What went wrong?
Part 3 Thorn part 4
Thorn had particular poor industrial relations during the late 60’s and 70’s, with strikes, work to rules and overtime bans almost every day. Shifts would often start, at seven thirty in the morning to be told to go out in the car park at about half past nine for a mass meeting, where with a show of hands it was ‘Everyone Out’. Most workers didn’t know why they were on strike but I suppose it was a sign of the times. Our vans came back and of course as the factory was on strike were unable to load. In those days we never laid anyone off, finding them whatever work we could, usually a tin of paint with a paint brush painting wheels and touching up scratches. Another occupation, in those days was washing vans by hand using Flash in buckets of water to remove built in grime. In those days, long before detergents were used in vehicle washing machines we just used a hose with a brush attached to a hose using clear water, and grime built up over time.
Trade unions were given extreme power on Thorns site, and the inevitable happened that the allowed shop stewards to sit in the site entrance with the security guards to check union membership of anyone wishing to enter the site without a union card. Our drivers were stopped and we were given a week to get everyone joined up to the TWGU or we no longer would be able to load.
For years there had been a conflict between our drivers and Thorn’s own drivers who quietly complained to our drivers that they were ruining the job, as we did a load that was taking their drivers three, sometimes four days, quite legally in one. Although Thorn had about 15 vehicles running in Spennymoor they had no transport manager, as such. Both Syd Hardy, and Stan Bradley, who were described as such had never sat in a cab and had no knowledge of how long a journey would take. Driving on a holiday would worry both of them for weeks before, and had no control over the time their drivers took to do the work, so the drivers tended to have a free for all and worried that their jobs might be ruined if anyone ever realised what they actually were doing.
We had an urgent meeting with TGWU and they left membership forms with us so that we would get them filled in and completed and we also agreed that we would collect union fees directly from the pay packet and pay them directly. Dad had a problem as he asked them could he become a member of the union as he regularly drove vans over to the factory and he would need to be a member to pass through the gates. After a week of consideration they decided that he could not become a member and gave dispensation so that both he and I could take vans in. One of the best things we did was agreeing to collect the union fees for them, as minor disagreements were immediately forgotten when we explained we could always stop doing this and they knew their biggest problem was collecting fees and seeing there were no areas amongst their membership.
It is my opinion that union membership ever did any good for our drivers, and certainly the Thorn drivers who wanted to slow down our drivers had no success with TGWU.
I was fortunate in life that at an early age I found I had aptitude for arithmetic, which led to me eventually achieving ‘A Level’ in Mathematics. As soon as I officially joined the business I put my mind to how we could improve efficiency. It was obvious that drivers were working at different rates and some did a lot more than others. I asked dad, ‘If a driver could do a third more work in his time would you be prepared to pay him accordingly’. His answer was ‘Yes, of course.’ I had an advantage in my life that I had ridden in vans for most of my years and had started driving our small vans as soon as I reached 17. I knew what was possible and I knew what I had done myself with a small van. When I started considering things in 1966 we paid by the hour, 8 hours per day single time 1 ½ times over and double time on a Sunday. They were paid a fixed 11 hours for each night they were away from home and a minimum of 8 hours the next day) As I said Thorn refrigeration had greatly increased our traffic and we had already broken dad’s golden rule that you shouldn’t work on a Sunday and it was now normal that vans loaded for London and South Coast travelled down on a Sunday afternoon, to start delivering first thing Monday morning, which enabled us to get an extra journey a week out of a van, but we were still working with ‘A licences’ before the Operator’s Licence system was introduced and although we had been successful with each application to increase the number of vehicles we operated, each extra vehicle needed more capital expenditure.
I needed to know exactly what was happening, so I bought two Service Recorders. (The forerunner of the tachograph) and secretly fitted these hidden in various vehicles from time to time. Vans were parked up at three o’clock in an afternoon, on occasion in Edinburgh for instance so that a two day job took three. Working back I calculated that if we paid a rate of 30 miles per hour and 1 hour per drop we could pay the slowest driver the same as he was earning before, and if he did extra and work a little harder he could potentially improve their wages by 30%. They were also paid the hours they were in the depot but had to clock on and clock off. In preparation we bought a new clocking machine and time cards.
I had dad’s agreement but how to convince the drivers. We were fortunate at that time as they were not in the union, which was for their benefit, and I spoke to each separately and explained to them. Obviously they talked it over with each other and were still unconvinced so I offered to put my money were my mouth was and tell them if they gave it a go for 4 weeks I would pay which ever method (Old hourly rate or new price per mile etc.) Two did not accept and carried on as normal but the rest found they had a massive pay increase, be it in most cases they were doing a lot more work.
In effect this still gave them the same percentage (about 34%) of vehicle earning but the vans were earning a lot more money and we got through a lot more work, giving the same effect as putting a third more vans on the road. However that was before motorways when the speed limit was 30 mph. As time went on as our margins were squeezed as I will tell later we had to go up to 33 mph and reduce delivery times down nearer to 30 min per drop, and when tacographs were introduced it was out of date as we needed to get nearer the hours worked
Once again my arithmetical ability came in handy about the same time. UK was experiencing the start of inflation and we were having difficulty with the rates that Thorn were paying. I set about working out the individual costs that made up our charges and we needed 24% increase to give us a genuine rate. Setting it out clearly we sent it to Alec Ellis the managing director of Smart & Brown Engineering Ltd asking him for his help and advice and for the first time I went with dad to a meeting with Ellis. He said he had passed my calculations to their Cost Accountants and they entirely agreed with my figures and agreed to 24% increase in charges as everyone agreed it was not in Thorn’s interests that we should cut corners as that could only reduce the standard of service. These calculations served as a template for our rates for the next 20 years. As diesel and wages went up and any other cost by slotting in the new costs we could easily see the rate increases we needed.
As our workforce increased in size we got more trouble makers in our drivers and industrial relations got quite bad at times, It was a shame because nearly every driver will say today, once we finished they never got a job as good again, but like most things the majority are quiet and get on with their job and don’t attend union meetings and when they do it is the noisy ones who take over and cause trouble, and in every case that I ever found these were the people who were lazy and didn’t like working.
As I said earlier we were unionised because of Thorn being a closed shop and in my opinion the TGWU did not represent their members. For instance sleeper cabs were blacklisted and I never can understand why the tachograph was so easily accepted. If I had been a driver I can understand why they would not have wanted ‘The Spy In The Cab’ but when the time came there was no resistance.
For my part I was again looking at wages. Pay according to the tachograph would have greatly reduced our wages as a percentage of turnover (But not as low as 17%). Looking at that and giving drivers bonus on vehicle cleanliness, Fuel consumption, no accidents and number of return loads would have put them to where they were, in most cases. Most of this particularly fuel consumption bonus would have been self-financing as it could only be achieved by less flogging and better driving which not only would have cut our diesel costs but also our wear and tear, but the union would not even discuss and had I had cooperation it might have retained the jobs.
1973 marked a huge change with our work with Thorn. John Davison left Davisons Transport Shildon (Direct Transport ) and bought three new Volvo tractor units and 5 40ft flat trailers. Also armed with my costing that had been agreed Smart & Brown cost accountants had carried out an exercise of how much it was costing to run their own vehicles. They concluded they needed to get rid of their own drivers in as friendly fashion as they could as soon as possible and it was arranged that we would buy their vehicles.
To be continued
, its not funny being told they are cheaper than us , then they ring me to help them with porter etc because there men are leaving because of low wages
