Night moves
Page 39
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Surrey roads contractor R&S Etherington has expanded its lorry loader fleet to enable it to handle overnight work on the M25 widening project, while running a daytime shift repairing Croydon's footpaths.
The pressure to complete work on the widening of the M25 means that the overnight maintenance operation leaves the contractors still clearing up to go home when the dawn traffic begins to fill the motorway.
Maintenance vehicles used to give early morning commuters a wide berth, but not any more. Once the lorry loaders and the excavators were away by 04:00hrs; nowadays they're still clearing up at 06:00hrs.
Smallfield, Surrey-based operator R&S Etherington has added a six-wheel Scania 93M with a Hiab 90 grabber to its fleet to cope with additional work on the mas. It found that its other six-wheeler, a G-reg Scania with a 140 Hiab, was coming under increasing pressure caused by its double shift pattern: motorway work at night; repairing footpaths by day.
Etherington had teething problems with the spec of the new £69,000 vehicle: the tipper body is too long to meet the reach of the grabber and the controls behind the cab are not in a satisfactory position—when a driver operates the controls the ram is in danger of nudging him on the shoulder as the grab swings round, Discussions are taking place with Hiab to make the necessary adjustments.
"We had a problem this morning when the lorry airrie back with a barrel right by the tailgate which could not be reached with the grabber," says managing director Shaun Etherington. Hiab is being quite helpful, he adds, but no solution has yet been found,
Shoring work The rest of the firm's fleet is a mixture of vehicles and plant. Unlike a conventional haulier Etherington doesn't just deliver a load, it also works on site. For this reason the fleet includes personnel carrying vehicles; a 35-tonner for hauling shingle for shoring work; and a Brimec-bodied sixwheeler capable of transporting a 12-tonne 360 Hitachi excavator up and down motorways for excavating and backfilling.
The firm employs up to 20 people in busy periods, including several who are selfemployed. But the extended Etherington family provides the largest contingent. Robert senior founded the business in the 1960s, and his three children—Robert, Shaun and Sally—all play an active role. Shaun is managing director; Robert junior is director and company secretary; and daughter Sally, who holds a Class 1 licence and a CPC, handles occasional driving in between stints in the office as a transport manager. Shaun, Robert and Sally applied for their CPCs at 10, 12 and 14 respectively Shaun's wife Lorraine also works in the office while Sally's husband Ormonde Parkes works as a night driver, taking loads of chipping material to supply the chipping machine on the M25 near Reigate Hill. "He loves the night driving," says Sally. "We've got four kids so he is able to enjoy the peace and quiet during the day when they are out."
Since the mid-eighties Robert senior has confined his interest in the business to an "advisory" role, allowing his children to develop the operation and wrestle with the UK's recession while he enjoys the three properties he has built in Portugal—his latest project is a lakeside villa which has been built entirely to UK specification, even down to imported three-pin plugs.
Robert senior is a former caravan builder and trained carpenter—he got into haulage in 1960 shifting ballast for Thames West Power Station with a pair of Bedford tippers. As the haulage business grew, he recalls: "1 put an ad in the paper for 30 tippers to sub and got them from a chap called John Pearce who said he had 30 lorries and no work."
The next big project was the building of Gatwick Airport in 1963; this was the Swinging Sixties and ordinary people were going abroad in large numbers for the first time. Etherington was contracted to fit the landing lights and devised a method of installation which ensured they were perfectly positioned at the right angle. This included the use of a wooden form around which concrete was poured on to an iron cage. "We put all the lights in and they're still working," he says proudly. "
His dream is to set up a subsidiary of his business in Portugal where he says building standards are primitive compared to the UK.
Recent infrastructure projects in the South East have allowed cautious expansion although the recent period has been tough: "We've had a very hard time over the last few years with people going bust on us and holding out from paying their debts," says Shaun.
Erecting new signs on the M20 for the Channel Tunnel provided a month's work at Folkestone. Etherington was contracted by Associated Asphalt for a job which involved putting the sign bases up from Junctions eight to 13. "We dug out the trenches, a structural contractor filled them with concrete and we went back in to top up with subsoil and shingle," explains Shaun.
A longer term project involves pipe laying for the East Surrey Water Company through one of their contractors. This includes digging the trenches for the main water pipes. The business turns over up to £400,000 a year and, despite the difficulties of recent years, the round-the-clock utilisation of equipment means that it is earning while others are sleeping.
"Night work is very profitable when the vehicle has been out all day as well—double bubble, isn't it?" reasons Sally.
• by Patric Cznnane