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Catering fo

9th February 1995
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

every taste

When the average haulier surveys his fleet at the beginning of the year, calculating what it will cost to run in the 12 months ahead is pure guesswork. Educated guesswork, maybe; after all, he knows what his trucks cost to run last year and he can estimate fuel, road tax and insurance. But the vehicles are of varying ages and who knows when and where they might break down? And if one does, how much will it cost to rent or buy a replacement?

Lanky Scot Bill Watson shakes his head sadly. "How do you budget? With a fleet of different ages you just stick your finger in the air!" That problem no longer exists for Watson, who is distribution manager for catering specialist Autobar's Scottish operation based in Cumbernauld with depots at Inverness and Aberdeen. Supply of his 15-vehicle fleet recently switched to a contract-hire arrangement with truck rental specialist, Ryder. "Now we know what it will cost," says Watson. "As long as one of our guys doesn't do something stupid Ryder will not bill us above the agreed rate." But is it more expensive than running your own fleet? Watson reckons it is marginally cheaper, "though there's not a lot in it".

Licensed trade

Autobar has 17 distribution centres throughout the UK, handling 14,000 lines for the catering and licensed trade, including paper cups, vending products, glassware and cleaning materials. When we visited the company was doing a popular seasonal line in Burns' Night napkins.

Most of the depots south of the border have operated a policy of leasing vehicles for some time, with 98 vehicles supplied by Ryder. Now it is the turn of the Scottish operation. Eight new Leyland Daf FA45-130 7.5-tonne box vans have been introduced with a sale-and-lease-back arrangement on the remaining seven Iveco Ford Cargos.

The vehicles are maintained by Ryder at its nearby Rutherglen service centre where they are taken every eight weeks for a routine check. "We want to avoid any roadside breakdowns," says Ian Hartley, Ryder's northern area account manager and Watson's main point of contact with the rental firm. Should a vehicle come in with a rear spring broken, for example, Ryder provides a temporary replacement vehicle in its own colours.

The contract runs for five years but customers have the option to come out on the contract's yearly anniversary. "It keeps us on our toes," says Hartley, adding that cancellations rarely happen unless a haulier loses a major contract and finds himself with too many vehicles. "We will try to help our customers at any time," says Hartley.

Ryder can also supply drivers. At present Watson uses a driver agency to cover holidays and seasonal blips, but he is open to persuasion: "If someone can offer a better service I will look at them." He still winces at the memory of the time when a bemused agency driver picked up a tachograph chart and asked: "What's this for?"

Recent decision

Autobar in Scotland was originally a familyowned haulage firm, Yeaman & McIntosh, taken over by the catering specialist in 1978. It was left to do its own thing until Autobar's recent decision that it should fit in with the company's corporate fleet policy. Watson says he doesn't feel any resentment at the English head office dictating who supplies his vehicles, although the Leyland Dais haven't met with universal approval."The drivers don't like them when its windy because they rock about a bit," he shrugs, "But it's not a big deal."

Ryder keeps a weather eye on Euro legislation on behalf of its customers. One area where Watson believes legislation will come is in the carriage of mixed loads of foodstuffs and chemicals. At present it is legal to carry such loads without separation within the same body. In Autobar's multidrop operation this allows it to mix orders of cleaning materials and vending products for individual customer deliveries, in line with the company's one-stop service. But Watson believes change is inevitable.

Typically, a vehicle is loaded from the back (behind the cab) with each customer's complete order. When the driver is delivering he need only open one door and pick up one invoice and one order. But if chemicals were at the back, protected by the van's bulkhead, with food at the front, the driver would need to unlock one door, remove his order, lock it, and go round the vehicle to pick the rest of the order from its second door.

To do other than lock each door in turn would present a security problem: "He can't leave one door open or a load of BrassĀ° will disappear," says Watson, adding wryly, "In some areas they don't even wait for the driver to open the door."

The reason the law will change, he adds, is because of the risk of food being contaminated by unscrupulous operators. "If we had sugar and chemicals in the same vehicle and a container of bleach burst there is no way we would attempt to repackage, but some might" Such a law could force him to expand the fleet.

For Ken McKinlay, Ryder's area director for Scotland, Autobar's operation fits well into his idea of the ideal rental fleet. Most profits are made at 7.5 tonnes and below. Tractive units, he says, represent a huge capital cost: "Anything above 17 tonnes falls into the "nice to have" category," he says. "You can't afford to let that stuff sit around." D by Patric Cumiane


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