Motor Transport 5 February 2018

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RHA and FTA say proposed £1 levy on HGVs using port would be a tax on business

MOTOR TRANSPORT AWARDS 2018 ENTRY DEADLINE 2 MARCH 2018

NEWS INSIDE01/02/2018

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Contract battles

UK Mail under fire from GMB for cutting pay

p3

Cheating ways

Traffic commissioners target AdBlue fraudsters p6

Pay up or else

New law shines light on time taken to pay bills p8

OPERATORS IN THIS ISSUE Amazon ................................................p4 Asda ....................................................p6 ATL Haulage Contractors .......................p6 Boughey Distribution ............................p8 Bullet Express.......................................p8 Clipper Logistics ...................................p8 DTS ....................................................p26 Mactrans ..............................................p6 Palletways ...........................................p4 Rapid Response Deliveries ....................p6 Royal Mail ..........................................p27 Suttons Tankers ....................................p3 UK Mail ................................................p3

Dover rebuts port HGV levy

By Emma Shone

A proposed congestion charge on HGVs using the Port of Dover has been rebutted by Dover Council after it was met 12:03 with “incredulity” by trade associations.

At a council meeting last week, councillor Nathaniel Richards proposed a £1 levy on HGVs entering the port in order to spend revenue on air quality improvement, but the FTA and RHA warned it could jeopardise British trading relationships.

At the meeting, Richards said: “With increasing traffic at the Port of Dover starting to affect air quality and roads surrounding Dover, would the portfolio holder for access and licensing be willing to consider working with relevant partners to introduce a congestion charge for all HGVs using the port, in order to use the levy collected to combat these issues?”

Richards’ proposal was

declined at the meeting by councillor Nigel Collor, Dover District Council portfolio holder for access and licensing. Collor said that the measure was unnecessary as while Kent’s overall pollution was increasing, Dover’s air quality had shown improvement.

However, Richards told local news outlet Kent Online that he intended to put his proposal forward again, but in a format of a meeting where it could be voted on by fellow councillors.

The RHA said its response to the proposal was one of incredulity, and chief executive Richard Burnett described it as “a ridiculous idea”.

FTA head of UK policy Christopher Snelling said the congestion charge would essentially be a tax on haulage businesses, which would hurt British trading relationships and push up the price of goods and services. He added the tax would not improve air quality in and around the port but

would be an “unfair burden on an industry already bearing the cost of cleaning up the nation’s air”.

He added: “Operators have already made huge strides in reducing emissions, with the latest generation of trucks 90% cleaner than those sold just five years ago. These innovations are beginning to have an effect on air quality and it is wrong to place the blame for pollution levels solely at the wheels of freight vehicles.”

Manston Airport option is necessary evil, says FTA The FTA is in favour of using Manston Airport as a short- to medium-term contingency for Operation Stack after it was revealed the government had paid nearly £6m to rent it.

The figure was released after an internal review found the DfT was incorrect to withhold the figure after a Freedom of Information request.

The former airport, located 20 miles north of Dover, has

never been used to park lorries, but the DfT has regularly made payments to keep it available should an emergency parking situation arise.

FTA head of UK policy Christopher Snelling said: “While the price of renting Manston Airport might appear high, the cost of failing to prepare for a possible closure of the Port of Dover would be far greater.

“When Operation Stack is implemented, the money lost

by UK businesses runs into millions of pounds, not to mention the cost to the Kent economy and massive disruption to local residents.

“Moving trucks into Manston, while not ideal, would relieve pressure on the local infrastructure and go some way to reducing this impact.”

News Extra p8-9 Focus: Politics p10 Aftermarket special: p14-21 Repair and maintenance p26 Interview: Mike Daly p28 Careers p33

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01/02/2018 16:33:57

MAKE AN IMPACT ON YOUR INDUSTRY GET YOUR GROUND-BREAKING ENTRIES READY FOR THE 2018 MOTOR TRANSPORT AWARDS

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01/02/2018 08:55:01 18/01/2018 13:00

News

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Sign up to attend LoCITY roadshow UK freight operators interested in alternative fuels and retrofit technology to reduce fleet emissions are invited to a free-toattend LoCITY event on 20 March.

The event is the largest in a series of four roadshows, provided by TfL, which will bring together operators, vehicle manufacturers and technology experts to explore market-ready alternatives to using diesel in commercial vehicle fleets.

Electric, gas, hydrogen, biodiesel and kinetic energy recovery system technology will all be explored, and operators will have the chance to find out about available grants and vehicle trials from Innovate UK, TfL and OLEV representatives.

There will also be the opportunity to look at a range of alternativefuelled vans and lorries, talk to manufacturers and explore leasing and finance options.

Operators attending include John Lewis Partnership, O’Donovan Waste Disposal, CitySprint and Martin Brower.

The event, called Fuels in Action, takes place at Kempton Park Race Course, Sunbury-onThames. It is free to attend, but visitors must register at locity.org.uk.

Union slams lower price per drop but carrier says increased volumes could boost pay

UK Mail reduces pay to stay competitive

By Emma Shone

Increased parcel volumes at UK Mail have seen the carrier lower its price per drop for delivery drivers to remain competitive, angering the GMB union.

The Deutsche Post DHLowned company came under fire from the union after drivers from 55 UK Mail depots across the country claimed they had been pressurised into signing a new contract, which would cut their pay by up to £2,000 a year.

At a depot in Runcorn, drivers reported having been told to sign the new contract by the end of the day or face losing their jobs.

However, UK Mail disputed the claim that the new contract would cut drivers’ pay, arguing that because drivers were delivering more parcels they stood to earn more money than before, even with a reduced payment per drop.

A company spokesman said: “Due to a significant increase in the number of parcels UK Mail is carrying, the earnings of self-employed drivers, who are paid per delivery stop, have gone up correspondingly over the past year and that volume is forecast to increase further in 2018.

“To be able to offer customers the competitive prices they

demand, we have renegotiated our parcel delivery rate with drivers. But due to the increase in volumes carried by each courier, the overall amount they can earn will, on average, go up without having to travel further or incur additional costs.”

GMB national officer Mick Rix said: “The company made a healthy profit in 2016 and appears to be apeing other parcel firms’ model – paying executives huge amounts of money while expecting workers to do more as they cut their pay.”

UNITE FIGHTS SUTTONS TANKERS INJUNCTION As MT went to press, the Unite union was due in court to challenge an injunction seeking to end a protest by Suttons Tankers drivers who have been on strike over changes to their terms and conditions.

According to the union, more than 30 members – drivers and fitters – have been on strike since 19 January over plans by Suttons Tankers to dismiss and re-engage them on an inferior basis. However, last month (24 January) Eastham Refinery of Ellesmere Port, where the workers are based, sought an injunction in Manchester High Court to end the picket. The case was adjourned to recommence last week (1 February).

A spokesman for Suttons Tankers told MT: “The changes we are proposing are necessary for us to remain competitive and to protect jobs in the long-term.”

Direct Vision confusion a ‘spectacular own goal’ by London mayor

Image: Shutterstock

The FTA has accused London mayor Sadiq Khan of scoring “a spectacular own goal” in his plans to clean up the capital’s air quality, due to the confusion over the Direct Vision Standard (DVS).

The association said the time it is taking to finalise the qualification levels for the DVS, alongside an unrealistic schedule for its implementation, is causing frustration and confusion. It believes opera5.2.18

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tors are postponing acquiring new Euro-6 vehicles because they may not be eligible for use in London in the future.

FTA head of urban policy Natalie Chapman said: “The mayor has scored a spectacular own goal with DVS. “The FTA, along with everyone in London, wants to see an improvement in air quality, but this could have happened faster if the new DVS had been better planned.”

According to figures from the SMMT, new UK truck registrations in the third quarter of 2017 were down 5.7% on the same period the previous year, which the FTA attributes, in part, to DVS uncertainty, the Ultra Low Emission Zone and clean air zones.

“The FTA supports Sadiq Khan’s aspiration to cut the number of injuries and deaths caused by HGVs on London’s roads, but any road safety

scheme involving new vehicles needs to be carefully planned to avoid disrupting supplies to the capital,” said Chapman.

Christina Calderato, head of delivery planning at TfL, said: “We are working with manufacturers to identify the star ratings of Euro-6 vehicles – these will be available shortly and will provide the clarity needed to identify ULEZcompliant vehicles with the highest safety rating.”

MotorTransport 3

01/02/2018 16:46:42

News

motortransport.co.uk

MIX AND MATCH: Palletways has taken 67 new Mercedes-Benz trucks in a range of sizes to be distributed among its UK depots.

Provided by S&B Commercials, the new vehicles are on a contract-hire agreement through Mercedes-Benz finance. The deal marks a move away from Palletways’ traditional spot-hire strategy towards longer-term vehicle hire. The network has ordered 28 new Actros tractor units, the majority of which are 428hp vehicles with StreamSpace cabs, although there are four BigSpace cabs boasting 476hp. Rigids make up the rest of the order, with a mix of 18- and 26-tonne Antos trucks. At the smaller end of the scale, the network will have eight 15-tonne and four 7.5-tonne Ategos. The majority of the trucks have been delivered, and will be working at the network’s depots in Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Oxford.

Online retail giant outspending its rivals in the e-commerce arms race

Amazon is ‘gorilla in the room’

By Emma Shone

Amazon is a “10-tonne gorilla in the room” in the e-commerce market, according to Metapack founder Patrick Wall, who publicly drew attention to the threat of the online retailer to the market for the first time.

Speaking at The Delivery Conference in London last week (30 January), Wall said: “We are all conscious that there is a gorilla in the room.

That gorilla is a 10-tonne monster and, while it is entertaining our customers, it’s threatening. That gorilla is Amazon.”

He added that by 2030, 39% of all e-commerce transactions globally will be through Amazon, eBay or Alibaba.

However, Wall added that Amazon’s technology is not advancing as quickly as people perceive.

“Amazon has taken structural advantage through scale, but the technology isn’t necessarily advancing that quickly.

There are many people now who can provide a better option,” he said.

Debenhams chairman Ian Cheshire also addressed the threat of Amazon to its competitors and warned that 4 MotorTransport MTR_050218_004.indd 4

the market should pay more attention to the business’s re-investment in innovation.

“Amazon is outspending the e-commerce arms race at least five to one,” he said. “The average retailer reinvests 1% to 2% on innovation. Amazon reinvests 6%.”

Cheshire added: “They deliberately reinvest their money in innovation and that money is going into better testing and infrastructure.

Amazon is taking roughly a 20-year bet. It’s not interested in quarterly numbers. “[Founder Jeff ] Bezos is playing by a different set of rules and relentlessly working out where the next chunk of value is coming from in a very agile way.”

This came as Amazon said it would be recruiting 400 employees for its Rugby fulfilment centre, which will open this year.

Amazon director of UK customer fulfilment Stefano Perego said: “We are delighted to expand our operations in the Midlands, where we already have a dedicated workforce of more than 2,500 people at fulfilment centres in Rugeley, Coalville and Daventry.”

Drivers favour Arrival electric van Royal Mail head of fleet technical and compliance Grahame Bennett will update delegates at the Microlise Transport Conference in May on one of the industry’s most exciting vehicle trials.

In August last year, Royal

Mail began trialling a new type of electric vehicle, built by technology firm Arrival, in London.

The 6-tonne van, the first of nine the postal operator will be putting through their paces, operates out of Royal

Mail’s Mount Pleasant depot.

Bennett told MT: “We’ve got one of the vehicles on the road and will hopefully have the second out by 16 May. We’ve had a couple of little experiences we’ve learnt from, and driver feedback has been extremely positive.”

Bennett said that Arrival approached Royal Mail two years ago to pitch a trial of its electric vehicle, and that the operator was impressed with a prototype it had built.

“Arrival said payload wouldn’t be an issue because the battery size and weight is flexible, which is a big factor for us,” he said.

BOOK NOW Don’t miss Grahame Bennett’s talk at the Microlise Transport Conference on 16 May at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry. To book a free space, go to microliseconference.com.

Write to: Motor Transport, Road Transport Media, 6th floor, Chancery House, St Nicholas Way Sutton, Surrey, SM1 1JB. Email: chris.druce@roadtransport.com. Please include your full name, position, address and contact details. Letters published may also appear on our website: motortransport.co.uk. Motor Transport reserves the right to edit letters.

What about the women?

I am a regular reader of MT, and I have worked in the transport sector for some 20 years. I am fully aware that it is a male-dominated industry, and that my gender probably accounts for approximately 25% of that workforce.

However, I do not expect such gender bias in your publication.

You can imagine my extreme disappointment and surprise when I read your feature in the 8 January issue, entitled Top 10 Power

Players, and discovered that there was not a single female among the Top 10.

This article just reinforced and almost celebrated the fact that the industry is maledominated.

I find it extremely hard to believe that you could not find at least one female who would fit into the Power Player category.

In future, it would be great to have some consideration for our female transport contingent in the magazine, as the vast majority of its coverage is of men.

■ Lyn Coates Head of transport, Kloeckner Metals

5.2.18

01/02/2018 16:37:48

SAFE IN THE CITY Built to the most stringent safety standards and featuring a low seating position and optional City Safe Window, the new Scania L-series is the safe choice for urban operations.

Find out more about the L-series at www.scania.co.uk/l-series

safety redefined AD_050218__P5.indd 5

01/02/2018 09:02:45

News

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SEEING DOUBLE: Asda has ordered 60 double-deck curtainsiders and 10 doubledeck box vans from Cartwright. The order comes after Cartwright delivered 147 double-deck curtainsiders to the supermarket group in time for Christmas 2016. The new trailers feature a hydraulic moving deck system and can accommodate pallets and cages carrying ambient produce.

Cartwright regional sales director Jon Wilcock said: “Both engineering teams have worked to develop and improve the tailored design that has evolved from the previous major orders from Asda. We are delighted that we have not only created a bespoke trailer for Asda, but have evolved the product to meet its operational requirements.”

Traffic commissioners punish third haulier within a month for fitting emissions cheat devices

Crackdown on AdBlue cheats

By Chris Druce

Traffic commissioner (TC) Kevin Rooney has likened the use of AdBlue emulators on HGVs to fitting magnets to interfere with tachographs as the third haulier within a month was punished for cheating emission rules.

In Bristol, West of England TC Rooney disqualified Patrick McNally from being a transport manager for a year – having also lost his repute – after he admitted to researching the fitting of a defeat device.

His employer, Westonsuper-Mare-based Mactrans, owned by Louis McNally, was described as a generally compliant business that had nevertheless stepped over the line with its use of a cheat device on one of its vehicles.

Its O-licence will be suspended for 14 days from 11

February. It was also given a three-month grace period by the TC to appoint a new transport manager to replace McNally.

In a second separate case, Rooney revoked the six-vehicle

licence of Stephen Harris and Karen Phelps after rejecting Harris’s claim that he did not know that one of his vehicles was fitted with an emulation device.

Instead, Rooney took the

view that Harris’s motivation for running with such a device fitted was so that he could travel into London and avoid the emissions charge for HGVs that are not Euro-5 compliant.

“I consider the fitting of the emulator as equivalent, for example, to using a magnet to interrupt a tachograph. Each is an act of fraud. Each can kill – one just does it more violently and quickly than the other,” said Rooney.

Last month, TC for the West Midlands Nick Denton revoked the licence of Stoke haulier Rapid Resource Deliveries after one of its vehicles was found to have an AdBlue emulator fitted.

The action comes after the DVSA found one in 12 vehicles it stopped between August and November last year were using emission fraud devices (MT 22 January).

Of 3,735 trucks stopped, 293 (8%) contained cheat devices such as AdBlue emulators, which prevent AdBlue systems from operating and increase vehicles’ NOx output.

Connect Group remains confident despite 3.5% drop in turnover ATL Haulage Contractors Increased volumes at Tuffnells Parcels Express and Pass My Parcel failed to offset falling newspaper and magazine sales, according to owner Connect Group.

Group turnover was down 3.5% in the 19 weeks to 19 January 2018, reported in an update that attributed delayed contracts, declining sales and market uncertainty for a predicted drop in profitability this financial year.

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The group’s share price fell almost 30%, from 105p to 75p, with the release of the update last month. As MT went to press it was 73p.

Connect Group CEO Mark Cashmore said the group remained confident despite the disappointing update.

He said: “While today’s trading update is disappointing, we are confident of the underlying strength of the group.

Performance in the newspaper

and magazine businesses, which represent 80% of our profit, remains on track, with continuing strong cash generation. The actions we are taking to address weaker margins outside of news distribution are aligned to the ongoing integration of the group’s operations and will not distract us from our transformation strategy.”

Tuffnells, referred to as Connect Group’s Mixed

Freight division, reported turnover up 1.3% year on year, with volumes for the 19 weeks up 2.6%.

Connect Group reported impressive volume and turnover growth in its Pass My Parcel business, which falls under the News Distribution and Media division with Smiths News.

The 1.3 million parcels it delivered in the 19 weeks to 19 January equate to a 347% improvement year-on-year.

The 8 January issue of MT featured a photo on page 18 under the headline ‘Risky business’ that might have given the impression that ATL Haulage Contractors was responsible for the accident shown.

This was not the case as ATL was in no way responsible and we apologise for any problems this picture may have caused.

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01/02/2018 15:14:30

Opinion

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Those taking part in the Earned Recognition pilot have been named, but will it see wider adoption?

Are you earning your living?

By Rebecca Stanton

The DVSA’s Earned Recognition scheme has finally moved into its pilot stage after a protracted build up.

Many moons ago, the DVSA set itself the target of attracting 40 operators before it would move to a live scheme.

It has now revealed the 20 operators (see box) plus coach and bus operators that are in its pilot, which collectively hold 100 O-licences and run 6,000 vehicles. If successful, the scheme promises operators with recognition benefits including: ■ recognition from 31 January 2018 that you meet the standards; ■ that you are unlikely to be stopped at the roadside; ■ that you are an exemplary operator and can demonstrate this when you bid for contracts; ■ you are unlikely to receive a visit from the DVSA; ■ you can use Earned Recognition positively on websites and publicity; ■ you have access to a DVSA business manager.

But in reality, is it worth it?

Of course, all operators strive to achieve the highest standard of compliance that they can, but the low take-up of the pilot so far suggests the scheme is not very attractive to operators.

Maybe one of the main reasons for that is trust, or indeed distrust. Even the best operators get it wrong sometimes, and what will the DVSA do if an operator breaches the required key performance indicators (KPIs)? The scheme requires the submission of data via an automatic reporting system to the scheme manager, and let’s not forget, this scheme is managed by the DVSA. They are robust KPIs, which the DVSA has claimed are based on analysis of more than 1.5 million records, and are achievable.

The scheme requires both vehicle and trailer MoT initial pass rates to be at or exceed 95%, yet the national average for vehicle MoT initial pass rates undertaken at DVSA premises in the year 2015/16 was only 72%, and 92% for trailers.

For all other KPIs for safety main-

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SCHEME PARTICIPANTS Wincanton, DPD, Sainsbury’s, Fraikin, Cemex, John Lewis, 3663 Transport, BT Fleet, Freightlink Europe, Simmonds Transport, F&R Cawley and Staples Bros are participating. An announcement about the start of the regime is expected at this year’s CV Show, which takes place from 24-26 April. However, the DVSA is still accepting applications to join the pilot, and those applying by 28 February are promised extra support to get up and running.

tenance, 100% compliance is required.

The reality might be that many operators running safe and compliant fleets fall foul of the KPIs simply because the administration of their system lets them down. In essence, it will only ever be as good as the information inputted.

KPIs

The KPIs for driving activities are no less robust. Oddly, in December 2017 the scheme saw the removal of a KPI specifically for repeat offenders – drivers who either regularly or repeatedly infringe, and who might otherwise have been missed or hidden by an otherwise satisfactory KPI across the fleet.

December 2017 also saw the removal of the KPI for most serious infringements and missing mileage. One can only speculate that they were causing a high failure rate.

The scheme sets four weekly measurement periods and proposes to alert operators when a KPI is exceeded, but not sufficiently to notify the scheme manager. The calculations required by the DVSA for driving activities are based on the total number of infringements against the total number of tachograph days, and is shown as a percentage.

It proposes an automated notification to the DVSA in a number of scenarios: ■ over three rolling KPI measurement periods, the operator fails to meet any one of the KPIs three times by less than one percentage point; ■ over three rolling KPI measurement periods, the operator fails to meet any one of the KPIs twice by one percentage point or more; ■ during any KPI measurement period, any KPI is exceeded by two percentage points or more; ■ over 13 rolling KPI measurement

periods, any performance indicator is exceeded more than four times.

If an alert is notified, the guidance suggests the scheme manager will discuss the matter with the operator.

The ultimate sanction proposed by the guidance document is a removal from the scheme – however the reality is perhaps far graver.

It is at this point that the lines between advisor and prosecutor become blurred. The DVSA will never offer immunity from prosecution, and they will never say that the information gathered by Earned Recognition can not be used in other proceedings.

There is, for me, too much risk of selfincrimination where the evidence for the prosecution is being gathered and submitted by the defence.

encounter or as part of a DVSA routine visit. They define a set of standards that must be met for the operator to gain entry to the scheme.

The audit sampling size depends on the amount of vehicles in the fleet

Industry reluctance

What other things are turning the industry off Earned Recognition?

■ Eligibility – Earned Recognition is not available to new entrants to the industry, and is available only to those who have had no adverse interactions (other than a warning) with the Office of the Traffic Commissioner in the previous two years.

■ Technical – for smaller operators the first stumbling block comes in the form of a requirement to have an electronic management system for both maintenance and drivers’ hours.

■ Cost – entry to the scheme comes without an application cost but operators must submit themselves to an audit, which will not be undertaken by the DVSA but by a number of private companies. There is no indication as to any agreed fee level.

■ Business disruption – broadly speaking, it appears that the audit criteria and standards loosely mirror the traffic examiner’s operator report ordinarily undertaken either post-roadside

and the number of operating centres.

Fleets of more than 51 vehicles require an audit sample containing a minimum amount of 10% of both its vehicle and driver records. For those with 16-plus operating centres the audit sampling will require 10% of those operating centres to be audited (or three operating centres, which ever is the lowest).

There are no surprises in the assessment requirements, but those wanting to apply to the scheme would do well to ask for a copy of the audit standards in advance to internally undertake an assessment in preparation for an application, and avoid the unnecessary cost and disruption of an external audit resulting in an outcome that improvement is required before standards are met and a further application to the scheme would need to be made.

■ Rebecca Stanton is an associate at national law firm Weightmans, based in its Leeds office.

MotorTransport 7

01/02/2018 11:42:34

News extra

motortransport.co.uk

New law shining a light on the time taken to pay bills

Time to end practice of late payment

By Carol Millett

The habit of large firms such as collapsed Carillion forcing lengthy payment terms on suppliers could become a thing of the past under legislation that publicly exposes late payers.

Introduced in April last year, the Payment Practices and Performance Reporting (PPPR) regulations require large companies to submit twice-yearly reports of their payment performance and practices to the Department for Business, which then publishes them.

These reports must include the average time taken to pay an invoice from date of receipt, the percentage of invoices paid within 30 days, those paid between

agreed terms, and only six said they had paid their suppliers within 30 days.

Worse still, eight of the 491 companies report that more than 90% of their invoices were not paid within the agreed terms, including Clipper Logistics (92%) and Boughey Distribution (90%). As MT went to press Clipper Logistics declined to comment and Boughey Distribution had failed to respond to requests for comment.

These findings echo recent research from business finance company MarketInvoice, which reveals that 62% of invoices issued by UK SMEs in 2017 were paid late, up from 60% in 2016, with some taking almost six months.

Worst offenders

31 and 60 days, those paid beyond 61 days, and the percentage of invoices that are not paid within agreed terms.

Main image: Shutterstock

Reporting requirement

The reporting requirement applies to large companies and large limited liability partnerships, regardless of whether they are private, public or quoted, that meet two or more of the size thresholds in the past two preceding financial years: annual turnover of £36m; balance sheet total of £18m; and/or 250 employees.

With the regulation applying to financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2017, the first of these reports began to emerge in November last year. To date, 491 firms have reported their payment practices, with more than 70 firms revealing that more than 50% or more of their invoices were not paid within the agreed terms.

Conversely, only 14 reported that all of their invoices had been paid within the 8 MotorTransport

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Some of the worst offenders identified

by MarketInvoice’s research hail from the haulage industry’s key client sectors, including the food and beverage industry (83%), energy businesses (80%) and wholesalers (79%).

Nor is the logistics sector above paying its suppliers late, according to MarketInvoice spokesman Bilal Mahmood. “The transport sector takes, on average, the longest time to pay.

These, typically, tend to be logistics and distribution businesses and so potentially are affected by further delays in their supply chain.”

So will the new payment performance reporting regulations make a difference? Mahmood believes they could bring in a radical change in the corporate cultures of large firms. “We look forward to how the duty to report measures will play out. This is not about naming and shaming but encouraging positive behaviours at big businesses,” he said.

But is it enough? Hauliers at the sharp end of late payment practices think not. Bullet Express MD David McCutcheon argues the new regulations need to be tougher, with firms’ payment times graded, so suppliers can easily identify poor practices.

He said: “There is a clear outcry about trade terms being controlled by the big guys following the collapse of Carillion. I have suggested many times

that it is time to get this sorted, and this current high profile brings a great opportunity.

“At present we are forced by major household freight monsters to accept 60 to 90 days, or indeed be blocked if we don’t accept 60 to 90 days or worse.

Public sector

“Major companies should have to register their average payment terms when they log their financial returns at Companies House and all firms with £10m turnover or more should pay no later than 30 to 40 days or receive a fine.”

McCutcheon added: “Grading cash to 90-day payments from A-H would be an ideal way, then when sales people price jobs they can then see what they’re getting and majors would fight to get the rate down.”

Hargreaves Logistics MD Andrew Spence-Wolrich wants the public sector do more to protect suppliers on public works. “The government is obliged to pay primary contractors on public sector contracts within 14 to 30 days.

Yet subcontractors have to wait 60 days or – as with Carillion – 120 days. Why is this allowed? Why is the primary contractor allowed to use government money to fund its cashflow in this way?

The public sector could easily add this requirement into their contracts.”

The RHA echoed these views. Rod McKenzie, policy and public affairs director, told MT: “Late payments are a massive headache for our members and we welcome anything that encour-

ages firms to make payments in a more sensible timeframe.

“Waiting for 60 to 90 or even 120 days for payment is crippling for SMEs and we would like to see even more firms made to demonstrate their compliance and good practice.

“We believe the bar on turnover threshold is set too high and should be lower, so more firms are held to account, as it is always SMEs that are punished by these practices.”

The Federation of Small Businesses also wants the government to take a much harder line on late payments and bring more companies under the spotlight of the IPPR regulations. Chairman Mike Cherry said: “The latest government figures on payment practices demonstrate we still have some way to go. Payments take an average of 40 days to be made, with only half the payments from companies that reported being made within 30 days. Nearly a third of payments were made later than their agreed terms. This data doesn’t tell the whole picture, with many larger firms not reporting this data.

“The government needs to draw a line in the sand immediately and clamp down on the widespread poor payments culture in the UK. The Prompt Payment Code should be mandated for all FTSE350 companies and strengthened through the introduction of a new ‘three strikes and you’re out’ policy that stops big businesses bidding for public sector contracts if they are found to be paying late or employing bullying tactics.”

5.2.18

01/02/2018 12:54:53

News extra

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Highways England's all-lane running improvements are not enough to ensure safety, say industry experts

Emergency refuge area row rages

Image: PA

By Carol Millett

Highways England’s plans to improve the frequency and visibility of emergency refuge areas (ERAs) on all-lane running (ALR) motorway schemes do not go far enough, according to MPs, hauliers and recovery operators.

The House of Commons Transport Committee has criticised the results of the Highways England review, which were revealed to the committee in a letter from Highways England chief Jim O’Sullivan last month.

O’Sullivan told the committee that the review had concluded that the frequency of ERAs on future schemes should increase from 1.5 miles to one mile, that ERAs and their signage should be made more visible and that a “small number” of additional ERAs should be installed on existing ALR schemes “with the highest level of potential live stops”. However, he added that the review had rejected calls for longer ERAs after trials established the length of ERAs is “sufficient for safe vehicle recovery”.

Responding to the review, transport committee chairwoman Lilian Greenwood said the size and spacing of ERAs was of particular concern. She said: “Plans to reduce the spacing to one mile between the refuge areas in future schemes falls far short of the committee’s recommendation that areas should be spaced at 500m to 800m apart, as in the M42 Active Traffic Management pilot, which the committee supported.”

Greenwood renewed the transport committee’s call for longer and more frequent ERAs on ALR schemes, pointing to an AA survey published in January, which revealed more than a fifth of drivers rate ALR motorways as 5.2.18

MTR_050218_009.indd 9

dangerous. The survey of approximately 20,000 drivers found 22% of respondents said ALR schemes are more dangerous than rural B roads (19%) and second only in danger to unclassified narrow lanes (36%). Only 4% of respondents rated traditional motorways as dangerous.

Public concerns

Greenwood said: “The survey demonstrates that the public still has serious concerns about the safety of ALR schemes, which present a real challenge for drivers.” She added: “This survey shows qualified support from the public for refuge areas spaced 1km apart (0.6 miles). I urge Highways England to review this decision.”

AA president Edmund King also questioned the adequacy of the planned reduction of ERA frequency to one mile. He said: “There is still some way to go to convincing drivers that one mile is a distance they can cover with an ailing vehicle. More than half of drivers (55%) say that, faced with their vehicle breaking down, they are only prepared to drive up to half a mile before stopping in a live lane.”

The RHA also raised concerns.

National policy director Duncan Buchanan said: “We welcome the decision to standardise these refuge areas and provide clear signage and install phones in all of these areas – something we lobbied hard for.

“However, although from an engineer’s point of view Highways England has established that the size of the refuge area is adequate, we still believe that in reality they are still too small, and we would welcome the ERAs being made wider as our members’ vehicles are very long and breakdown vehicles

need space in which to operate.”

He added: “We want smart motorways to be as safe as they can possibly be, and while – according to the maths – Highways England has proved ERAs are long enough, they are at the limit of practicality, particularly when a breakdown vehicle is trying to tow a 19m vehicle out of one. Yet the fact is, it would take only a marginal amount of money to make these areas wider.”

Lack of trust

FTA road network management policy head Malcolm Bingham said Highways England needs to tackle driver perception, imagined or otherwise, of the dangers of driving with ALR. He pointed to Highways England research showing that such schemes deliver comparable safety levels to traditional motorways, including a significant improvement on the M25.

“We are reassured by the research, which shows these schemes to be as safe as standard motorways and so it is probably a problem of driver perception.

“However, people don’t trust new things and there is a lot to learn about driving on smart motorways, including the use of the red X sign, which people have to get used to, and so drivers need to be educated. We have worked with Highways England to design a course for commercial drivers on smart motorway driving that we are hoping will be incorporated into the Driver CPC.” Shaun Coole, chairman of the Federation of Vehicle Recovery Associations, criticised Highways England for not listening to the concerns of the recovery industry, the police and commercial drivers.

“Everyone said these schemes are not safe but they rolled them out anyway,

RED X FINES Highways England is set to introduce fines as early as March for drivers who ignore red X signals on smart motorways.

Documents seen by the Press Association reveal the road operator is trialling roadside cameras aimed at detecting drivers who ignore red X signs.

Drivers are expected to face a similar penalty to that handed out for running a red light – £100 and three penalty points. The move follows a concerted education campaign and the sending of thousands of warning letters to non-compliant drivers, which has reduced the number of drivers ignoring lane closures, according to Highways England.

so what can we do?” he asked, adding: “Our main concern is that the public is in the most danger from these schemes.

“Technically, our members are not in danger as they have to wait until Highways England closes a lane for them to get to the incident, and once they are ready to leave an ERA, Highways England puts on the red X sign so our operators can pull out safely.

But sometimes there are blind spots on the camera and the breakdown isn’t spotted straightaway, and some recovery operators cannot wait for an hour to get permission to go to the incident and will take the risk and go. This continues to concern us, and we believe there needs to be more education for drivers to understand what to do in the event of a breakdown on these schemes, and what to do around red X signs.”

MotorTransport 9

01/02/2018 13:09:15

Focus: Politics

motortransport.co.uk

UK and Ireland cross-border freight movements face House of Lords scrutiny as industry seeks solutions

Not enough time until Brexit

By Christopher Walton

Last month the House of Lords EU select committee returned to UK-Ireland border discussions, which saw warnings that road transport between Great Britain and Ireland, and Northern Ireland and the Republic, faced several major concerns as Brexit progressed.

Evidence was given to the committee by Dame Fiona Kendrick, chairwoman of Nestle UK and Ireland; Leigh Pomlett, executive director of Ceva Group and FTA president; and James Hookham, deputy chief executive of the FTA – all of whom outlined concerns regarding access to labour, the effect of delays at border crossings and on just-in-time supply chains.

Hookham said there were approximately 400,000 HGV movements between the UK and Ireland and Northern Ireland alone, not including those directly between Northern Ireland and the Republic. He also said that Brexit did offer some opportunities for targeted enforcement of vehicles travelling from and to the Republic.

“The level of trade between the UK and Ireland is such that we do not have the physical space for border checks,” he said, referring to inspections of trucks at ports such as Holyhead. This, he added, would cause serious rethinking on the timing of deliveries and on what stockholding in particular countries needs to be.

Nestle’s Kendrick told the committee of the particular challenge this would pose to its supply chain. The food manufacturer, she said, moves 22,000 tonnes of product into Ireland every year, 80% of which is manufactured

in the UK. This, she added, equates to 2,500 trucks crossing the Irish Sea every year to Belfast and Dublin.

Nestle is not responsible for intraIreland movements across the land border, Kendrick explained, it is the customer that trucks the products across the border. “We do not have DCs in Ireland,” she said of the challenge Brexit poses to trade between the UK and the Republic. “If there were a delay in moving it across there would be a big effect on our customers in Ireland. That just-in-time model is how we manage our business on a daily basis.”

Kendrick added: “We need an official

global supply chain. We need to move speedily ingredients that we source, and those we move into export. And the bulk of those products are moving into Europe. We need to have efficiency in our supply chain. Speed in that global supply chain is important.

“Every product we manufacture for Ireland is identical, from the size of the product to the nutritional information on the packaging. If there is a very different climate in our factories, that will drive a lot of cost,” she said, referring to legislative differences between the EU and a post-Brexit UK, “and we try and eliminate costs.”

Speaking about the effect of Brexit

in the wider content of the food and drink sector, Kendrick said that it was important to consider the availability of labour. The sector employs approximately 100,000 people, she said, approximately one-third of whom are EU nationals. “It is important we look to find constructive solutions,” she told the committee of the effect of Brexit on the sector.

Pomlett, representing not just Ceva but the UK members of the FTA, concurred: “We are very concerned about skills and people that we need in the industry. There are 400,000 HGV drivers in the UK, of whom 40,000 are EU nationals. They work here as EU nationals.

“There is a leakage of people leaving the industry and going home. This is causing concerns about the provision of drivers in the future. Furthermore, 23% of the workforce in warehouses in the UK are EU nationals. One of my primary concerns is to continue to produce supply chains with a shrinking labour market,” he told the Lords.

“If we have border controls to stop the flow of materials that will be a major, major concern. Do not underestimate the problems of slowing vehicles down and checking them,” Pomlett added. “The implications of that are very significant.”

Finally, Pomlett warned the committee that there was not much time left to find solutions for the logistics industry in the 421 days (at the time of writing) before Britain formally leaves the EU on 29 March 2019. “It takes me longer to negotiate a commercial logistics contract of a global nature than the time we have got left.”

Question time on Driver CPC May names roads minister Jesse Norman MP, minister for road freight, faced questions on the Driver CPC from Barry Sheerman, Labour MP for Huddersfield, in the House of Commons last month. Norman said some 73,400 Driver Qualification Cards – HGV and bus and coach drivers – had been issued in 2016/17, a fall from 82,246 in 2015/16. Sheerman asked Norman what assessment he had made of the effectiveness of the Driver CPC in evaluating driver competence. “The European Commission initiated a review of the effectiveness of the Driver CPC in 2013,” Norman said. “The DVSA supported the EC in this review and received 1,318 responses from UK drivers and operators. The Commission is considering amendments to content and delivery in light of the review. The DVSA will work with the EC and industry to ensure changes are implemented in a way that supports the development of professional standards of UK drivers.”

Sheerman asked what plans Norman had to improve the professional competence requirements of drivers. Norman said the DVSA would ensure CPC training is of a high standard “through the annual approval of periodic training courses and regular audits of training providers”.

10 MotorTransport MTR_050218_009.indd 10

Jesse Norman remained minister for road freight at the DfT, as the line-up of ministers and their responsibilities was finalised after Theresa May’s cabinet reshuffle last month.

Norman retained his role as minister for road freight and roads, and is responsible for electric and autonomous vehicles; walking and cycling; and aviation, in the House of Commons.

A new entrant to the department is Jo Johnson MP, responsible for transport in London as well as rail and industrial relations.

Nusrat Ghani MP is responsible for HS2, maritime and skills and apprenticeships, while Baroness Sugg will act

as shadow in the House of Lords and oversee aviation.

Chris Grayling retained his role as secretary of state for transport in the reshuffle, which prompted the exit of Paul Maynard and John Hayes from the department.

Grayling met with the RHA at the end of January, during which they discussed a proposal for a Land Transport Agreement that would allow UK hauliers unlimited access through EU member states and for EU safety rules such as drivers’ hours and vehicle standards to remain.

Government support for the Road to Logistics initiative and the availability of truck parking were also discussed.

5.2.18

30/01/2018 12:31:26

Viewpoint

motortransport.co.uk

The newspaper for transport operators

To contact us: Tel: 020 8912 +4 digits or email: name.surname@roadtransport.com Editor Steve Hobson 2161 Editor-in-chief Christopher Walton 2163 Group news editor Chris Druce 2158 Deputy news editor Emma Shone 2164 Group technical editor Colin Barnett 2141 Aftermarket editor Roger Brown 2168 Vans editor George Barrow 2156 Urban editor Hayley Pink 2165 Group production editor Clare Goldie 2174 Chief sub-editor Rufus Thompson 2143 Key account managers Andrew Smith 07771 885874 Richard Bennett 07889 823060 Miranda Hall-Morley 07825 409551 Display telesales Barnaby Goodman-Smith 2128 Classified and recruitment advertising Head of sales operations Julie McInally 2122 rtmclassified@roadtransport.com Sales director Vic Bunby 2121 Head of marketing Jane Casling 2133 Head of events/MT Awards Stephen Pobjoy 2135 Managing director Andy Salter 2171

Cautiously optimistic for 2018 F Cato Syversen CEO Creditsafe

Editorial office Road Transport Media, Sixth Floor, Chancery House, St Nicholas Way, Sutton, Surrey SM1 1JB 020 8912 2170

igures from our most recent Creditsafe Watchdog Report show that the UK economic picture is starting to look a little less sluggish. Across 12 business sectors that we track on a quarterly basis, we saw outputs on the rise, with increased UK business sales and debt levels at a record low.

In part, this narrative holds true for the road haulage and freight sector. In the last three months of 2017, total sales filed increased by just over 1% on the previous quarter to more than £36bn, driven by 58,039 active companies, 4,521 more than in Q3.

Despite this, the sector saw 602 companies falling into administration in the Q4 of 2017 – a record high for the year and across the wider UK economy.

Stalled or slowing employment was also apparent for the sector, with just a 4.7% increase of drivers and those working in the commercial transport sector over the last 12 months.

The sector also showed a troubling upward

trend of increased bad debt or debt owned by road transport companies to their suppliers. Up 5.3% in Q4 2017, the average debt owed stood at £13,679, compared to £11,904 on the previous three months. We know UK businesses are still caught in the spiral of chasing late payments, which directly affects business growth, so the news that the transport sector is part of this poor payment culture is worrying.

The number of County Court Judgments (CCJs) issued at the end of 2017 showed signs of improvement, falling by 15% on the previous quarter across the transport industry. Despite the decline, the total CCJ value stood at £2.2m – 5.9% higher than the previous quarter.

We know that 2018 is unlikely to be plane sailing for the sector, and there are a handful of health warnings attached to the positive financial trends we have seen in the last three months. That said, we are entering the year in better economic health than many would have predicted 12 months ago.

■ See motortransport.co.uk for more on this.

Free copies MT is available free to specified licensed operators under the publisher’s terms of control. For details, email mtsccqueries@roadtransport.com, or call 01772 426705 Subscriptions Tel 0330 333 9544 Quadrant Subscription Services, Rockwood House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH

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5.2.18

MTR_050218_011.indd 11

Steve Hobson Editor Motor Transport

o the DVSA’s Earned Recognition pilot scheme is finally under way, with approximately 20 freight transport firms signed up (see page 7 for details). The agency had to drop a couple of the more onerous key performance indicators and operators have been assured that the DVSA will not have access to operators’ fleet management systems to convince enough firms to sign up. But the ball is rolling at last.

To justify the time and effort the alreadystretched DVSA will have to put in running the scheme, it needs approximately 10% of the HGV parc to be covered, freeing up resources to focus on the bottom 10% of rogue operators.

Quite apart from the trust issue of operators supplying compliance (and non-compliance, let’s not forget) data to DVSA, there are a few other obstacles to seeking Earned Recognition status.

First of all, the hurdles have been set high in terms of compliance with drivers’ hours and maintenance rules.

Nothing wrong with that the DVSA may argue

– operators are after all supposed to comply with the law and their O-licence conditions at all times, not just after the DVSA has called round and pointed out a few areas for improvement. But just as my car is supposed to be MoT-ready every time it goes out on the road, it is no surprise if it needs a couple of hundred quid spent on it to bring it up to MoT standard once a year. I wouldn’t want to declare every month that it was 98% MoT-ready.

And what are the benefits of Earned Recognition? It will, in effect, be a new blue zone in the OCRS above the existing red, amber and green categories. Green has long been accepted as the sign of a pretty good operator whose vehicles will not be targeted for roadside stops, so the tangible benefits of going blue seem pretty paltry.

Let’s see how many operators conclude Recognition is worth Earning after the pilot.

Got something to say?

If you would like to contribute to MT’s Viewpoint, email steve.hobson@roadtransport.com MotorTransport 11

01/02/2018 15:55:58

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2013/13 Mercedes-Benz Atego 816, Euro 5, day cab, 20ft GRP box with 1000kg column lift, wide lath shutter, AUTO, white. £11,950 + VAT

2011/11 Mercedes-Benz Axor 1824, low roof sleeper, Euro 5, 26ft curtain, 8ft 5in apt, rear barn doors, new curtains to be fitted, only 384,000 kms. £17,950 + VAT

2009/59, PE59FAO, Mercedes Benz Axor 1824 curtainsider, day cab, 407,000 kms, Euro 5, manual 6 speed gearbox, rear air suspension, diff lock, cruise control, speed limiter, MSS, roof hatch, electric windows, central locking, 26ft curtainside with 8.3ft through the side, barn doors, grey serviceable curtains, air kit. £14950 + VAT

2013/63, DG63URC, Mercedes Benz Axor 1824 sleeper, 13/63, 323,000 kms, Euro 5, manual 6 speed gearbox, air con, diff lock, cruise control, power steering, roof hatch, electric windows and mirrors, MSS, cab mounted air kit, Truck Craft Bodies curtainside, 26.5ft long with a clear 7.2ft through the side, barn doors, vertical poles inside body, direct MB supplied trucks. £29950 + VAT

2013/13, PJ13RBU, Mercedes Benz 816, Euro 5, auto fitted with brand new alloy dropside body 21’4” INTERNAL. £15950.00 +VAT

2012/12, YF12VAU, Mercedes Benz Axor long curtainside 1824 day cab, 277,000 kms, Euro 5, manual 6 speed gearbox, diff lock, roof hatch, power steering, electric windows, roof mounted air kit, 27ft Mira Bodybuilder curtainside and 8.7ft through the side, barn doors, wiza deck flooring, choice of curtain colours listed. £20950.00 + VAT

2016/66 Mercedes-Benz Actros 2448, Streamspace, 2.5 mtr flat floor cab, Euro 6, ex MB DEMO, ONLY 320,00 kms, fitted with TIPPING equip and WALKING floor kit, white colour coded, Active Brake 3, Predictive Power Train, 8 ton f/axle, fridge, extras extras extras to many to list, immaculate. £68,950 + VAT

2013/63 Mercedes-Benz Actros 2551, Bigspace 2.5 flat floor, Euro 5, metallic Andorite Grey, alloys, TIPPING equipment, fridge, 384,000 kms, very clean. £42,950 + VAT

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01/02/2018 12:18:01

Marketplace

motortransport.co.uk

MT’s top used truck, a DAF CF and Kel-Berg T109 belt trailer combination, can be supplied in an operator’s livery

This trailer is a real belter

By Roger Brown

Bicester-based Kel-Berg launched its T109 horizontal discharge belt trailer in the UK last year, following extensive trials in Denmark.

The trailer, which the dealer said offers greater stability and safety on uneven sites than traditional tipper trailers, is designed for aggregate and asphalt work and targeted at the construction, quarrying and aggregates sectors.

Kel-Berg has a new T109 belt trailer and DAF CF tractor unit supplied by dealer HTC Oxford for sale as a complete combination.

Kel-Berg sales specialist Daniel Parker said: “It is a horizontal belt discharge trailer, and because it is nontipping, this reduces the risk of it falling sideways during

unloading to next to impossible. It has a quicker unloading time than a moving-floor trailer – it can unload fully in 2 minutes 40 seconds – and the belt will last longer than a moving-floor.”

The T109 features a hightensile lightweight steel chassis, disc brakes, Dura-Bright wheels, camera systems, LED lights, a remote operated sheet, and a remote-operated highstrength rubber belt.

Its outer sloping side walls are covered by stainless steel panels, while the inside of the body is constructed from Hardox wear plates.

The belt is driven via a hydraulic motor and gearbox that requires the towing vehicle to be fitted with a hydraulic PTO pump and tank.

The trailer, which has a

capacity of 26m3, includes a two-year chassis warranty.

Kel-Berg can supply the combination in an operator’s livery and with different axle types.

Parker said: “This trailer has been on hire [as a demonstrator] with Alfred Hymas; Maen Karne Aggregates; PJ Haulage;

Rory J Holbrook; Mark Mills Transport; and Gary Hollingworth Transport.”

The Kel-Berg workshop manager visited the Alfred Hymas yard to brief staff on how to operate the trailer and achieve maximum productivity. The Harrogate-based

operator described its overall performance as “very good” with a “very quick discharge”.

Parker added: “PJ Haulage, Rory J Holbrook, Mark Mills Tr a n s p o r t a n d Ga r y Hollingworth have placed orders, after being extremely pleased with the demo.”

Addlestone prepares skip-loader stock NEW DEVELOPMENT: Tipper bodybuilder Thompsons (UK) has appointed Sheri Gibbons business development manager for the South East. Gibbons previously worked in a sales role at the Scania dealership in Purfleet, where she picked up heavy truck sales and product experience. She is based at the Thompsons (UK) headquarters in Croydon, and will develop contacts with customers and help expand the tipper body business as well as parts and service activities across the Home Counties, East Anglia, Sussex and the South Coast.

Su r r e y - b a s e d d e a l e r Addlestone Commercials is aiming to increase skip-loader sales over the next few weeks as end customers start planning a spring clean.

Sales specialist Glenn Seery said: “The market for skiploaders can be seasonal; we find they are in demand in the spring when people tend to clean out their garage or garden and order skips.

“We have several goodquality examples in stock at the moment.”

Over the past few years

Addlestone Commercials, which stocks quality hookloaders, skip-loaders, tippers, crane-mounted vehicles, beavertails, curtainsiders and tractor units, has shifted its focus towards the domestic used truck sales market, although it still offers vehicles for export.

Seery said: “We recently sold a crane vehicle to Cyprus and a hook-loader to Malta, however at the moment the African market – particularly Nigeria, Tanzania and Mozambique – is quiet.

“We have customers from all over the UK. One guy recently travelled from Ireland to buy a truck, while we also sold to a customer in Inverness.”

Seery said one of the reasons it has been so successful selling used trucks is its ability to “spot an oddity and something that’s unique”.

He added: “We had about 20 Euro-5 Scania 12-plate tippers in stock just before Christmas,mostly with manual gearboxes, and they sold very quickly.”

A day in the life of…Paul Diamond, used truck sales manager, Roanza Truck & Van What time does your day normally begin?

Typically 8am if I’m in the office, but I’m often on the road earlier.

What type of customers do you deal with during an average working day?

Anything and everything, from retail buyers looking for a single Mercedes-Benz truck or Fuso Canter, to bigger operators in the market for a fleet. I also deal with international customers – a large proportion of the trucks we sell are exported to places like the Middle East and East Africa.

How much of your day is spent in the office/workshop and how much on the road?

It’s roughly 50/50. When I’m on the road it’s mostly around the North West, although I make trips to the Mercedes used 14 MotorTransport MTR_050218_014.indd 14

commercial vehicle centre at Wentworth Park, near Barnsley, to source stock.

How long have you been with the business?

I’ve been with Roanza and its predecessor Road Range for about 15 years, but with Mercedes for 20-plus years.

What types of vehicles are you selling at the moment?

If the price is right, if it’s clean, and if the mileage is right, it will sell – that goes for any size or spec of tractor or rigid.

There’s a strong demand for Mercedes Actros 2530 6x2 rigid curtainsiders.

Will Brexit have an effect on the industry in 2018?

I’m sure it will, as there’s bound to be uncertainty, but it’s not something I’m worried about. Customers will still need to replace their trucks, so there will always be buyers looking for the right vehicles at the right price.

5.2.18

30/01/2018 10:16:32

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www.stockporttruckcentre.co.uk 14/06/2017 09:11

01/02/2018 09:10:46

Marketplace

motortransport.co.uk

Loss of contract led to decision to sell specialist equipment

Williams fleet auction success

By Roger Brown

An auction of part of the fleet of Huntingdon-based Williams Transport attracted strong demand, according to organiser Malcolm Harrison Auctions.

The haulier, a United Pallet Network member that operates 42 trucks and has a range of customers in the moving-floor and general haulage sectors, held the event at its Cambridgeshire yard on 11 January after it lost a contract with a plastic pipe manufacturer earlier this month.

More than 20 DAF, Iveco, Scania, Mercedes-Benz and Renault tractor units were for sale, as well as some rigids

relating to the contract, which Williams Transport had held for 30 years.

Pick of the bunch were two 2017 Iveco Stralis 500 6x4 tractors, as well as two 2015 DAF XF460 6x2 rear-lift tractor units, all with Palfinger cranes.

The auction also included more than 30 trailers, many of them tri-axle flats from M&G; SDC Trailers; Montracon; Fruehauf; Cartwright; Wilson; Don-Bur; and Schmitz Cargobull, as well as equipment and spare parts.

Auctioneer Charlie Foyle said: “Williams Transport is a well-known and well-run respectable company; there was a genuine reason for selling, and all the gear was

well looked after.

“The newer tractor units with cranes, as well as the stepframe trailers and tri-axle flats, all made strong money – anything modern tends to make money at auction.

“Turnout at the site was really good and, as usual, there was also a good presence online.”

Williams Transport general manager Malcolm Shovelton said: “We decided to sell the specialist equipment that related to this contract.

“Business is booming and we continue to do well; it was just a shock to lose a longstanding customer like that after having been given 90 days’ notice,” he added.

READY FOR ANYTHING: Do you fancy a mint condition 2001 Scania P124 rigid? Then look no further than this 420hp 6x2 beavertail cheesewedge. The truck, which comes with Fassi 210 remote Hiab crane, is available for £22,500 – or nearest offer – plus VAT.Owner Mike Ponsonby, who runs Lichfield, Staffordshire-based MA Ponsonby International Transport, describes the truck, which has a 12-month MoT, as being in “mint condition all round”. He said: “It has been doing plant transportation work, it has been maintained in our own workshops and everything that has needed to be replaced and upgraded has been done. It’s a really smart vehicle, beautifully turned out in our company livery and it has always been well cared for. It’s been a real favourite with our drivers and we’d like to find it a good home.”

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460bhp, Space Cab, Manual, Air Con, 8x2 Rear Lift and Steer, 32 Tonne, 2 x 9 Tonne Front Axles, Cheesewedge Body 30ft Long, Piped at Rear for Drawbar Application, 41,677 km.

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Visit: secondhandtrucks.co.uk 01/02/2018 09:16:28

Marketplace

SPEAKING OUT: (clockwise from above) Guy Barker; Nigel Baxter; Jonathan Bownes; Nigel Sharp; and John Keogh

20 MotorTransport MTR_050218_020-021.indd 20

5.2.18

30/01/2018 09:38:38

motortransport.co.uk

How will the used truck sales market fare this year? Our experts give their predictions. Roger Brown reports

You heard it

here first John Keogh Sales director and truck dealer principal, Rygor (Mercedes-Benz)

Rygor has seen several fleets upgrading from older vehicles to avoid costs associated with low emission zones (LEZ), with several further enquiries in the pipeline. John Keogh says: “There is a lot of confusion about Direct Vision and the latest information seems to suggest the correct camera systems are enough to comply with the first wave of legislation, so I feel that this will be a more gradual change over the coming years.”

Keogh believes Euro-5 vehicles will continue to sell this year. “For most users there is not the incentive to change up from a used Euro-4 to a used Euro-6, so the natural choice is the Euro-5, unless it is for use in an LEZ,” he says.

“They also still have a strong export market.”

He thinks 2018 will be another tough year for the used truck market. “We are being more selective with our buying and purchasing rigid stock rather than tractors, where there is still oversupply,” he says. “I think being specific will be the key to having a profitable 2018 in used truck sales.”

Nigel Sharp Used truck sales manager, F&G Commercials (DAF)

Nigel Sharp predicts sales of Euro-4 and Euro-5 trucks between five and 10 years old will remain difficult. “The export market may remain quiet due to the lack of pre-AdBlue vehicles and manual tractor units, but mainly down to the increasing overseas shipping costs,” he says.

“As far as Euro-5 vehicles go, if there is the correct specification, clean, low-mileage kit, it will still stand a chance with the smaller users.”

Euro-6 vehicles are hitting the used market in large quantities, mostly 14-plate and 64-plate registrations.

“They are still showing big premiums over Euro-5s, and it is difficult for some hauliers to get used to the hike from Euro-5 to Euro-6,” he 5.2.18

MTR_050218_020-021.indd 21

says. “It’s mostly tractor units that are coming back, rigids are being run on.”

Sharp says used buyers are still looking for below-average mileage, up to four-year-old vehicles for retail resale, and to the correct specification. Euro-6 sales locally might increase if Leeds introduces an LEZ, but owner-drivers could jump ship because of the higher vehicle costs. “This could mean a further increase in rental/contract hire sales,” he adds.

Jonathan Bownes Used vehicle sales business development manager, Thomas Hardie Used Trucks (Volvo)

Jonathan Bownes believes Euro-5 vehicles will continue to sell this year. “Euro-5 will still be a very popular choice. It’s known, proven technology and if you [as an operator] never go near the ultra LEZs there isn’t much pressure to have anything else,” he says. “Euro-5 is still an incredibly clean level of emissions.”

Bownes does not see the potential growth of LEZs having a massive effect on the market.

“The standards required to enter these areas are already available on the open market. Direct Vision is more tricky, though I don’t see it as a huge issue.”

Generally speaking, Bownes predicts an exciting 2018 in the used truck market for Thomas Hardie. “We have some great stock planned in for return from some of the very best stables,” he says.

“We have a good, loyal customer base that we look after and the truck sales teams at all levels will continue to work hard to deliver the best overall package to our customers.”

Nigel Baxter MD, RH Commercial Vehicles (Renault)

The first Range Ts came on to the used market in 2017, with more expected this year. Nigel Baxter is also looking to build on his dealer’s success with the Renault Trucks Legacy range, which specialises in quality used trucks of

approximately four or five years old. “On the wider market, there are a lot of trucks out there and the industry is going to have to find a new long-term solution for recycling those highmileage ‘non-retail’ pieces and be innovative in producing attractive purchase options and warranty packages,” he says.

“Offering a genuine ‘second-life’ option – with some componentry replaced as a matter of course rather than obvious need – will be a proposition that is close to ‘as good as new’.”

Baxter believes that last year the overall market moved at the same average pace as in the previous few years and predicts more of the same for this year. “Buyers have a choice of strong product offers, and with cheap money still in the market, even with the threat of a modest base rate increase, I expect 2018 to be similar to 2017.”

Guy Barker Sales director, Dollar Industries

Guy Barker believes Euro-5 vehicles will continue to sell this year. “Not everyone goes into the London Congestion Charge Zone,” he says.

“Also there is a big price jump for Euro-6, and it’s more complex to repair and maintain, especially for owner-operators or small fleets.”

Barker believes this year will be challenging for the used truck market generally. “Uncertainty over Brexit is making people think twice about investing in a new or newer truck,” he says.

“Contract hire is very competitive, so it puts pressure on used vehicle and export markets.”

He thinks the Direct Vision requirements will affect dealers the closer they are to London, but believes potential LEZs are more of a concern in big cities outside London, such as Birmingham. “One client, who operates on containers out of a central Birmingham hub, didn’t know what to buy because of the proposed LEZ in that city,” he says.

“The problem is no one knows what the requirements will be, Euro-5 or Euro-6, so there is a question over what to buy.” ■ MotorTransport 21

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01/02/2018 09:19:01

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01/02/2018 10:16:55

Repair and maintenance

A technical crisis There is a major shortage of skilled technicians able to keep pace with advancements in modern HGV technology. Chris Tindall finds out how the problem is being addressed

A

critical shortage of technicians to maintain HGVs has prompted a range of initiatives across the industry as companies attempt to recruit and retain skilled professionals. There are no accurate figures for the number of truck technicians currently employed, although estimates suggest it is around 30,000.

However, only 8,000 of these – around a quarter – are licenced under the Institute of Road Transport Engineers’ (IRTE) accreditation scheme, which independently assesses the safety and competence of technicians.

Irtec’s five-yearly assessments encourage mechanics and technicians to keep up with advances in technology and gives employers and customers confidence in their proven ability.

But it remains a voluntary qualification, meaning there are still tens of thousands of technicians working every day on HGVs without many of the skills needed to maintain modern vehicles.

John Parry, IRTE trustee and director, sums 26 MotorTransport MTR_050218_026-027.indd 26

up the current situation: “You can fix the brakes on a 44-tonne commercial vehicle and let it run down the motorway at 56mph and you don’t need anything.

“The driver is qualified, but the guy who repairs the brakes on the truck isn’t. How can that be right?”

Parry says the problem is longstanding, brought about by a mixture of trucks historically being perceived as “the arse end of technology” coupled with a failure to promote the role of motor technicians, and that things are likely to get worse before the situation improves.

“Technology has changed and so has the demand required on individuals,” he says.

“There’s still a bit of oil and grease about but nothing like it used to be.”

Slipping through the net

Irtec has improved the situation, but not fast enough and because it is a voluntary process many technicians are slipping through the net.

“In the commercial vehicle industry, something like 30% of the vehicle parc is dealt with through the commercial vehicle dealer

network,” Parry says. “But 70% of the registered HGVs are dealt with either by independent repairers or own-account operators.

“People like Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Morrisons are saying in their service level agreements that you have to have licensed technicians, but we have to get to more people who are own-account operators or independent repairers.”

Keith Sims, group operations director at HRVS Group, says the shortage is approaching critical.

“The problem has been creeping up on us for several years now and my view is it has taken a backseat to the HGV driver shortage,” he says.

“In addition, we have lost skilled staff to DVSA who have been responsible for taking a large number of technicians out of the business as it is seen as an easier job.

“Skills have also gone because of the amount of training that needs committing to on an annual basis as well as poor levels of recruitment and poor levels of retention.”

Sims says HRVS is tackling the problem by offering high quality apprenticeship programmes (see box) but adds: “The shortage 5.2.18

01/02/2018 16:08:39

motortransport.co.uk

for the industry outside of service providers is relatively unknown to customers as they simply do not want to listen.

“I would say we are like ducks at present, trying to keep calm with an absolute storm beneath the water.”

Mark Cunnew, aftermarket director at Thomas Hardie Commercials, says that along with Volvo it began to plan and invest heavily in technicians five years ago, with a dedicated training school in Liverpool kitted out with modern truck technology, a proactive HR department and a referral scheme that financially rewards its staff.

He believes this is now starting to pay dividends. “We take on one to two technician apprentices at franchised sites every year,” he says. “Yes, there’s a shortage and over the volume of franchised sites in the North West I could genuinely take on 10 technicians tomorrow and have them 100% utilised within an hour. But that’s because of the success in our growth in market share at Volvo and great opportunities built on the back of the product.

“2017 was a great year for Volvo. We couldn’t have that growth if we were technicians down.”

Ryder says technician recruitment has been an issue for more than a decade and that there are parts of the country that can be more challenging than others.

HR director Catherine Steel says: “Competition comes not only from direct competitors but also the bus industry, the rail industry and oil rigs, for example.

“To attract the right technicians, hourly rate is still crucial, but so is the overtime rate, volume of overtime hours available and the shifts.

“We recruit about 50 technicians a year and we have a robust recruitment process, which may seem counterintuitive when technicians

are hard to find, but if you offer someone a job just because they turned up, they’re not going to value the job.”

Ryder director of engineering Shaun Stephenson adds: “Advancement in vehicle technologies, such as Euro 6, electric vehicle technology and remote diagnostics, should help make engineering in transport appear more relevant, in particular to young people.

Hopefully, this will also make the industry more appealing to technicians overall as tech-

nology evolves. This will come with its challenges, encompassing new valuable skills to maintain the vehicles across our fleet. It will be a changing landscape for the industry overall, and one that will require a real focus on skills for the future.”

Lawrie Alford, the FTA’s head of automotive, says the problem has been exacerbated by technological developments in truck designs, resulting not so much in a shortage of technicians per se, but a shortage of those with the necessary skills to work on Euro 6 engines.

“It’s a massive issue and it’s reaching a critical point,” he says. “We have been trying to get people to realise there’s a skills shortage coming our way with drivers, but technicians and fitters are just as acute and it takes much longer to train them.”

Alford adds that careers advice for school and college leavers has been poor, but he thinks a change is in the air, following a number of recent announcements by the government.

The Department for Transport has launched an Engineering 2018 campaign to tackle the engineering skills gap in this country and the Department for Education released a policy paper last December setting out a careers strategy that it hopes will improve careers guidance and ensure all young people understand the range of opportunities available to them.

The paper makes specific reference to science, technology, engineering and maths skills.

Alford adds: “Modern technologies are advancing much quicker than the industry is recruiting, training and assessing technicians and workshop managers.

“On a positive note, government departments are showing signs of some joined up thinking.

The transport and logistics sector needs to collaborate and support these campaigns.” n

APPRENTICES TO THE RESCUE? Like drivers, HGV technicians are an ageing breed so the need to recruit new blood is vital to dealing with the industry shortage.

Paul Gatti, director at Royal Mail Fleet, says: “We have had to rely on outsourcing maintenance jobs we would much prefer to keep in-house. Younger people have not been attracted to the trade and that is even more prevalent when trying to recruit HGV technicians, although attracting light vehicle technicians isn’t easy either.

“There seems to be a national shortfall in school leavers wanting to take a more vocational path into apprenticeships.

“The positive is that to counter the shortage we have continued to evolve our apprentice scheme. We’ve seen a fourfold increase in applications in recent years meaning that we have trained our own technicians with an external provider supporting to reach above and beyond the level of just a qualified technician.”

HRVS Group is the largest supplier of apprentice candidates to MAN and offers an apprenticeship programme that, says group operations director Keith Sims, has an almost back to basics approach of ‘man and boy’.

5.2.18

MTR_050218_026-027.indd 27

It also works in conjunction with MAN and S&B Automotive Academy to offer apprenticeships that are “a completely fresh approach, with several dealers at Dealer Principle level involving themselves in the course and showing all the apprentices that their presence and value to the company is recognised”.

However, he adds: “The apprentice levy is a start, but the answer I am afraid is all too simple: the skill level of modern HGV technology is tremendous and that will have to be reflected financially, which is what the industry will have to accept and as dealers we are addressing, but at the expense of the bottom line.”

Henry Horsfall, HR director at Fraikin, is similarly unconvinced by the levy. “While there’s been an increase in the amount of dedicated funds being made available to companies for apprenticeships with the levy, the corresponding cost of those apprenticeships has in many cases been rising too – which can cancel out the perceived additional benefit,” he says.

“At Fraikin we’ve been running a technician apprenticeship programme for more than a decade and we’ve been lucky to have some fantastic people coming through our programme. Many have stayed with the business long after their apprenticeship has ended.

“But attracting the apprentices in the first place is not easy; you’ve got to work really hard to find candidates who are right for your business, and then invest in them and their career.”

MotorTransport 27

30/01/2018 09:30:54

Interview: Mike Daly

The Daly

difference Mike Daly made his name in the fashion distribution industry, establishing his firm DTS as a leader in hanging garment storage and transport. Steve Hobson went to hear his story

M

ike Daly was a pioneer of fashion distribution in the 1980s, with his firm DTS leading the development of hanging garment storage and transport. Daly grew the business until it became the leading independent 3PL operating on behalf of many of the major UK and international clothing retailers. Eventually he sold the business to Steve Parkin’s Clipper Logistics, a firm he still advises on a part-time basis in between running his farm and being a Transaid ambassador.

“I am the classic working boy made good,” Daly says. “My dad had his own building firm and I used to work with him in the summer school holidays.

“I wasn’t mature enough to analyse it but I liked the pride my dad had in being his own boss. While at school I decided that one day I was going to have my own company. I made a start by studying business studies.”

After college, Daly traded in his Hillman Hunter for a Bedford TK with a Luton body and started in the removals business, advertising as man and van for £5 an hour around his home in Belsize Park, north London.

“I had put up a rail in the truck so I could take the clothes out of the wardrobes and hang them up,” he says.

One customer was in the fashion industry and shortly after his removal job, the phone rang. Daly says: “He said, ‘I’m in the rag trade and my transport company’s let me down. I noticed in your van, you had one hanging rail.

Could you come and move some garments for me?’

“I said: ‘Yes, certainly. How many garments have you got?’ He said: ‘2,000 blouses’. So I went down to the local scrap yard, bought more gas pipe and cut it up. After fixing it in the back of the van I had about 12 hanging rails. I picked up the 2,000 blouses and drove out of London to C&A’s distribution centre in Woking.”

And that is how Daly Transport Services was born.

Man with a van

“Soon I had four vans on the road, all on the rag trade, without employing anyone. I had two mates who were firemen, and two mates who were milkmen. I used to go into the East End of London at six in the morning and load up a van to go to a clothing company in Nottingham. I’d drive it back to the Express Dairy yard at Park Royal, and later one of my mates would jump in the van and drive up to Nottingham.

“It was probably the most percentage profit I ever made because once you start employing full-time people you’ve got PAYE, etc.”

From there the business grew to include 28 MotorTransport MTR_050218_028-030.indd 28

warehousing, labelling and re-pressing.

“We started growing with a few more trucks every year, funded through trading profits,” says Daly. “Then a customer would say to me: ‘Mike, I need 3,000 garments out of that factory before he shuts for the summer, can you collect them and look after them for me?’ I took a little warehouse and I got more of this gas tubing and put up. It actually looked like a kids’ climbing frame, my very first warehouse – just galvanised pipe everywhere.

“And then I would get asked: ‘Mike, those garments that you’re storing for me, the retailer’s changed the price points; they’ve all been ticketed at £9.99, but they decided to put them on promotion at £8. Can you re-ticket them?’

“Then they’d say: ‘You know those garments you’ve got hanging in your warehouse? They got cancelled by Richard Shops, but I’ve sold

5.2.18

31/01/2018 12:21:24

motortransport.co.uk

them to mail order company Freemans, so could you take them off the hangers, pack them in boxes and deliver them to Freemans’ DC in Peterborough?’”

As the UK fashion trade picked up pace, DTS expanded rapidly, adding depots first in Oldham and Enfield before expanding across the UK. Despite the fast rate of growth, which ran at 25% a year for many years, Daly was cautious about overreaching.

“There was a lot of work out there, and in 25 years I never had a problem winning work,” he says. “All the trucks were nicely painted, all our literature was corporate green and we were doing quite a bit of marketing. I used to give away little cigarette lighters in the shape of a DTS truck, because in those days you could smoke anywhere.

“There was no leasing in my day. I bought everything, because I was brought up by an old-fashioned dad who would never get a telly until he could pay for it. I never had a problem getting customers. I never had a problem funding it. My biggest problem actually was getting good-quality staff.”

Attracting interest

Daly says he was approached by several major names wanting to buy DTS, but in 2005 decided Steve Parkin was the right man to do the deal with. With both Daly and his wife committed full-time to their own businesses, they had no children to pass their business empire on to.

5.2.18

MTR_050218_028-030.indd 29

“I was only 50 when I sold it to Clipper and I probably was a bit of a workaholic,” he reflects.

“When I started I was dealing with middle-aged men who I looked up to, and if they said: ‘Mike, we are going to expand in the UK, can you help us?’ I would just go and get another warehouse or put some more trucks on.

“I grew up with that sort of mentality, so I didn’t hamstring my customers with five- or 10-year contracts because, in my head, if I’m doing a good job for a fair price, I’d keep the work.

“Every now and then that backfired on me, because someone called me up and said: ‘Mike, we’re pulling out of fashion because we’re not making any money out of it.’ That was a bit of an eye-opener for me.”

The two businesses were a good geographical and cultural fit, and Daly felt it was the right time to take his foot off the gas.

“Steve approached me and said: ‘You’re strong in the south, I’m strong in the north, why don’t we merge?’ He was a fellow working man made good, and this approach from a like-minded person came at the right time,” Daly says. “My dad, God love him, worked until he was 73. That generation did nothing but work. He never had the time to pick up a hobby or learn to play golf.

“My dad just worked and worked, and he was worn out. He didn’t have the energy to travel the world. I always said to myself: ‘I’m not going to work to a point in my life when

I’ve got no time to relax’.”

Nevertheless, for two years after Daly sold DTS he was full-time sales director, spending much of his time travelling the UK to visit the firm’s 17 depots. “I had a policy of going round them all once a month,” he says.

In the past decade, Daly has gradually stepped back from the business, though he remains an adviser.

MotorTransport 29

31/01/2018 12:21:47

Interview: Mike Daly

John Lewis was spending £1.7m with me and last year they spent tens of millions with Clipper.”

Daly’s diversification

“I do still care passionately about the staff and the business, as half my people are still there 12 years later,” he says. “But it was the right thing to do [to sell to Clipper]. Two customers said to me afterwards they were glad I’d sold because they liked DTS and wanted to give us more business, but they were worried that I was the kingpin of the company.

“After the merger, they saw that there was Steve and me plus four directors and that was a more stable base. The proof is in the pudding;

30 MotorTransport MTR_050218_028-030.indd 30

At the time of the acquisition in 2005, the combined business turned over £71m; by 2016 Clipper was turning over more than £300m, and in 2014 Parkin successfully floated Clipper on the London stock market, still leaving him as the major shareholder.

Daly decided to put some of the proceeds of the sale of DTS into a stud farm, where he employs two full-time and two part-time staff to look after his 250 sheep, a dozen beef cattle and a number of rare breed horses.

“I didn’t want to start another big business.

I wasn’t burnt out, but I just didn’t want another big workforce,” he says. “So I said: ‘That’s it, I’ll do farming,’ because I’ve only got the equivalent of three staff. They are agricultural people who just know that when it’s harvest time you’ve got to work 15 hours a day. They don’t say: ‘Mike, do I have to do it?’ They just do it.

“Also I don’t go to the gym. So I bought a farm to invest my money and because I thought it will keep me fit. I shave and put a suit on one or two days a week for Clipper, which keeps my hand in logistics and I love it.” ■

PUTTING SOMETHING BACK As well as farming and helping out at Clipper, Daly has also thrown himself into being an ambassador for overseas development charity Transaid.

“When I sold, I thought: ‘I’m going to give a bit back. I’ve time now.’ The farm is very busy in the summer months, but actually they can do without me for days at a time,” says Daly. “Transaid said: ‘We could really do with someone from the industry, helping us man the stands at the CV Show etc, someone who can talk the language of a logistics owner.’

“So Transaid started an official ambassador programme and now there are more than 30 of us. A few of us are retired from the industry, but the majority are still in full-time work within the sector. We’ve got people from the likes of DHL and Michelin and recently welcomed Scottish traffic commissioner Joan Aitken as an ambassador.

“In fact, Caroline [Barber, recently appointed Transaid chief executive] came on board as a volunteer from Wincanton and loved it so much she became a full-time employee. We’ve now increased our corporate sponsors to 34. XPO Logistics is a good example – they will have one of their graduates going on a placement somewhere in Africa every year, and it definitely broadens their minds.

“Transaid is developing the individual secondee, the company pays his or her wages for the time they’re missing and their contribution helps improve our mission to reduce road deaths in subSaharan Africa. I know people say charity begins at home, but compared with people in Africa we’re comfortable. With the 15 employed staff, 31 ambassadors and the employees of our 34 corporate members, we are saving lives and achieving a huge amount together.”

5.2.18

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25/01/2018 13:39 01/02/2018 09:29:06

Careers

motortransport.co.uk

Staffing Matters

By David Coombes

We need to dream big about the future

Palletways apprentices prosper Palletways UK has celebrated the fifth anniversary of its apprenticeship scheme.

Since its launch at the end of 2012, 17 apprentices have joined the scheme, with 11 receiving full-time employment at its completion.

The scheme’s apprentice retention rate stands at 79%, which Palletways UK MD Dave Walmsley said is “well above the national average of 67%”.

He added: “Palletways has well and truly got behind apprenticeships. People are the foundation of our success as a market leader, so investing in the next generation of highly motivated staff who will take our business to even greater heights is essential.

“Everyone at Palletways is proud of our five-year support of apprentices and look forward to recruiting even more young people over the next five years.”

The network currently has three apprentices still in training.

Aaron Cooke (pictured) joined the network as an apprentice in April 2013 and is now a full-time forklift driver in Fradley. He said: “I chose to be a forklift driver based on the skills I already had, and career interests I wanted to develop.

“Before entering the scheme, I had no qualifications. But thanks to Palletways, I now have a class 1 NVQ in Forklift Operations and I’m a qualified first aider.”

Juliet Cox (pictured) is Palletways’ newest apprentice. She joined as a customer services assistant in July last year and said she has enjoyed her time with the network to date.

She said: “I’d had no experience in an office, but I wanted to challenge myself to learn new skills and be part of a team. What I like is always being busy, yet still having the opportunity to approach my manager and co-workers for help, guidance and support.”

MOVING ON UP: AKW Group has promoted management trainee George Richards to network support manager. Richards joined AKW in 2015 as a transport POD clerk, and AKW said his enthusiasm and eagerness led to a promotion on to the management training programme just months later in January 2016. During his first year in the role, Richards was invited to speak at the International Road Union Conference in Tblisi, Georgia, where he spoke about the industry’s need for new talent. At the beginning of this year Richards was given his new role, in which he heads up a small team. His management trainee position has been filled by recent law graduate Jack Hewertson. Richardson said: “My goals for the future are to grasp the art of management, making sure my team are working in the most efficient way possible while still being motivated and enjoying their time at work.”

FTA adds TrainingTeam to its portfolio The FTA has bought specialist training provider T Team, which trades as TrainingTeam.

The training provider teaches courses across the UK and online, specialising in the movement of dangerous goods by road, rail and sea, as well as air cargo security.

FTA chief executive David Wells said the move allowed the association to give its members confidence when moving dangerous goods.

He added: “We are delighted to add TrainingTeam’s excellent range of courses to our existing portfolio, 5.2.18

MTR_050218_032.indd 33

and to strengthen the FTA’s offering in the air cargo security and dangerous goods training market.

TrainingTeam will continue to offer its courses to its existing customers, and the FTA will be growing the online training offer, which has seen the company reach a global marketplace.”

The business was founded in 1988 by Charles Manetta, who said he was “delighted to be handing on the organisation to the FTA”.

TrainingTeam’s employees will remain at the business’s Crawley HQ.

Brexit might well be the defining moment of our times, but what comes after? How do we build a future for our industry that honours the current workforce while safeguarding employment for the next generation?

We all enjoy thinking about the future, but making assumptions about it is dangerous, seductive and all too easy. Helping businesses benchmark their future requirements has been a core part of my career, and I still marvel at how quickly the landscape changes.

With blistering technological developments redefining the horizon quicker than many can plot a course, market intelligence is everything.

To help guide your ambitions, here are my top three developments to consider in your planning.

Connected work environments

Augmented reality headsets such as Daqri offer increased worker efficiency, a safer workplace and reduced training times. Another added benefit is the collection of data.

Resource allocation and efficiency analysis can be honed through Big Data and machine learning. Soon data will be processed and evaluated by artificial intelligence. More than ever, it is important that your business is aware of what new, and critically robust, technology is available.

Use the levy for future-proofing

With new technology comes new skills requirements. The Apprenticeship Levy offers a lifeline to plug nationwide skills shortages such as driving and team leadership. What you might not have considered is using it to upskill or acquire employees with high-level degrees for specialised skills. As apprenticeships go up to a level 7 – a masters degree equivalent – the specialised skills available for development are remarkable. This could be useful when considering adopting new technological solutions.

Industry academic partnerships

Consider contacting a local university to speak about mutual funding, research partnerships, work placement schemes or even guest lecturing to transfer your skills to the next generation. Universities can help network with cross-sector skills that would otherwise be impossible to access.

Join the discussion by following me: @DavidCoombesSfL. To discuss the future or your business, email David.Coombes@Peoplecare-Europe.co.uk Tel: 0117 9859 119 admin@logistics jobshop.co.uk

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Jobs

JOBS CALL 0330 333 3411

motortransport.co.uk

Senior management roles are the second hardest to fill in the logistics sector *

It takes experience and innovation. *FTA Skills Shortage Report July 2017 Executive Recruitment Supply Chain Consultancy Digital Campaigns Video Content Digital Strategy

Peoplecare Logistics is a team of logistics, recruitment and digital experts. We provide executive recruitment, supply chain consultancy and digital media/strategy services.

We are valued especially for our ability to build entire teams.

Our digital team create video campaigns that recruit, market or position your business online.

Peoplecare Logistics Kelvin Price t: +44 (0)7500 864 399 e: sales@peoplecarelogistics.com www.peoplecarelogistics.com 34 MotorTransport

Speak to us today about your needs.

5.2.18

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CONTAINER TRANSPORT PLANNER

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Experienced Container Transport Planner opportunity at Express Freight Services (uk) Ltd in Ipswich.

As part of our planned future development we have created a new position for an experienced container transport planner at our Ipswich depot.

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We can offer an excellent remuneration packages with career opportunities for driven ambitious individuals.

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Experienced Container Transport Planner opportunity at Express Freight Services (uk) Ltd in Tilbury.

As part of our planned future development we have created a new position for an experienced container transport planner at our Tilbury depot.

The role will require applicants to have a minimum of 3 years container transport experience and the ability to route and plan up to 40 + vehicles including sub-contractors , customer service and profitability being of the upmost importance.

We can offer an excellent remuneration packages with career opportunities for driven ambitious individuals.

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Our client is a European leader in the transport and logistics of dangerous materials.

Due to increasing their business they are now seeking a Transport Planner / Trainee Transport Planner to join the team based in Morley, Leeds.

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Acumen Logistics Group is one of the UK’s top 100 logistics companies, providing innovative customer solutions to some of the UK’s most successful companies.

We are looking for 2 experienced Transport/Warehouse Supervisors who currently hold HGV Class 1 (C+E) Licenses. They will be report directly to the Operations Manager and be responsible for ensuring the day to day performance, productivity and efficiency of both the transport and warehouse functions whilst maintaining a high standard of service and delivery throughout the operation.

In this role you will be responsible for: Managing a small team responsible for day to day transport planning end to end. £33,000 - £35,000 Per Annum Job reference: 34568

Founded in 1968 The Charles Russell Transport Group has undergone considerable expansion setting new standards in the transportation, lifting & handling of machinery, precision equipment and artwork.

The Role: • Lead a team of circa. 12+ personnel in the day to day management of an international transport operation.

• Liaise with customers to ensure all customer’s requirements are met and defined performance standards and customer satisfaction is maintained to the highest level.

• Ensure all operations are carried out in a safe and compliant manner having particular regard for Health & Safety and Operator's licensing requirements.

• Ensuring maximum use of vehicles and resources in a cost effective manner.

• Communicate and liaise with all personnel and other departments to ensure a smooth & effective operation.

• General administration duties in line with transport legislation, company policies and procedures.

Competitive Salary Job reference: 34497

Farmfoods is currently seeking to recruit a Heavy Goods Vehicle Mechanic at our Cumbernauld, Glasgow depot. This position is full time and will involve backshift work.

Our HGV Mechanics are responsible for the maintenance of our fleet of large goods vehicles at our in-house Vehicle Maintenance Units located at our depots. The vehicles are a vital part of our distribution operation visible to thousands of customers and potential customers whilst out on the road delivering goods to our 300+ stores.

The role of HGV Mechanic will involve being responsible for carrying out inspection and service routines and repairs and testing of vehicles in a professional and safe manner. You will be able to investigate and diagnose faults, report findings and be able to carry out all repairs to the current standards.

Competitive Salary Job reference: 34490

Leeds

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If you would like to apply for any of the roles advertised or see our latest vacancies, please register for FREE on www.motortransportjobs.co.uk and use our quick reference number in our search job section of the website.

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5.2.18

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