Building bridges
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a to the operator FOR AS LONG as road transport has existed there has always been a special relationship between vehicle operators and vehicle builders. Just as particuar vehicle marques have their Jevotees, even when the vehicles are standard off-theDeg, and produced in large quantities, so other operators, eeding more specialised vehicle bodywork, may be .:onscious of something more tan a purely commercial .elationship with the vehicle guilders, often traditional coachguilders.
A trade association perhaps oo little known to road hauliers )nd bus operators is the Vehicle 3uilders and Repairers Associaion, founded in 1914 and now a nost vital organisation. It has .esisted any temptation to base tself in London, or even Birningham, and is well content to ge housed in a Leeds suburb, at 3ildersome.
The industry employs about 15,000 people of whom perhaps !0,000 are in bodybuilding, nostly for the commercial vehicle operators. Some 25,000 vorkers work on the repair side )f the industry, some specialisng in lorry repair work.
In terms of companies. VBRA las some 2,600 firms in memiership. The numbers were ,welled somewhat last year vhen the National Federation of lehicle Trades and the Scottish Jational Vehicle Builders Assoiation merged with VBRA.
The VBRA is both an em)loyers' association and a trade issociation. This may have ome about for historical easons but its adds to the signiicance of the Association, and it nust have a marginal influence in road transport employers lenerally in an industry where ngineering and coachbuilding kills are readily transferable.
In common with road transqrt the VBRA has a fair number f large and medium sized firms nd a much greater number of mailer firms. Gordon Mellor, VBRA general secretary, says his largest member firm is Plaxtons at Scarborough, with perhaps 1,500 employees. Some major coach manufacturers such as Duple, Walter Alexander and others are in the category of large employers while throughout the industry firms employing 100 could be classified as "major", against the background of lots of companies with only a handful, or a score or so of workers.
The National Executive Council of 12 members plus (ex officio) the president, consists of six council members representing districts, one for each, and six others elected from national nominations. There is a Joint Wages Board (non statutory) for the Vehicle Building and Body Repair Industry. VBRA negotiates with the relevant trade unions a national agreement on behalf of employer members. Union membership, as you would expect, is higher within the larger companies but nonunion firms use the VBRA Agreement as a basis for their pay structure.
For some 25 years VBRA has recognised the importance of industrial relations. There is an industrial relations council, not exclusively made up of the general council membership. Qualities sought for I/R negotiators, says Gordon Mellor are "knowledge of Agreements, negotiating skills and ability to recognise bluff!"
I like the last requirement, but I must note that in the most recent set of negotiations possible recourse to other sections of the TGWU membership was a union counter to what they deemed excessive obduracy on the part of the employers! Who in present circumstances can too confidently call the bluff of a giant trade union? As Gordon Mellor says: "The employers' mood this year was tougher, but union members were also keen to maintain living standards."
There are interesting parallels in union claims. Employees of VBRA firms are now to enjoy a Death in Service Benefit worth not less than £2,000, between the ages of 20 and 64 for male employees (59 for females) after at least 12 months' continuous employment, and subject to such requirements as may be specified by the Insurance Companies participating.
As in many other industries the national pay structure of VBRA firms lays down minimum pay rates. The Agreement effective in September 1980 gave an extra 20 pence per hour for skilled workers, 18p for semiskilled and 16p for unskilled workers, but it was stressed that workers whose earnings are already equal to or above the new rates do not have automatic entitlement to any increase. Hence, the minimum market rate for panel beaters — still called tin bashers in some quarters — is 201.88p per hour, against the pay for skilled bodymakers and wheelwrights, etc, of 200p per hour. (The slight edge that panel have maintained provides an interesting reflection on relative pecking orders).
There is a surprisingly long list of tradesmen, skilled and less skilled, who make the vehicles used in road transport. Next to panel beaters, wing makers of private bodywork traditionally earn a whisker more than wing makers of public service and commercial vehicle bodies.
I recognise "bodymakers", but in what way does the trade of "wheelwright" differ, in 1980? What does a "smith" do nowadays, or a "mounter"? The industry seemingly employs vicemen, hammermen or strikers, even paintshop rubbers and maskers. I would warrant that many of the small coachbuilding firms employ adaptable chaps who encompass a number of these alleged "trades" under their belt.
I surmised (wrongly) that vehicle builders might arrange themselves in VBRA according to the type of bodies built — coaches, tippers, tankers, boxvans. etc. This it seems does not happen. There are specialist firms, of course, but numbers of firms, often quite small, are in the market for anything within the scope of their skills and equipment. You don't need a huge organisation to make a corner in a specialised market such as library vans.
Technical queries raised at head office are referred to well informed members for answer: Gordon Mellor says modestly he is just an administrator, though ten years in VBRA service have made him very knowledgable on legislative and regulatory matters. Typical questions being looked at currently include the overhang for demountable cattle trucks and the possible liability to car tax of the crew cabs used by highway construction gangs.
One of the VBRA's concerns is the safe loading of vehicles and there is a distinct feeling among coach builders that operators do not always use purpose-designed vehicles correctly. The load restraint called for in the movement of steel tubing, or beams, and the cab design of such vehicles cannot receive too much publicity. "Too often," says Gordon Mellor, "vehicles are not used rightly, or the end usage is not stressed to the bodybuilder."
A sad reflection on the state of the economy was the recent decision to pull out of efforts to set up a specialist coachbuilding training centre, despite considerable offers of support from equipment suppliers, and others.
The building and equipping and staffing of such a centre would have involved the VBRA in a six-figure sum before a single apprentice had been trained.
The conference and exhibition arranged under the theme Bodybuilder 80 at Solihull this autumn repeats earlier successful events. Much to the surprise of the VBRA, which had not seen a strong case for it to be held so close to the Motor Show this year, equipment and materials suppliers to the industry insisted on its being held because they wanted to talk to specialists from the coachbuilders, as against the general Motor Show visitors.
The need for even higher standards of professionalism has been taken on board by the VBRA, which is liaising closely with the Institute of the Motor Industry, whose director general, Sam Lyne, formerly the manager of the High Ercall Motec, is so well known in the industry.
The VBRA, which managed to persuade Norman Fowler, the Transport Minister, to address their Solihull Conference in November, is preparing a submission to him that only firms with suitable equipment should undertake the series type of vehicle repair, that is when a severe frontal impact has damaged suspension, steering or chassis alignment.
The journal of VBRA, called Body, is well produced and it resists the obvious temptation to adorn its front cover with you know what, though some advertisers quicken the pulse selling paint, or whatever, with pretty girl models.
There is nothing like a bit of controversy to keep a trade association's members on their toes, Some VBRA members, in the journal Body, have responded warmly to an attack on the repair industry in the AA magazine Drive, with the Thatcham Centre and the British Insurance Association also given a verbal drumming.
I am glad to note, from the VBRA's excellent Directory of Members, that there is a Code of Practice between members engaged in vehicle body repair work and their customers. It includes a guarantee in respect of all repair work undertaken, a procedure for conciliation and arbitration when complaints cannot be settled readily and the assurance that "the public interest shall predominate in all consideration of the standards of competitive trading between VBRA members."
George Quayle, VBRA's chairman of the national manufacturers' council, thinks the trend towards specialisation in bodybuilding will grow, with more concentration on tailormade vehicles designed to meet the needs of ever more professional transport and distribution managers, He thinks the use of manmade materials in body construction will increase with a diminishing need, in many areas of the business, for traditional craft skills. While there will always be a considerable reservoir of craft skills needed for specialised vehicles such as mobile laboratories, the trend towards kit-assembled bodies is here to stay, in his view.
Bodybuilding, in line with vehicle manufacturing, is taking on an international dimension, and the same may be said of much equipment used in the industry if chassis straightening machinery is any guide.
On the influence of European competition, Mr Quayle says some members are importing body kits from France or making them under licence.
"European makers got a bit ahead of us on design, largely because their food hygiene regulations required higher standards and also because the Continentals gained more experience with well-equipped test stations," he said. "While our own manufacturers are getting experience of British testing requirements the French makers particularly have been able to profit from volume capacity, which helps their export drive."
The VBRA members, said Mr Quayle, are very mindful of safety standards. "A number of firms design specialist bodies to stop loads moving forwards with danger to drivers. We cooperated with the British Standards Institute in research on load-retention devices.
In an interesting reflection on training, Mr Quayle said there had been discussions with bodybuilders in Europe with a view to devising or concerting a European Training programme for youngsters entering the in
dustry. The trend in Europe wz for boys to have a few weel secondment in a bodybuildir works before they left schoc and selection for the trade wou depend on progress at releva subjects. Already there had be: a similar experiment in the Lo don area.
The VBRA members are cor mitted to a 39-hour week fro 1981, in line with the major enc neering industry employers. II Quayle thinks the working wer will diminish further.
Just what this will mean future to operators who vehicles need the services VBRA members is an open que tion. A year ago "charge ou rates varied from £6 an hour ( Bolton) to £8 in South-west Lo don and £10 plus on certa vehicles in the Home Countie The coachbuilders, like the ro,t hauliers and coach operator must charge enough to stay business.
On the need for every-clos collaboration between the bed builders and vehicle operato there would not, I think, be r111.14 doubt. I was impressed with ti good sense of everything learned about the industry fro Gordon Mellor and the first poi in VBRA's Code of Conduct: "ensure that the public receivi the best possible service fro VBRA members", gives ma than a hint that relationshil with customers have ethic overtones.