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When Doug Baker tried to sell hauliers the New Zealand-manufactured Sidelifter equipment, no-one wanted to know, so he decided to market it himself.
Doug Baker reckons he has fulfilled a lifelong ambition to offer a transport service in the UK where for the while, at least, he is able to steal a march on competitors in the business of transporting containers.
Baker is boss of Containerlift, an operation started last year and claiming to be the only haulier in the country with Sidelifter equipment, which enables fully loaded 20ft or 40ft containers to be lifted from ground level. It is this feature—a trailer capable of selfloading a laden container—that Baker believes is unique. Maximum lifting capacity is a muscular 30 tonnes. "I hope to have a year or two before everyone else catches on," he says.
The equipment, manufactured in New Zealand, offers a number of advantages over conventional methods of transporting containers. Empty containers can be left at the customer's premises while they load at their leisure, saving the haulier's waiting time and allowing the load to be packed as comprehensively as possible. And laden containers can be delivered and the haulier can go away Haulage costs are saved, disputes about demurrage are eliminated, manual handling is safer and the consignee or consignor does not need to hire a crane for lifting a fully laden container on or off a vehicle.
"I dreamed of being able to come to a site and be away in 10 to 15 minutes, whereas another haulier might be there for three hours while his container was unloaded," says Baker.
Baker has just purchased his third Sidelifter semi-trailer from the manufacturer, Steel Brothers of Christchurch. It cost 165,000, near the top end of the £45,000£75,000 price range depending on lifting capacity. The trailer comes complete with lifting gear, chassis and wheels. "It sounds a lot of money but the earning capacity is so great that it's worth it," says Baker.
He discovered the Sidelifter while on holiday in New Zealand with his wife, whose family come from the Antipodes. The Sidelifter had been championed by ICI, worried by the safety hazards posed by containers being loaded or unloaded on ramps which could lead to accidents. It insisted that all loading and unloading must in future be done on the ground.
Containerlift operates from a site at Stansted Airport and is a compact threeperson operation.
Baker is a managing director who keeps his hand in with a fair share of driving when demand requires and he employs two "very skilled and competent" drivers, Mick McCabe and Bob Robson.
The business runs two tractor units, both Scanias, and is shortly to add a third. The fleet will be upgraded by replacing two of the vehicles with contract hire units.
PRACTICE
Baker taught the drivers to operate the Sidelifter equipment but says practice has made them more skilled than he is. The loading equipment is operated from the rear, using a box control with a wanderlead, enabling the operator to have maximum visibility of the container's movement; particularly handy, says Baker, when loading on to another vehicle.
Unloading a container is carried out in three stages. First, two stabiliser legs are lowered to the ground. Second, the container swings out held by double sets of chains and is lowered by a hydraulic system powered by a small donkey engine. Third, the driver unclips the chains and the cargo can be removed. When CM saw the Sidelifter in action the whole operation took less than five minutes with a further five minutes spent wheeling out the cargo, a private car shipped in from the US.
Baker's first UK experience of the Sidelifter was not a happy one. Before setting up his own business, he unsuccessfully tried to sell the idea to other UK hauliers, but none wanted to be the first to try it.
"In the end [thought, sod it, I'll operate it myself and I'm glad did because it's taken off like a rocket," says Baker, "we started with one, now we've got three and we haven't even scratched the surface. A month ago I sent a thousand brochures to shipping lines and other potential customers and l've been getting four to five replies a day."
The safety factor has been a big advantage in selling the idea of Sidelifter, especially with tough new EC standards proposed for manual handling. "When people realise there is a safe yet practical way of doing a job that has to be done, they will eventually turn to it," says Baker.
Sidelifter also has an interrnodal application, Baker has just carried out some work for the British Army on Salisbury Plain which involved removing empty containers from a train, into which tanks were driven, and were then lifted back on to the train for shipment.
Baker compares the cost of this simple operation with what he believes was the "horrendous" costs of the Piggyback system employed by the ill-fated Charterail: Each movement was very expensive because of the cost of the equipment, but we can turn any old railway siding into a
freight terminal with one Sidelifter. There's no need for investment in equipment."
The ability to load containers while on the ground has meant many customers are attracted to Sidelifter if they are shipping valuable items such as antiques or classic cars. Moving personal effects accounts for about 40% of the business and Pickfords subcontracts work to Baker. "They invited us to bring the Sidelifter to a couple of their sales conferences so their reps could go out and introduce the idea to their customers," says Baker.
The company recently played a large part transporting vehicles brought in from the US to a classic car show at the NEC in Birmingham. The rarities included cars once belonging to Liberace (with candelabra on the bonnet), Al Caporiejames Dean, Mussolini and Mae West.
But perhaps the most curious cargo was Hitler's staff car, a menacing black Mercedes convertible, which arrived in Britain complete with four mannequins in Nazi uniform sitting upright in its seats. The customs officer who walked into the container to inspect its contents emerged shaken, convinced that four "people" had been smuggled into the country inside its airless space.
LI by Patric Cunnane