EXPLORE TRANSPORT, AN ALREADY LARGE HAULAGE OPERATION, HAS ENTERED THE HEAVY SECTOR. LAUNCHED JUST THREE YEARS AGO, IT IS SAID TO BE DESTINED FOR RAPID EXPANSION. HEAVYTORQUE MEETS THE SENIOR MANAGEMENT.
Specialist heavy transport is a difficult industry in which to succeed. The huge capital investment required is a large hurdle for many to overcome. It generally takes at least a decade to establish a presence in this sector and often far longer to build a substantial operation.
Apart from the financial commitment, one of the real issues is to find staff with the skills, experience and ability to operate modern heavy haulage equipment properly, this takes a generation or more to obtain. As a result, experienced staff are almost certainly the most valuable asset of any heavy transport company and when these people come onto the labour market they are invariably snapped up very quickly. Also, the close-knit nature of the industry means that most hauliers know each other’s experienced staff, often having worked together on big jobs. If one of this select band is looking to change jobs, they only have to put the word about and are soon approached.
SPECIFYING A HEAVY HAULAGE TRACTOR UNIT TO MEET AN INDIVIDUAL OPERATOR’S REQUIREMENTS CAN BE A TIME CONSUMING AND PAINSTAKING PROCESS, WHETHER IT IS A BRAND-NEW CHASSIS CAB STRAIGHT FROM THE FACTORY, A USED VEHICLE THAT NEEDS MODIFYING, OR AN EXISTING FLEET VEHICLE THAT REQUIRES UPDATING TO MEET A CHANGING WORKLOAD. HEAVYTORQUE REPORTS.
Some operators have both the facilities, capability and resources to achieve a great deal of this work in-house, but the complex specification of modern vehicles, increasingly strict legislation and the likely expense have to be taken into account. Also allocating workshop time to carry out this type of project, while handling normal service and repair activity, means that many turn to specialist fabrication and engineering companies to carry out this type of work.
Some of the truck manufacturers offer quite a wide range of tailored options for their heavy-duty chassis, but these tend to be limited to features such as fifth wheels, towing couplings, air, electrical and hydraulic systems. This might suit operators looking for a relatively straightforward specification vehicle, but perhaps not if a customer is looking for a bespoke solution to their individual requirements.
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COLLINS EARTHWORKS HAS BEEN ACKNOWLEDGED AS ONE OF THE FASTEST GROWING COMPANIES IN THE EAST MIDLANDS. HEAVYTORQUE VISITS ITS KIRKBY-IN-ASHFIELD BASE TO REPORT ON A SERVICE PROVIDER IN A NUMBER OF KEY CIVIL ENGINEERING DISCIPLINES.
The far-reaching swathe of technological progress continues to affect every organisation that relies on powered vehicles. Earthmoving, just like heavy haulage, is going forward at a phenomenal rate, thanks to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, digital imaging, GPS and the Internet. Digital terrain models have made profile boards obsolete and contractors like Collins Earthworks can download data directly to bulldozers, excavators and graders. This information permits machine operators to achieve incredibly accurate surface height results, well within a millimetre, all from the safety of their cabs.
Collins Earthworks’ ethos of investment in the latest equipment has driven business levels across the board here, to create a multi-faceted, 21st century service provider in a number of key civil engineering disciplines. The firm’s tipper and heavy haulage fleet has also grown swiftly within the past decade.
HEAVYTORQUE LOOKS INTO THE EVER-INCREASING CHOICE OF WINCHES AVAILABLE IN THE UK AND ADVISES ON THE BEST WAY TO ACQUIRE, INSTALL AND SAFELY USE THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB.
The ability to both pull a load onto a vehicle and control the unloading process safely has been part of specialist transport almost since time began, and for most operators this requires the use of a winch. They come in all shapes and sizes, generally driven by either electrical or hydraulic power, although gearbox-driven winches were long considered an essential piece of equipment on large heavy haulage tractors. The pulling power available from a multi-speed Garwood, mounted on a World War Two Diamond T heavy tractor, is rarely equalled by modern equipment, even 75 years after they first went into service. As ever, a decent winch in the right hands is an essential piece of equipment, but lethal if used by untrained and reckless individuals.
Most trailer manufacturers report an increase in the number of operators including a winch of some kind in the specification of their trailers. This is generally with step-frames for loading over the rear beaver tail, but there are applications where a winch of some kind is required for a particular application with a low-loader trailer.
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PLANT HIRE COMPANY THE RUTTLE GROUP HAS JOINED THE HEAVY HAULAGE COMMUNITY WITH AMBITIONS TO BE MOVING THE BIGGEST, WIDEST AND HEAVIEST. HEAVYTORQUE TRACES ITS JOURNEY TO THE BIG END.
The Ruttle Group has long been established as one of the Northwest’s largest plant hire companies, having operated successfully in the region for 60 years. But last year the company signalled its intent to build an equally strong reputation in heavy haulage, when it appointed a transport operations manager specifically to deal with moving heavy loads for external customers as well as its own plant hire fleet.
“We started off with one low-loader for moving our own equipment,” explains Ruttle Group director Gareth Ruttle. “That grew to us having three or four low-loaders at any time, and we would use them to move other people’s equipment when we could. Then we ended up picking up a couple of [heavy haulage] contracts, so we started adding vehicles to the fleet and increasing the capability of what they can carry.
EVENHEIGHTS SPECIALIST TRANSPORT, WHICH HAS OPERATED A RENAULT FLEET FOR MANY YEARS, WAS LOOKING TO ADD A HIGHER CAPACITY CRANE TRUCK TO ITS OPERATION. HEAVYTORQUE FINDS OUT HOW THE COMPANY STEERED ITS WAY THROUGH THE COMPLICATIONS OF OBTAINING THE RIGHT VEHICLE FOR THE JOB.
Truck-mounted cranes are now an essential piece of equipment for many specialist hauliers. The ability to lift/load/transport/unload and if required, install oversize cargo is part of the range of services many clients now expect from operators. Modern cranes now offer lifting capacities that were the sole preserve of large mobile cranes in the past, the truck-mounted alternative can often operate in restricted areas, where overhead obstructions or shear lack of space would prevent a separate mobile from setting up and lifting. The unique geometry of the truck-mounted alternative often allows the larger models to reach, lift and place a load in the most obscure locations, such as right over the top of a three-storey house into the rear garden.
But, as with most things in life, increased lifting power requires a bigger and invariably heavier crane, which raises problems when mounting it on a truck chassis, this is especially so with a tractor unit.
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HIRE AND SALES ENTERPRISE MV COMMERCIAL BOASTS ONE OF THE LARGEST SPECIALIST READY-TO-GO FLEETS IN THE UK. HEAVYTORQUE GETS THE INSIDE STORY OF ITS RAPID GROWTH.
From small start-up business to national commercial hire and sales service, MV Commercial’s rise has been swift and very successful, based on carefully planned acquisitions and responding to customers’ needs. In just 17 years the company has grown to employ more than 150 people, run a fleet of 1,350 vehicles available for contract hire – including crane tractor units – and operates depots across the UK.
The company was founded in 2001 by Tom O’Rourke as a car importer called Motor Vision, based in Livingston, West Lothian. But customers were soon asking for commercial vehicles as well, with demand from local businesses for hire rather than purchase, and for a supplier that understood and supported their needs.
MV Commercial started providing small commercial vehicles on flexible fixed monthly rates, a service that grew rapidly to the point where, in 2002, the firm invested in a United Vehicle rental franchise.
FAMILY-RUN HAULIER POLLOCK (SCOTRANS) HIT THE GROUND RUNNING WHEN IT MOVED INTO THE LORRY-MOUNTED CRANE AND HEAVY-HAULAGE SECTOR FOLLOWING AN ACQUISITION AT THE START OF THE YEAR. NOW POLLOCK LIFT & SHIFT IS PLANNING ITS FUTURE IN A COMPETITION MARKET. HEAVYTORQUE TRAVELS TO WEST LOTHIAN TO FIND OUT MORE.
Like many Scottish hauliers Pollock (Scotrans) runs a fleet of trucks and trailers with a distinctive look. The turquoise, gold and red livery with tartan is instantly recognisable. Since October 2006 Pollock (Scotrans) has been based on a nine-acre site at Bathgate, West Lothian, following its move from Musselburgh where it had been based since 1954.
The company goes back even further. In 1935 George Pollock started in Corstorphine, west Edinburgh, growing the transport business until it was nationalised in 1949. His business became part of British Road Services with George as the group manager for East Lothian and the Borders. When partial de-nationalisation took place in 1954 he bought some vehicles and acquired an Operator’s License to ‘restart’ the business.
Issue Fifteen: with 180 pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? HeavyTorque, Britain’s best loved specialist transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.
IN THE THIRD OF OUR MEETINGS WITH THE CHASSIS MANUFACTURERS’ HEAVY-HAULAGE SPECIALISTS HEAVYTORQUE TALKS TO DAF’S JOSH SPENCER AND LEARNS ABOUT THE DUTCH-TRUCK MAKER’S ‘LINE-BUILT’ HEAVY HAULAGE PRODUCT PHILOSOPHY.
It’s probably no coincidence that we’ve spotted a common thread running through our conversations with the manufacturers’ product specialists. Their love of trucks starts at an early age. It’s certainly the case for Josh Spencer, sales engineer at DAF Trucks. “I owe an awful lot as to why I like trucks to my Father,” he tells us. “He’s been in the industry for years as a technician and an engineer. He really understands it. So I’ve been around trucks ever since I can remember.” Interestingly, having decided to enter the industry, Spencer remembers “It was much against his advice!” Given the uncertain nature of the business his Dad’s attitude was probably understandable.
Nevertheless, in 2006 he began a three-year apprenticeship with MAN in Oxford for the Cordwallis Group, the family-owned business with VW van, MAN and Isuzu Truck franchises covering London and the Thames Valley. It was an interesting learning experience — and not just on trucks — as 27-year-old Spencer recalls: “I spent six years in the workshop there and during that time I was involved with a lot of bus, coach and also military projects. I think that taught me to really throw myself into any opportunity that came along.
GEOFFREY COOK, THE 82-YEAR-OLD SON OF HEAVY HAULAGE PIONEER SIDDLE COOK, STILL HAS DIESEL FLOWING THROUGH HIS VEINS! HEAVYTORQUE TALKS TO HIM ABOUT THE EARLY DAYS OF HEAVY TRANSPORT.
A popular urban myth is that the confectionery company, Trebor, got its moniker by reversing the first name of one of its founders – Robert Robertson. It turns out it’s not true. Trebor was simply the name of the premises the company moved into: Trebor Terrace in Upton Park, London, although some historians claim the builder of the street was, indeed, called Robert!
However, there’s no such ambiguity about the award-winning logistics and distribution company, Elddis Transport in Consett, in County Durham. Elddis is Siddle spelt backwards, and a way to remember a remarkable man whose name adorned a fleet of heavy haulage wagons between the end of the war, and the early 1970s: Siddle C Cook.
Consett isn’t the kind of town that you’d expect to be the birthplace of an internationally recognised transport empire with roots dating back to Victorian times. Although only a few miles from Tyneside and Wearside in the North East of England, the town is high up on the edge of the Pennines.
Issue Fifteen: with 180 pages of first-class journalism and photography, what more can you wish for? HeavyTorque, Britain’s best loved specialist transport title! Click the appropriate link below to purchase your annual subscription, or individual copy.