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156 
Hauliers team up for big contracts
Page 7
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• by Dominic Perry
The 56-member Transport Association is considering emulating new company Jigsaw Solutions by setting up a new haulage firm made up of its members.
According to vice-chairman Martin Brown, boss of Grimsby firm TH Brown, if the association decides in favour of the proposal things will move ahead quickly in the New Year. He says that as many as 3G hauliers could be involved covering a variety of sectors, including the chilled market that Jigsaw has so far decided to avoid.
Brown, who is believed to be at the forefront of the project, says: "Obviously within the association there are lots of different transport companies with different specialities—chilled, trunking, home delivery, international and so on. Having a large network across the country would be advantageous but if we were to offer, say, a chilled service, we would need to attract enough operators into the venture to succeed."
Names linked with the project so far include Newcastle firm Simpson Bros; Southampton haulier Meachers; Evans Transport from Devon; Newport-based Gerry Jones; TH Brown; Bristol operator Baylis Distribution; Rochdale-based James Nuttall and Aberdeen firm AR Craib.
Peter Simpson, MD of Simpson Bros, says this is a way for his firm to expand: it's an opportunity for us to seek the really big contracts that as a single firm we could not take on. Many of us end up working for the big companies on these contracts anyway, so this way we could offer some form of competition to them and take the work for ourselves.*
He adds that it is also a way of moderating any risk involved in expansion: "All family-owned firms want to expand and this would be a way of expanding at a pace we would feel comfortable with."
The association is meeting this Wednesday (30 October) to discuss the proposals.
• For mere on Jigsaw see page I&