• Should you pick up the phone and bend Janet
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Williams' ear with your prejudices against agency drivers, she will be more than ready for any of your barbs. For this farmer's daughter from North Wales spent over eight years with a Shrewsbury milk haulier before setting up JJ Haulage Services, her own driver agency, in July this year. And she was determined to establish a business that truck operators could trust.
Will — JJ stands for her maiden name, Janet Jones — won the support of her bank manager and accountant and ploughed the proceeds of her husband's Vickers shares into the business. She had started as a secretary with Mason's Transport in Shrewsbury in 1981 after marrying Hefin, a machinist with what was then the Rolls-Royce factory in the town, and found herself helping run the business two years ago when the proprietor fell ill.
She obtained a Certificate of Professional Competence, but left at the end of last year as plans were being laid to close Mason's.
Williams decided to establish a driver agency. "You get a gut feeling about drivers, I had learned the bad things about agencies in 81/2 years in haulage. References weren't always being taken up. Drivers were being sent out too quickly after interviews." She knew it could be done better and several customers convinced her that she should set up on her own. 'rhat meant satisfying Department of Employment licensing requirements of her own character and agreeing to issue contracts to all drivers and customers.
Most of her drivers are employed fulltime, issued with a uniform, get four weeks' paid holiday and are paid a retainer for days when their services are not required. Williams does employ a few parttimers, including an ambulance controller and the manager of a local creamery, but no-one whose full-time work involves driving.
EXPERIENCE
Rigorous tests are applied before she accepts drivers. They must be over 25 and have at least five years' experience. She seeks two written references from previous employers and asks drivers to complete detailed application forms which ask for health history; whether, if the driver wears glasses, a sight test has been taken in the past four years; and why they have left previous jobs.
"If we have a driver with three years' experience, we will look at his references and past work, and if he is an exceptional driver we will take him on, but first tell our customer," she says. Her rules even prevent her from employing husband Hefin, who recently passed his Class 1 HGV test.
"Licences tell us a lot about the drivers," says Williams. "I wouldn't employ a driver who had been disqualified. Obviously, if the disqualification had been cleared off his licence I would have no means of checking, but the previous employer might tell us."
Another Shrewsbury driver agency, Midland Driver Supply, has a driving school and Williams may use it to assess drivers' skills. Although competitors, both businesses find this arrangement has its advantages.
"We can tell each other of faults with drivers and compare notes on their stories,".she says. It also means that JJ tends to specialise in providing drivers for reefers; MDS for tankers.
She places drivers over a wide area of Shropshire, Cheshire and parts of North Wales, and expects them to have their own cars and phones. "The agency can only work that way," she says.
Williams is fanatical about drivers' hours rules. Clients are responsible for the condition of their vehicles, drivers for any traffic offences. "We have a log of all tachos, which I do every Monday morning," she says. "It's a case of no tachos, no money."
There are strict instructions to refuse to obey any customer's demands to break the hours rules.
"Companies want drivers with experience who will take care of their vehicles. They need drivers they can trust and it is also very important that they get someone they like."
She tries to restrict her 13 full-time drivers to no more than three customers each. Her contract tells customers to report any problems within 24 hours and obliges her to replace an unsuitable driver within four hours.
"I won't send a driver to someone he hates, because I know he'll let his aggro take over and that's just not worth it," says Williams. "If they don't like roping and sheeting, there is no point giving them that. They'll make mistakes and customers will suffer."
EMBROILED Similarly, she will not allow her drivers to become embroiled in someone else's labour troubles, and she believes that JJ's wage rates are higher than the hourly union-agreed rate for haulage drivers in the area.
Williams places great emphasis on customer contact. She took over several of her previous employer's customers and drivers and spends about three days a week on the road visiting customers and developing new business contacts.
As well as the 24-hour driver agency, she also runs a small-scale clearing house and is investigating post-1992 possibilities of twinning with a Continental driver agency to provide an international service. But she has confidence that the day of the agency driver has arrived.
"Operators shouldn't regard all agencies as being the same. They should seek out the better agencies which try to cater for their needs.
"Agencies will become more and more important because of the increases in fuel and other prices. Jobs can he found for drivers because they will be shared between companies."