PROFILE SOVEREIGN ROAD FREIGHT
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CM hears how a former national hunt jockey and his business partner in haulage survived some unfavourable odds.
• "We bought the first vehicle (a new Iveco Ford 400 TXP 380) in March, but by the August, work for it began to dry up as we su6red through the various lorry bans, public holidays and the August shut-down across the Continent," says O'Leary. Vignettes, which UK operators are unfairly subject to when abroad were also a major handicap (CM 30 Oct-5 Nov) during those times. While lost work abroad was replaced by local traction work, the rates were poor and the prospects of meeting payments on the vehicle seemed remote. By November, O'Leary and Sellick had elected to lease it out to a known owner-driver, rather than lose their investment altogether. 'We still own it, we don't operate it and we have none of the worries about maintaining it," he says. You might say SRF had stumbled into the contract leasing business, but by no means at the very profitable end. They could claim to be still involved in the transport business— but to use the racing parlance, there wasn't very much in it. Since that faltering start, SRF has token a different course and the two former agency drivers now find themselves partners in a combined international haulage and driver supply business.
Professional driving
When the racing stopped, O'Leary "drifted" into professional driving and passed his vocational driving test in 1993. Sellick, a former serviceman who is eight years older, had several years of light vehicle driving jobs before upgrading his licence just six months after O'Leary. Both gained their initial driving experience on bigger lorries through agency work before joining Taylor Barnard as full-time drivers. Just over a year later, after working "long hours with not much to show for it" the plan to pool their limited resources and start up their own business was conceived.
"Kevin came to see me when I was playing with numbers. I said I'd like to go on my own, he felt the same but he didn't have enough to get started. Together we raised about £1 0,000 and we were on our way."
O'Leary's wife Stella became company transport manager and international CPC holder, and O'Leary and Sellick doublemanned the first hire-or-reward trip to Germany. The trip to Dresden Zoo, carrying a load of steel from Wednesbury in the West Midlands, gave the company an international 'FOCUS.
The first load followed a reference and docu ment check by Felixstowebased Denholm International Freight, a freight forwarder which SRF has regularly worked for since. 'We can't speak highly enough of Denholm. They pay On time— none of this 60 days or 90 days wait. They gave us good work," says O'Leary. However, as the availability of suitable work to the Continent dried up, SRF needed to replace it with local work at home: "It was mostly traction jobs but the rates weren't good. We were getting by, but we found that more condanies seemed to want he driver rather than the truck he was driving. It seemed like a good cue and that's how the agency came about," says O'Leary.
Christmas was approaching and with agency driving experience of their own to fall back on, the two realised that there was no time to lose. There followed a local business course, advertising campaign and recruitment drive—some people drawn from the agency drivers they had worked alongside The early driving was performed by Sellick and O'Leary themselves but soon, SRF had 15 drivers on the books of the Total Driver Services division. "At first we pulled drivers in from everywhere, but we have introduced a strict recruitment policy. We take no-one under 25, we check all licences and references. We also insist on a minimum of two years experience on fridges and on supermarket deliveries," says O'Leary. It would be odd for O'Leary and Sellick not to feel uneasy about their policy for drivers on the books to have a minimum of driving experience, given that they both joined an agency soon after passing the HGV test. O'Leary explains: "That's true, but in this day and age insurance companies can dictate who can and can't drive. Our own insurance states drivers must be a minimum of 25 with two years' driving experience. It's unfair, but there's nothing we can do about it." After that hectic period, demand for drivers has held up. SRF now employs seven full-time drivers on the agency side, while casual drivers fill in at other times It is not unusual for a customer to call up the agency and get one of the directors as a supply driver.
Agency customers such as Bulk Farm Dairies were very supportive, almost crucial to the company's survival, says O'Leary: "They always checked, processed and paid our invoice within 24 hours. If compa
nies that big can manage it, why do others hang on to your money for so long?" The stability of the agency business gave SRF the breathing space to concentrate on reviving the haulage side of the business.
Latest investment
A second vehicle was added in May of this year. It is now making regular general haulage runs to the Germany. France and the Benelux countries. After manning it themselves initially, Sellick and O'Leary recruited a former Taylor Barnard driver whom they could trust with their latest investment, a used Volvo FH1 2 Globetrotter to reduce the financial commitment.
Plans for a third vehicle are well advanced and SRF expects its runs will include many of the former Eastern Bloc countries, with the help of Denholm International Freight. "We will start by getting the loads into those countries and try to establish our own contacts there as well," says O'Leary. Will that mean a return to regular driving For both partners? 'We will certainly start out that way, to keep the costs down, but it's a bit like a reconnaissance mission as well. It will help us when rating Os, deciding which jobs to take and which ones to refuse. We still like to be out on the road anyway." Thanks to a determination not to fall at the first fence and some sound backing from customers, there will be Further opportunities for O'Leary and Sellick to indulge their driving requirements. So having survived unfavourable odds and got into a position where the ground ahead is opening out for a clearer run, the SRF haulage side is looking a good bet for improved performances and better financial results—second time out.
by Steve McQueen
FACTFILE: SOVEREIGN ROAD FREIGHT BASEr Fordham, Cambridge. FOUNDED: February 1996. CONTACT: Proprietors, Paul
O'Leary and Kevin Sellick. RI Two vehicles, an Iveco Ford 400TXP 380 {bought new) and Volvo FH12, Globetrotter (bought used). Most recent vehicle is the Volvo, bought in May 1997. SPECIALITY CONTRACT: International general haulage, driver supply.