CHIPPENDALE1 ANTIQUES
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John Chippendale's eight-wheel tippers do one of the toughest jobs on trucks there is — salt carrying. Yet his 15-year-old Seddon Atkinsons have each covered over a million kilometres and are still going strong.
II John Chippendale is a man who believes in making the most of his assets. As a-belk haulier his greatest asset is his nine-truck fleet which is renowned in the _North-West for its age'and venerability;
At a time when the contract-hire and leasing conipanies promote the advantages of frequent truck renewal; and sales of new trucks are at record levels, Chippendale's approach to the acquisition of trucks is deeply unfashionable — but it seems to work. "The secret' in this business," opines Chippendale, as-he chews on a Polo mint, that if you buy something and pay for it and it's your own, then you're earning aft the money you make from it. You're not paying ,the profits of the leasing companies.",, This approach eitends to botltthe trucks and cars in Chippendale's fleet. Ile drives a Ford Granada with over 252,000Icm (157,000 miles) on the clock.
The oldest vehicles in the Chippendale fleet are three 15-year-old Atkinson eightwheel tippers which Chippendale has run' since they were new.
These vehicles cover around 120,000 km (75,000 miles) a year, primarily car salt for ICI both offan on-road. It in hard to imagine a more severe test of a trucks's durability. Eight-Wheel tippers • _ usually have a hard life and the carriage of salt poses all kinds of corrosion problems:Yet these vehicles hare all clocked up . more than 1.6 million kilometres (a million miles), and Chippendale's Atkinsons show few corrosion problems. The trucks are each fitted with aluminium tipper bodies, and Chippendale ensures that the chassis are well hosed down after every trip.
In their 15 years on the road the trucks have only been painted twice, though some additional work has been necessary on the fibre-glass cabs.
Central to Chippendale's approach to trucking is an understanding of the importance of good maintenance. All the trucks in the fleet are at least eight years old. They need to be cherished and cossetted to get the best out of them. All the Chippendale vehicles are put through a continual six-week service schedule, during which time they receive a major service, an inspection service and three separate oil and filter changes.
"It's very, very important to have the oil and filters changed regularly," says Chippendale. "That's the cheapest mecha nic in the garage. If you look after them, • the trucks will go on for years." Chippendale specifies Morris's oil for his trucks, as he has done for most of the 30 years he has been in road haulage business. The Shrewsbury-based supplier delivers the oil regularly, and Chippendale is convinced of the long-term benefits of using this high-grade oil.
All the maintenance and repair work for the Chippendale fleet is undertaken by the company's three-mechanic team.
They are based at a service station and MOT centre owned by Chippendale at Cabus, and at the company's headquarters in nearby Garstang. "We rebuild engines ourselves and we don't send out at all," says Chippendale.
Given their 15 years' service with the company, Chippendale's Atkinsons have suffered few mechanical breakdowns. The worst incident occurred to the youngest (N-reg) vehicle, Its big-end went when the shell bearings spun in the crank case.
Chippendale believes that that problem first arose because of Work undertaken by' an outside mechanic when the truck broke down in London. "When that wagon was new, on its first trip it wenNut to Dover. It had trouble with a conrod in London. They fitted a new one, but I don't think they did it right. It's the only thing that 4sent on thernr" Chippendale's mealanic fitted a replacement Gardner i0 engine into the N-reg• Atkinson and the vehicle has since completed a huge amount of trouble-free work. The only other major mechanical work on the Atkinsons has been the replacement of their original gearboxes.
All spares for the Atkinsons have come from the nearby Seddon Atkinson dealer, Ryland Vehicles, which originally sold him the truck chassis for around 211,000 each back in 1973.
Perhaps surprisingly, Ryland has had little difficulty in supplying Chippendale with parts for the 15-year-old trucks. Chippendale says he is "more or less committed to Seddon Atkinsons, ERFs and Fodens, but where the Atkinsons score is in the regular back-up service we get every day from Rylands."
If Chippendale was to buy a new truck today he would go for a Seddon Atkinson. "In my opinion it's a very good vehicle and Rylands are on our doorstep and do very good parts."
EIGHT-WHEELERS
Nowadays most of the fleet's latest additions are secondhand vehicles, purchased either by John Chippendale or sons Robert and Andrew. "I buy where I can," he says, "I have been down to auctions in Mitcham and up to Glasgow for secondhand trucks, but it's very hard to find good eight-wheelers."
His latest bargain is a Seddon Atkinson eight-wheeler which previously worked as a tanker with Blue Circle. The finishing touches are currently being made to this vehicle before it returns to the road fitted with an aluminium tipping body. The Tregistered vehicle is likely to replace one of the 15-year-old Atkinsons.
The first of these has just been relieved of its duties and now stands forlornly at the rear of Chippendale's garage. Though the cab needs some work, the vehicle is mechanically sound. Climbing into the driver's seat, it is immediately apparent what good visibility and instrumentation the old Atkinson cab design provided when it was launched.
Chippendale admits that he does not know what to do with the trucks once they have all been taken off the road (probably at the end of the year). "They've all got very good engines, so I may switch them to other trucks, and I may take the bodies and tipping gears off," he says.
Fewer and fewer operators nowadays choose to run their vehicles as long as Chippendale.
He believes this is mainly due to declining standards of maintenance, and reckons that today's trucks could probably provide similar durability. "You might get the same mileage if you kept doing the cabs up," he says.
It is an ironic testament to our times that Chippendale prefers to invest his money in assets such as land and property, rather than new trucks.
LI by Richard Scrase