WHEN CHESHIRE-BASED ARCLID TRANSPORT DECIDED TO CHANGE DIRECTION AND DEVELOP ITS OWN FOCUS IN ORDER TO REALISE ITS FULL POTENTIAL MANAGING DIRECTOR ANDY BROOKES TOOK UP THE CHALLENGE. BULK & TIPPER LEARNS HOW THIS ALL CAME ABOUT.
Managing change in an established business can be a difficult process. Getting some long-serving staff to accept that there is a need to change aspects of the operation is challenging for those who are tasked with implementing change. The best way to achieve this is to make the process as transparent as possible. This requires clear communication with everyone involved in the process, explaining why there is need for change and indicating the potential benefits for all concerned. This has to be an on-going process rather than a single event. Regular dialogue helps to break down barriers, particularly if the person or persons driving the changes are relatively new recruits to the company. Building trust within an organisation allows all of the individuals concerned to contribute fully, rather than doubting the motives of others and limiting communications accordingly.
Andy Brookes, managing director at Cheshire-based Arclid Transport, had to go through just this process when he took control of company operations in 2017. This long-established operation is part of the Archibald Bathgate Group, a range of privately-owned companies with a diverse assortment of activities.
BRISTOL-BASED, KELSTON SPARKES GROUP HAS RE-COMMENCED TIPPER TRANSPORT AFTER A GAP OF 14 YEARS, WITH THREE NEW VOLVO FMX 8X4 RIGIDS. BULK & TIPPER VISITS THE COMPANY’S STANTON DREW BASE FOR AN UPDATE.
“Our customers are now looking for a complete, single-source supplier package, that’s why we’ve re-introduced tipper trucks back into our fleet,” says Kelston Stark, on-site manager at Kelston Sparkes Group. “At the beginning of the new millennium we ran around 14 tipper trucks, but then it became more viable to use sub-contractors. Nowadays safety and quality standards are paramount for our business, as is the requirement to provide customers with the complete service package delivered by one supplier, so the re-emergence of tippers is the way forward for our business”
Supplied by Truck and Bus Wales and West, the Volvo FMX chassis all have Day Cabs and 5,100mm wheelbases and come ready bodied from forecourt stock. They are powered by Volvo’s D13K engine rated at 420hp. The remainder of the powertrains include I-Shift gearboxes and tandem single reduction drive axles, with differential and cross locks, that carry a ratio of 3.09:1.
Issue Six: with 130+ pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? Bulk & Tipper, Britain’s best loved niche transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.
MANY FIRMS LIKE TO TALK THE TALK ABOUT GIVING THEIR CUSTOMERS MORE, BUT ALLAN MORRIS TRANSPORT IS WALKING THE WALK, TOO, WITH A FLEET OF HIGH-VOLUME MOVING-FLOOR TRAILERS THAT OPERATE ALONGSIDE A SMALL NUMBER OF CONVENTIONAL TIPPERS. BULK & TIPPER REPORTS.
When a big customer asks you to invest in specialist kit costing thousands more than conventional equipment in order to take on more work for them, it can be a difficult decision for some. Not so for Sandycroft, Deeside haulier Allan Morris Transport, however, when it was asked in 1997 to buy a couple of moving-floor trailers by paper mill UPM in order to move larger quantities about for it.
“We’d been moving a lot of woodchip from Mostyn Docks [in north Wales] into UPM’s Shotton site, and had already gone from 55yd3 trailers to 75yd3 tippers,” says MD Terry Axon. “The Shotton site had one other haulier at the time that ran a moving-floor trailer for it, and asked us to buy some in order to give us a new contract, collecting from Herne, in the south of England. We’re a company that always likes to say ‘yes’ to its customers, so off we went to have a look – and we ended up buying two Benalu trailers.”
GERMAN COMPANY PAUL NUTZFAHRZEUGE MODIFIES VEHICLES AND DEVISES UNIQUE SOLUTIONS FOR NON-STANDARD TRANSPORT TASKS. BULK & TIPPER VISITS ITS NEW PURPOSE-BUILT VEHICLE CONVERSION FACILITY AT VILSHOFEN.
There are some applications where a standard production truck cannot meet an operator’s requirements. Certain aspects of the operation mean that traction, manoeuvrability or even payload capacity are absolutely vital and unless the specific criteria can be met, the operation is just not viable.
While most of the major truck manufacturers offer an extensive range of vehicles, with a huge range of options, far more comprehensive than what was offered in the past, there are jobs that require a purpose-built vehicle. A number of the truck manufacturers have close links with specialist converters, sometimes manufacturers in their own right, which can take a standard production vehicle and convert it for an unusual application.
Issue Six: with 130+ pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? Bulk & Tipper, Britain’s best loved niche transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.
AGGREGATE AND RECYCLING SPECIALIST JJ BARTLETT HAULAGE HAS BUILT A HEALTHY BUSINESS BASED ON ROCK-SOLID CUSTOMER SERVICE AND A CAREFUL CHOICE OF VEHICLES, AS BULK & TIPPER REPORTS
The name of Bartlett will probably have been a familiar one to anyone in the haulage business around Coventry since Neil Bartlett – himself the son of a former cattle haulier – set up Neil Bartlett Haulage back in 1967. But Neil hasn’t been the only Bartlett in town since, with sons Joe and younger brother Gary also setting up their own haulage businesses in recent years, and Dad Neil also running a separate bulk and pre-packed aggregates supply firm, Bartlett Aggregates, all based at a site on the Binley Industrial Estate that Neil established back in 1984.
“When I left school in the early 1980s, I worked with my Dad in the local quarries,” says JJ Bartlett Haulage founder and MD, Joe Bartlett. “I got my HGV licence at 18 years old, and continued working for Dad until 1988, when I bought my own lorry and set up on my own. I began by hauling for my Dad and also directly for local quarries, delivering stone as an owner-driver with a single vehicle.”
MAN IS USING A SMALLER DISPLACEMENT ENGINE IN AN EIGHT-WHEELER TO REDUCE WEIGHT AND ENABLE OPERATORS TO GET A CLEAR 20-TONNE PAYLOAD ON A FULLY-EQUIPPED CHASSIS. BULK & TIPPER GETS TO THE SPECIFICS.
Most tipper operators face an on-going battle to keep vehicle unladen weights within manageable levels, especially with four-axle rigids for operation at 32 tonnes. As operators are generally paid for shifting goods by the tonne, maximising payload is critical to maximise vehicle earnings. Many would like to carry a clear 20-tonne payload, but it’s increasingly difficult unless the overall specification is pared right back. Years ago it was far easier to achieve, in fact back in the ‘70s and ‘80s many British-built eight wheelers were able to carry 20 imperial tons payload while grossing 30 tons (30,490kgs). Some real lightweights like the Leyland Octopus with the Ergomatic cab could carry 21 tons with a light body, unfortunately the notorious 500 Series fixed head engine spoilt the plot by failing regularly in many instances.
The move to 32 tonnes gave a fair bit more margin, particularly for the European manufacturers who struggled to match the lightweight, but tough four-axle chassis built by UK-based manufacturers. Foden in particular was able to maintain this tradition right through to close of production with the Alpha range.
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LONGTHORNES OF HEBDEN’S SMART METALLIC BLUE TIPPERS HAVE BECOME AS MUCH A PART OF THE YORKSHIRE DALES AS THE HEATHER MOORLANDS AND DRY STONE WALLS THAT SURROUNDS ITS YARD IN THE VILLAGE OF HEBDEN, NEAR SKIPTON. BULK & TIPPER HAS BEEN SPEAKING TO GORDON LONGHTORNE, THE THIRD GENERATION OF THE FAMILY TO RUN THE BUSINESS.
There wasn’t any doubt what little Gordon Longthorne was going to do when he left school. Because even before he went to school, at the age of three or four, he used to love going down to his Dad’s haulage yard and playing among the Leylands and Fords and Bedfords, and going out in the cab with his Dad when he had collections to make from the farms around Wharfedale. When he was big enough to reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel, he learned to shunt the trucks around the yard, and by the age of 10 or 11 he could couple and uncouple trailers!
He still gets to play with the trucks on a regular basis, but these days Longthorne, who’s now 52, has other responsibilities. Along with his younger brothers, Jonathan and Mark, he runs the company started by his grandfather nearly 100 years ago. Last year the company, which employs about 35 staff, had a turnover of about £5,000,000, but it’s a far cry from 1928 when Herbert Longthorne, a World War One veteran who’d been driving for another haulier, bought his first vehicle, a one-ton capacity Chevrolet.
BRUNEL RECYCLING’S WELL-TURNED-OUT TRUCKS ARE BECOMING AN INCREASINGLY-FAMILIAR SIGHT AROUND THE WEST COUNTRY. BASED IN CORNWALL, IT OWNS AND OPERATES A FULLY-LICENSED AND PERMITTED LANDFILL AND WASTE TRANSFER STATION. BULK & TIPPER TALKS TO MANAGING DIRECTOR BRIAN VENABLES.
Occupying 100 acres at Roodscroft in Hatt near Saltash, the family-owned business supplies graded aggregates for construction projects, top soils and biomass and undertakes site clearances, demolitions and muckaway work. It also hires out heavy plant and machinery. The slogan it uses – ‘Remove, Recycle, Re-use’ – neatly encapsulates the bulk of its activities.
The firm’s roots go back to the late 1980s says Brian Venables. “My dad got planning permission to build a house, dug out the foundations, happened to have a field he could tip the soil in, but then got to wondering how other people in his situation disposed of soil they didn’t need.”
Issue Six: with 130+ pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? Bulk & Tipper, Britain’s best loved niche transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.
