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The Campbells have arrived

7th November 1975
Page 91
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Page 91, 7th November 1975 — The Campbells have arrived
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

by lain Sherriff

IF you want a job done well then do it yourself. That was the thinking which led the Campbell brothers of Airdrie, Lanarkshire, into the haulage business. Until 1970 their family had been grocers, hoteliers, publicans and wholesale wine and spirit merchants.

Mr Jim Campbell explains : "We found transport services totally unacceptable for our type of retail business. Bulk deliveries promised on specific days did not arrive ; small consignments dispatched by other wholesalers were being delayed at haulage depots, apparently awaiting full-load consignments to their area. Other part-loads were being lost in transit."

Few hauliers will deny that there is anything new in such complaints. Many will agree that in the pre-inflation era when traffic was plentiful a degree of slackness crept into operations and small consignments often were delayed for the more lucrative bulk loads.

Today, when traffic is less readily available, the Story may ba different. But today could be too late. It certainly is for the Campbell's traffic, for with their subsidiary company clansman Transport, they are doing it themselves.

In 1970 Jim Campbell and his brother Willie applied successfully for an operator's licence solely with the idea of collecting their own goods. When ordering supplies the delivery instructions column read "to be collected tomorrow."

The right spirit

The result is that the structure of the Campbell business has a completely new base. They are now own-account cum hire and reward transport and distribution men. Their supplies from the wholesalers are no longer delayed, therefore their retail customers are no longer dissatisfied. More important perhaps than customer relations, is the cash-flow situation. This is especially true of their wine and spirit traffic.

Before these commodities can be released from bond, duty has to be paid to HM Customs and Excise ; on one case of spirits this is in excess of £30. Before the duty can be recouped the goods have to be sold.

In the old days between duty being paid and goods arriving on the retail shop shelves three or even four weeks could have elapsed. This lead time has now been reduced to 24 hours, and what is even more important is that large 'stockholdings are unnecessary and therefore large quantities of capital do not need to be tied up but can be used in other areas of development.

The fiery cross of Ithe Campbell's success soon spread its message across other retailers in central Scotland. Manufacturers' representatives calling on Jim Campbell recounted familiar tales of woe on distribution delays for other customers. "Can you help?" became a familiar part of the salesmen's dialogue.

As a consequence Clansman began to collect and deliver for other retail outlets in close proximity to its Airdrie headquarters. Over the years this has spread to the east end of Glasgow and into all of Lanarkshire.

On the wine and spirit side of the business the increase in demand could best be described as dramatic. In the first two months of operation 55,000 cases were delivered in small lots.

But Clansman has not confined itself to local distribution. Consignments of wine are picked up in London, for Scotland, warehoused and then re distributed. Inevitably, at the start this led to an imbalance of traffic so that southwardbound consignments had to be found. Small, independent distillers were contacted and Clansman began trunking whisky to warehouses in the south at the rate of 159 to 200 casks a week.

This led to a further imbalance of traffic in that the Scottish " exports " exceeded the "imports," and further backload consignments had to be sought. The wine traffic was increased from London, Southampton and Bristol between retail outlets and bonds in Scotland. At the same time other traffic in the form of dry goods, fruit and vegetables and other produce of London's markets became part of the return-load traffic.

Under bond

Until I met Jim 'Campbell I thought that goods travelling between two bonded warehouses still under bond had to be carried in Crown locked vehicles. "This is not so," he said. "Carrying the goods under bond is merely a matter of documentation ; some customers might demand CLVs but they are •not strictly necessary."

The eight vehicle's in the Clansman fleet are a mixture of Bedford, Leyland, AEC and MAN. There has been no pattern of standardisation; they merely purchased where they could get a vehicle quickly. At the same time they were learning by experience and it now seems that they will settle for their light end of the range with Bedford and at the heavy end with MAN, and among the' fleet they have available Crown locked vehicles. As Clansmans' traffic built up, it became apparent that haulage costs could be reduced by carrying between the supplier and their distribution area in bulk. But to ensure that they were still able to supply their retail outlets as and when required, a reserve store had to be provided. They now have a warehouse of 7,500sqft, half of which is occupied with wines and spirits which they sell through their own outlets and to other retail outlets. The remainder is used for goods in transhipment.

Inevitably, their fleet of vehicles has grown ; their warehousing facilities also have grown as has their administrative and driving staff. Including the two brothers there are eight members of staff : one mechanic and eight drivers. It is likely th:at with the growth which is planned the admin staff will remain constant for some time, while the driving staff and mechanics increase.

The administration is kept to very simple rules : there is a flat distribution charge applicable in four different areas of Scotland. Area 1 is central Scotland including the Forth Clyde valley ; Area 2 is 60 miles b-2yond the central belt ; Area 3 is up to 120 miles beyond; and Area 4 is beyond 120 miles. Rates to the islands are those which apply to the nearest mainland port. There .is a flat rate for warehousing and distribution worked on 100 case units. It is pitched at a level, which makes it attractive for the customer to turn his stock over quickly. "The whole of our operation," said Jim Campbell, "is based on simplicity and speed of turn round." Perhaps for this reason he becomes frustrated when running into dock labour problems. He illustrated these problems with what he described as a typical case.

The company had an order to deliver 1,500 barrels of whisky to the docks; it was planned that the stevedore could accept 300 barrels a day. A tidy operation which could have been completed in five days. The idea was to use one unit and two trailers and While one of the trailers was being discharged at the docks, another would have been either en route or loading at the warehouse. "But the dockers would have none of it," he told me. "They demanded that the driver should discharge each of the barrels, roll them along the quayside for 200 yards and then stockpile them." It seemed to me a strange attitude for dockers to adopt when they are demanding that they should be handling all goods inside "port areas."

What it meant to Clansmen Transport was that they lost two days in argument and readjustment of their schedules, they had eventually Ito lay on two more vehicles and what began as a profitable export job with a quote based on a five-day turn-round became a costly operation.

Cost print-out

The Campbells are extremely cost-conscious people, even to the extent that they do not operate their own costings system. They are contract cus tomers of Inbucon Focas, which supplies them with a print out of their costs and comparisons with national averages every month. This has already demonstrated that a wage negotiation which was entered into with the drivers a year ago is costing £23 a week more than it should on their artic outfits. "The trouble was" said Jim Campbell, "when negotiating the rates we forgot to take the bonus into account." They now have the problem of how to eliminate this on-cost.

I had previously understood that the Inbucon Fozas service was exclusive to Ford operators—this, I learn, is not so.

Confrontation

In the anonimity of a large city and in a traffic situation where security was less important than it is where wine and spirit transport is involved, the easy answer to industrial relations problems might be to face up to a confrontation with the drivers and have them walk out. In the relatively small town of Airdrie this course has to be avoided at all costs. Not only are each of the drivers local men and known to the company, but they have been hand-picked.

Every man is either known personally to one of the brothers or has been introduced on a strong recommendation of another trusted employee.

The wage plus bonus problem appeared to me to be an almost insurmountable obstacle. However, it was less formidable to Jim Campbell. "I don't doubt we will overcome the difficulty because we have such a good relationship with our drivers," he explained.

Another problem less likely to be overcome with ease is the one posed by other operators. Clansman was asked to quote for barrel traffic from Dumbarton to Grangemouth. The brothers knew the existing rate for the traffic, worked out their rate, streamlined their method of operation, recalculated the rates and found that working at the minimum profits they could have reduced the previous rates by 716p. In the end their own rate was cut by a further 5p a barrel !

Like the rest of the country, there is spare capacity in Scotland for general haulage vehicles and rate cutting is the natural side-effect of such circumstances. It seems however, that firms like Clansman who are carrying 50 per cent for themselves and 50 per cent for others will be able to withstand the rate cutting. According Lto Jim Campbell there are two provisos : they should attempt to serve only that sector of the retail market which they know best and whose requirements they can therefore fulfill; and at the same time they must maintain a high standard of service.

This is a specialised type of haulage which not every operator can follow and it appears to be an area from which firms like Clansman can develop into the general haulage market when we move out of this recessionary period.


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