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bird's eye
Page 54
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viewby the Hawk • United returns
Nice to see that in troubled times for various publicly quoted transport companies, somebody is doing well. Hats off, say I, to United Carriers which substantially increased its profits in the year ended January 311973.
More significant, at a time when people are talking of 14 per cent as being a highly desirable return of net profits on turnover, United Carriers has just recorded 18.9 per cent.
And note that Dan Pettit of NFC remarked at the recent seminar for European transport operators that the Corporation's aim was for 20 per cent on capital. United Carriers earned 44.4 per cent on capital last year — and 43.4 per cent hi the previous financial year.
True, United Carriers has been growing so fast recently that it has become undercapitalized (so my financial friends tell me) — hence the capital issue last year and another one proposed now. Even so, the performance is remarkable and should not go unmentioned.
• Dialectologists
Licensing Authorities who have lived and worked among the people who now appear before them in court have a distinct advantage over their colleagues. A man who enjoys this situation is Mr Alex Birnie, the Scottish LA.
Most people appearing in court usually feel a little uncomfortable. Alex Birnie's manner immediately puts them at their ease so that they find the examination less painful — but perhaps more revealing — than they imagined.
When he had a building contractor before him recently the Scottish LA chatted quite casually to the man in his native Aberdeenshire dialect and before long had learned: (a) that his maintenance records had dropped into a drum of oil and were no longer being kept; (b) that the vehicle he was intending to add to his fleet was secondhand, and 12 years' old at that; and (c) that he wasn't too sure if a 0V9 issued two months ago had been cleared.
When asked by the LA what he had done to rectify his poor maintenance, the man replied: "A've gaed the mechanic a guid taukin tae". Not only does the area need a native LA but spare a thought for the harassed shorthand writer.
• Cold comfort
Bob Heaton Jr. tells me that no settlement of compensation claims over last year's container dispute at the docks is likely before September because the determination of the precise loss which could be attributed to the labour troubles is complex.
A recent "meeting for directions" at the National Industrial Relations Court, to explore the issue of compensation for Heatons and Craddocks arising from the actions of TGWU members last year, did not offer much hope of a speedy resolution.
Although NIRC has not been in the news much lately it has never been so busy, with 100 cases on the books currently. Most of the Court's work concerns appeals from Industrial Tribunal decisions and the new law created is said to be highly significant. So much so that when the trade unions find time to digest it they may not be quite so keen to expunge it all and go back to square one — whatever that entails.
• Personal asset
I wonder what Jim Nuttall, managing director of Transport and Warehousing Ltd (an integral part of the Dundee, Perth and London group that is now bidding for William Nuttall) thinks about the profits crash at Burnholme & Forder and the suspension of that company's quote on the Stock Exchange.
Jim was part of the family business of H. Nuttall & Sons which was acquired by Burnholme & Forder in 1966, and was appointed joint managing director of B & F in 1968. Apparently he was doing a great job there and profits on the transport side were soaring when effective control of B & F passed into new hands.
So Jim tried to buy the company's transport interests. Unfortunately, B & F wanted cash. But at that time Dundee, Perth was looking for a desirable transport company ...
Ultimately, a deal was made whereby Transport & Warehousing (the name given to the holding company for the group of companies extracted from B & F) joined DPL. And Slater Walker, in exchange for some of the DPL shares issued to Transport & Warehousing, provided the cash for Jim Nuttall to buy the transport company.
Strange how things turn out.
Incidentally, DPL's chairman, Michael Buckley, obviously thinks the world of Jim's transport management qualities. Did someone slip up rather badly somewhere?