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5th May 2005, Page 59
5th May 2005
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Conferences, pop concerts and exhibitions make a fortune

— but not without HGV traction. Tim Maughan met two

operators who make them happen.

RE FIELDING TRUCKING

London truck drops are notoriously difficult.The volume of traffic, the congestion charges,the traffic wardens, the aggressive drivers in the midst of which you must deliver high-value goods at a specific time, on a busy, one-way central London street.

HGVs from RE Fielding Trucking rise to this challenge week in week out.

To see this operation in action I arrange to meet managing director Tony Fielding in Upper Grosvenor Street, Mayfair. As expected, the traffic is slow moving; cars, buses and CVs of all sizes stand in ranks.

A stone's throw from The Grosvenor hotel, police — some of them holding machine guns — patrol the perimeter of the US Embassy. RollsRoyces,Ferraris and other luxury cars stand outside exclusive mews houses.

Fielding appears from behind the hotel. RE FieldingTrucking was founded in 1975 by his father Ronnie. and first got involved in conference work in 1978 when Ronnie transported the lights and other stage parapher rialia to aWella (the hair product company) conference."We took all the ingredients for their show and that was it," says Fielding.

Full service

By the early 1980s, the company was an established conference/exhibitions operator. These days, Fielding runs 30 vehicles, including 22 artics and rigids, all with air-suspension.All the rigids are equipped with tail-lifts.

Half the fleet is stationed in Harwich and services the general haulage business.The other half is based near Chelmsford and is assigned to conference duties.

Five of his vehicles are subcontracted to a technical equipment hire company, which operates across Continental Europe.

In a typical week,Fielding's drivers can be working in such far flung places as Lisbon. Prague. and Barcelona.These are major undertakings, he says.

"We recently had three trucks in Malta. They were loaded up with scenery, lighting and audio visual equipment,for an end of year corporate event.The trucks went to France, then through to Italy, then sailed on the ferry from Reggio De Calabria to Valetta.They were on site for a week.The rest of the time was taken up getting there and back — they were away for 23 days in total."

On tour While concerts all tour, exhibitions and conferences tend to be fixed and one-off. Fielding has between 75 and 100 customers in total; at any one time the company is servicing around 20 clients.

The work no longer commands higher rates than general haulage."The market is not as lucrative as it used to be," says Fielding. However, he benefits from a plentiful stream of work.

Fielding's drivers are considered part of the touring crew.At a large two-day event at Birmingham's NEC, for example,Fielding's Ilk }Vs will spend a week on location, Consignments have lobe delivered, then collected after they have been dismantled.

It can be a harsh environment."The market fluctuates," he says. -There are a lot of operators coming into it; it's very competitive and there is little customer loyalty."

Customers do not contact Fielding directly. but get in touch with a production company, which in turn liaises with him. This multi-tiered structure means drivers need to be comfortable with the production company personnel, as well as the main custorner.

"The furthest we have been is Karachi, and the longest we have been away is three months on a European roadshow," says Fielding. RE Fielding Trucking's vehicles and crews have been hired by operators who haul for the rock concert business. Pink Floyd, U2, Madonna, and Rod Stewart — all have benefited from Fielding's services. He has also been involved with Grand Prix races, having hauled hospitality suites.

In this conference/exhibitions sector, an operator can find himself serving all manner of businesses. "Everything from the launch of a condom to the launch of a Porsche," he quips.

We move to a street just north ofThe Grosvenor hotel."We send one vehicle a week toThe Grosvenor, but different-sized CVs come here: rigids, vans, and arties.Toclay. we're delivering lighting and audio-visual equipment.

Fielding's HGV has picked up the gear from Elstree. Cars and black cabs line up, waiting for the traffic lights to turn amber.Then, the vehicles spill into Park Lane. I wonder just how the truck will deposit a full load in these circumstances.

The golden rule,maintains Fielding, is military-style precision. On top of this, you need to get on with the job and push roving traffic wardens to the back of your mind You need to drop. Simple as that.

His HGV rolls down Upper Grosvenor Street and parks up near a side entrance of the hotel. Right on cue, a team of "humpers" arrives, employed by the production company. Humpers traverse the capital. Organised to a tee, their job is to hitch up with trucks and load and unload audio-visual equipment. 'Every

Military precision

thing is time critical, but the humpers always turn up," reports Fielding.

The truck stands across the road from the hotel entrance. Glancing this way and that, the disciplined squad deftly push the heavy duty cases across the road remarkably quickly.

With the gear unloaded, the HGV driver shuts the trailer doors, climbs into the cab and the truck is gone. It looks an easy task, but in fact this particular drop is a tough one,says Fielding. "It's terrible, this is not a truckfriendly venue; it is not the sort of place you just turn up and say 'hi-ho here we go'."

Traffic wardens in districts like these can be shrewd.To avoid confrontation, they will sometimes wait until the driver has walked to the back of the truck. "Then they will slap a ticket on the front."

One of Fielding's trucks has been hit with a colossal parking fine —and not in the UK. It happened recently at a Brussels drop. Hotel staff instructed one of his drivers to park the truck at a specific spot near the hotel.The driver did so, re-entered the hotel, and came out to find the HG V had gone.The police ruled it had been illegally parked and impounded it. Fielding had to pay €1,000 (£685) to release the truck. David Steinberg, director of Sheffieldbased Stardes, specialises in rock concert and corporate event transport. Like Fielding. his career in this sector came about through an element of chance.

He used to manage a country club, then went to work for a car and small truck rental company. In 1982, he invested in his own CVs: a unit, a trailer,two 73-tonne boxvans and two Ford Transits. At the time legions of Sheffield steel workers were being laid off. With Sheffield awash with redundancy cash,the nightclubs enjoyed something of a boom and Steinberg transported equipment between the venues.

Stardes' fleet reached its peak in 2002."Like anyone else, you can grow, but you can become blinkered," he says."It is not about turnover,it is about profit.We just sat down one day and we realised that we were busy fools. So we halved the fleet."

These days Stardes operates 24 units, three 26-tonne rigid& a single 18-tonner and eight 7.5-tonners:It's mainly music, but we are growing on the corporate events side now," he adds.

Inevitably, complications arise in this sector. A customer may tell Steinberg, for example, that he needs a certain prop carried. Steinberg mobilises the truck, only ballad that the prop is too big—the customer occasionally gets it wrong, which means Stardes must dispatch a larger vehicle.

His office walls, and that of his wife Sue and daughter Sara, are adorned with vintage stage passes, and even gold record discs. Suede, Lloyd Cole &The Commotions,Echo &The Bunnyrnen— Stardes has handled gear for them all.The stage passes and discs are in no way showy — in the live music sector they are very much everyday, working items— and there are no flashy pictures of Steinberg posing with the stars. He even refuses to be photographed for the pages of CM.

He recently met Jim Kerr, lead singer of Simple Minds, and Kerr remembered Steinberg from the early touring days.

During our telephone conversation with Steinberg, before we met him in person, he stressed that no single person —himself included —stood out in Stardes. Director and founder he may be, but he believes that each member of staff is an integral part of the company.

The music industry has changed since those early days. Traditionally, record companies would support pricey tours. Nowadays, it is common for bands to pay for their own live appearances.

Submitting estimates

-The production manager sends me the schedule, then I'll put a quote in,then leave it and wait for him to get in touch,"says Steinberg.

"Sometimes you can get confirmation of a tour in two days, so when this happens we have to juggle the fleet at the last minute. Nobody knows how much equipment they have got, they will say 'Oh, I need extra sound boxes' and that means they need more cube.

"But it is not always the production manager's fault, because the amount of equipment can grow during a tour, so more trucks are needed. It is important that the customer's budget is big enough."

There must be sufficient money to cover the carriage of audio-visual (AV) gear, the "backline" equipment (guitars and drums), risers (the mini-stages which bear the drum kits) and the catering facilities.

On a tour Stardes personnel load the equipment into the trucks. From there on, roadies load and unload the gear as the schedule unfolds.-We pay our drivers very well for the job they do," says Steinberg.

Although concert venues can be far apart, they tend to follow the same patterns, tour by tour. With this in mind, Steinberg maintains there is no need for expensive extras. "My biggest argument is, why install satellite navigation when lam paying the driver to find the venue?"

Instead, he chooses to plough money into what he says really matters: driver comfort. That manifests itself in roomy and expensive sleeper trucks, such as the Daf Super Space cab."I always like to give people a good truck. If I was going away for months I would expect a big cab, a microwave, and a DVD player."

Tours fluctuate in scale and at any one time dozens of them are traversing the UK. Stardes cannot hope to take them all on, but the firm does handle more than one simultaneously. Sue takes on the larger tours, and Steinberg tends to look after the smaller individual projects.

Typically, eight trucks are assigned to a tour. Sue points out,though, that she put together a 19-strong truck fleet for Oasis' performance in Knebworth."That was a logistical nightmare," she remembers.

Many tours, though, are on a much smaller scale. Stardes fields 12 "splitters"— the sector's name for dedicated mini buses which transport musicians and handle concert equipment. The splitters are used by small bands trying to make headway in the ultra-competitive music industry.

Adrenalin rush

Steinberg conducts a brief tour of the Stardes base. Many operators choose to outsource their maintenance, but not here. The company employs three vehicle technicians and two bodyshop technicians."Other people can't give us the turnaround that we want," he says. "No-one does a job like you do."

There are quirks peculiar to the corporatel music tour sector.The unusual locations, the stage passes, occasional encounters with the stars.A general haulier gets paid per trip. For Steinberg, payment filters through "stage by stage", every time a truck drops at a venue.

Sue Steinberg jokes that working in this industry, which is teeming with youth, keeps her young. Music concerts can be adrenalinpumping spectacles. But no-one can witness these performances without raw HGV power, Steinberg reminds us. "Trucks are blamed for congestion and a poor environment, but they make concerts happen."


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