one full-time and a manageress. We should have between 20 and 25 staff by the end of the year working on tachograph analysis. In our first week we analysed 70 discs — now it's 1,140."

For the future Clarke wants to diversify into vehicle liveries. Several of the company's workshops already paint liveries: now Clarke has his eye on vinyl liveries.

He is also considering establishing truck dealerships but these would not be linked with HDL Engineering's other services, because he wants to win servicing work for all makes of commercial vehicle.

"We have got to go into new areas," says Clarke, "but we must control what we've got and move forward. Sometimes I think we've bitten off more than we can chew."

To control such rapid growth, Clarke has introduced a similar weekly accounting procedure to that used by TNT. "We need management information on profits quickly. There is no way we can grow quickly and not have a knowledge of what we've left behind in our wake.

"Our biggest competitors are the small guys with two or three fitters and a workshop, who are currently doing very well," says Clarke. HDL's pricing reflects this. "We aim our prices below the agent who charges 218 an hour, and above the one-man band who typically charges around 28.50 an hour, and we are giving a very professional service."

HDL Engineering's growth in the past 18 months has been backed by the Hillsdown Group which clearly shares Clarke's optimistic view of the commercial vehicle servicing market. Now Jiffy Lube looks set to break into the market too. The American company, which has been so successful on its home ground, established a 2500,000 pilot workshop in Croydon last month where it offers a 14-point, 10-minute lubrication service.

Oby Richard Scrase

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