1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156 
Tony Collins-Miskin, the MD of Hull-based Burstwick Freight Services, who
Page 44
Page 46
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
has made 17 drivers redundant in the past four months, and parked about 40% of his fleet to reflect a 40% drop in new caravan sales, declares: "We are in a luxury leisure industry and my customers predict a long, hard winter. I'm going to have to reduce expenditure to get through it."
Over the years, East Yorkshire has built up a specific local skills base and become the European epicentre of caravan construction since the demise of the fishing fleet — the area's biggest industry — and not just trailer caravans, but motorhomes, static mobile homes and portable buildings.
As this manufacturing base expanded, so did Burstwick, and since 1981, the transport division of its main customer, the Swift Leisure group, which produces a range of well-known caravan brands, including Abbey and Sprite, has followed suit. Burstwick makes optimum use of its fleet by hauling for every major manufacturer in the market, but from a logistics perspective, Hull isn't ideally situated; being stuck on a motorway peninsula means frequent unladen trips home.
Peaks and troughs
The caravan business has cyclical peaks and troughs of demand, and December is usually dead, and in August, the factories close for the traditional holidays.
Collins-Miskin usually makes most of his profit between March and July, but caravan and motorhome manufacturing is in dire straits, with layoffs reported almost weekly in the local press.
"Hull is the caravan-building capital of the UK, but one of the big local static van manufacturers has just been put up for sale by its parent Company. The recession didn't creep up on us, it happened almost overnight," he says.
"With Burstwick being a specialised fleet, we can command better rates, but it's not balance sheets that send people under, it's cashflow," he adds.
Collins-Miskin has seen recessions before and hopes he'll make it through what he regards as "the worst since the early 1980s". He believes many operators, especially those with trucks on lease or finance are "less wellcushioned", with some already going to the wall.
Redundancy fears
Collins-Miskin believes that "no one is buying caravans for fear of redundancy", but in the longer term, he thinks there may be a plus side. He says that after 11 September 2001, people eschewed flying for holidays at home and caravan sales soared. Next summer, sales might recover — if only in the second-hand market — as people cancel expensive foreign holidays. A key indicator will be the national caravan show in February one of two each year, where visitors can buy and browse.
"The autumn 2008 event was down, but not as much as forecast, with good attendance and some orders," says Collins-Miskin.
Until then, at least, there'll be no vehicle acquisitions, no fleet expansion and routine fleet replacement purchases deferred. "I'm putting my cheque book away for the winter," he vows.
Collins-Miskin has laid some trucks up and sold older ones. His policy has always been to buy outright, at times of recession what some regard as an old-fashioned strategy is vindicated, especially since he owns the freehold on his yard and looks after most maintenance in-house, preferring to keep hands-on control of repairs. Burstwick rescues its own breakdowns, and, since suitable replacement trucks can't be hired, keeps spare wagons on the fleet.
The biggest rigs cost £80,000 apiece, so Collins-Miskin has to keep them moving, all the way from Devon to Scotland. By using moveable deck extensions — not permanently fixed and, therefore, not legally part of the load — a third motorhome can be squeezed on to an Actros drawbar, which makes the job more cost efficient and environmentally sustainable. However, there is one issue. Setting it up this way means the rearmost motorhome overhangs the trailer with 20ft of load and body behind the rearmost axle.
Since caravans are very light, he's down-plated the larger trucks to 28 tonnes to save VED and the smaller ones to 6.5 tonnes GVW (which means they can't be switched to other types of work). The Ategos tare out at below 8.25 tonnes GTW and can be driven on a pre-1998 car licence.
Can Collins-Miskin rely on the all-important support of his bank in financially troubled times? Understandably, he's cautious in replying, but says: "We have a good long-term relationship — our trucks are purchased, so we can lock the gates and sit it out. "We reinvest profit in the business; don't pay big dividends, buy Ferraris or villas, That's what allows us to be in a fortunate position."
All this in a year when Burstwick has already had to deal with fuel price rises (caravan transporters arc not the most aerodynamic of trucks) but here they've had some luck. "All our customers have accepted some fuel surcharges without batting an eyelid," says Collins-Miskin, aware in this respect at least he's doing better than many.
Conclusion As is so often the case in CM road transport market sector surveys, when the ordure hits the fan, happy are those who resisted bank's blandishments to give up but kept some equity in trucks and invested profit in the freehold of their operating base. This is, as Steve Biddle from the RHA's caravan transporting group says: "A very difficult sector at the moment." •