London-based haulier Terry Squires has seen a lot of changes in 50 years. Operating a fleet of trucks in modern-day London is probably the most shocking.

Photo: Terry Squires (right) and David Waghorn, doing what it takes to adapt and survive.

By his own admission Terry Squires is old school! The septuagenarian, who has been in the industry for more than 50 years, operates out of a less than glamorous portable cabin on a small rented plot of land. He doesn‘t own a smartphone, and his company – TJS Transport – makes do without a website. Armed with this knowledge, you‘d expect the steel haulier to run a fleet of tired old trucks, wouldn‘t you? Well, there‘s one bit of information I haven‘t given you – TJS is located just a stone‘s throw from London‘s Heathrow Airport, and 80% of its work is within the capital city. This means he has to deal with an ever-growing amount of red tape and legislation. “Maybe we‘d have a nicer office and a website if we hadn‘t just spent a million pounds ($1.9 million) renewing the fleet,” says David Waghorn, who for the past seven years has taken care of the day-to-day running of the company. He goes on to explain that in order to comply with London‘s expanding Low Emission Zone (LEZ), it has just undergone a massive fleet replacement programme, and 10 out of its 12 trucks are now Euro 6.

TJS Transport specialises in delivering rebar (reinforced bar) steel, timber and other building products to sites across the southeast of England, so we are talking about specialist bits of kit. In fact, almost half of the fleet has cranes, including a pair of new generation Scania P360 26-tonners. Squires and Waghorn tell me that they did toy with the idea of simply paying the fine – £100 ($190) a day to enter Greater London in a Euro 4 or Euro 5 truck from October 2020 – but having done the sums, decided to take the plunge and invest in the business. As a result, the past 12 months has seen eight Euro 6 trucks join the fleet. What really grates on the pair though, is that there is nothing wrong with the trucks they have been forced to dispose of. “Our artics only do 50,000 miles (80,467km) per year, and the rigids do even less, yet nobody wants them as they aren‘t Euro 6,” explains Waghorn. “Take that 2009 truck,” says Squires, pointing to a tidy 26-tonne Scania P-series with Fassi crane, parked in a corner of the yard. “We‘ll take the crane off it before we sell it, but the vehicle is worth next to nothing. We‘ll probably only get two and a half grand ($4800) for it, which is criminal, as there‘s nothing wrong with it.”

TJS Transport‘s proximity to London means the LEZ isn‘t the only thing affecting its bottom line. Like thousands of other UK hauliers, it has signed up for the Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme, and for the past two years has been silver certified. This voluntary accreditation scheme aims to raise fleet quality levels, and has an emphasis on safety. Like most hauliers I speak to, both men see the scheme as little more than an expensive box-ticking exercise. “If we don‘t do it, then we don‘t get the work,” says Waghorn, matter-of-factly. He explains that in addition to the annual subscription and audit fee, it costs between £2500 ($4800) and £3000 ($5750) to kit out a truck with all the relevant equipment. Squires believes one of the key benefits to investing in on-board cameras has been a noticeable reduction in annual insurance premiums. One of the next waves of legislation to hit London operators is the Direct Vision Standard (DVS). The scheme, which measures how much truck drivers can see directly through their cab windows, was created to improve the safety of vulnerable road users. It comes into force next year, and encourages the use of yet more cameras and glazed panels in the bottom of nearside doors. The highest 5-star rated trucks are fitted with low-entry cabs. While TJS‘s fleet is fully compliant for the time being, Squires and Waghorn are already future-proofing the trucks. One of the new P-series has a lower window cut into the nearside door, although Squires isn‘t convinced of its merits. “You can‘t see out of it if there‘s a passenger in the truck, and you can‘t open the window either,” he says. TJS‘s local Scania dealer recently offered the company an L-series 6×2. While Squires liked the idea of having a 5-star rated truck on the fleet, a closer examination of the low-entry truck revealed that it wasn‘t for him. “We spend a lot of time on rough sites, so would rip the sump out,” he says.

Photo: The L-series cab was too low for TJS, so the P-series got the nod.

While talking about the DVS, the conversation inevitably moves on to cyclists. Like many transport companies operating in the capital, TJS‘s drivers have seen all manner of dangerous behaviour by two-wheeled road users, and as a result, Waghorn has strong views on the subject. “The fact that they don‘t have a licence is ridiculous,” he says. “I‘m not saying they should pay a road licence, but they should have some sort of insurance, registration and a qualification to cycle in London. They have cameras, and so do we. But at the end of the day we don‘t know who they are.” Another drawback to running into central London is parking fines. The nature of the job means that a TJS truck can‘t simply pull straight onto a building site, as first the driver needs to get out and check the delivery details. But two minutes parked on a restricted red route [red lines painted in the gutter that prohibit stopping at any time] will earn a £130 ($250) fine. “We get a lot of fines and do try to fight some,” says Squires. “But worse than red routes are the yellow box junctions [yellow grids painted on the road, which vehicles are not allowed to stop on]”, says Waghorn. “The driver will see a space, start to cross the grid, and then a car will nip in front of him. Now he‘s overlapping the grid, and a fine is heading our way.”

“And don‘t even get us started on the cost and availability of property around here,” adds Squires. “This is just a temporary site, but we have been here for two years. There is nothing available, so we keep getting pushed out.” But while Squires acknowledges that London definitely has its pitfalls, this is the area in which he‘s been based for the past 50-plus years, and he has no intention of going anywhere. Nor does the 72-year-old have any plans to fully retire. He is perfectly happy with the current arrangement, which sees him dipping in and out of the business, while Waghorn takes care of the day-to-day running. “Even if I wanted to retire I couldn‘t, as my wife wouldn‘t let me,” he says with a grin. “What you see here is what transport was like 20 or 30 years ago,” says Squires. “Most hauliers have been taken over, or operate out of big office buildings. But not us, because we‘re old school. I suppose you could say that we‘re behind the times.” Just then his old Nokia phone rings. It‘s the Scania dealer, with information on a used hybrid P-series, which he believes will be well suited to the operation. Maybe TJS Transport isn‘t as old school as Squires thinks it is!

THE SQUIRES HISTORY

Terry Squires started his long career in road haulage in 1969. “My dad was a grocer, but I couldn‘t stand working in the shop,” he recalls. “So when I turned 21 we bought a 10-tonne lorry [Bedford KM], and I used to collect the produce straight from the farms. It just grew from there.” In the 1970s and 1980s Squires Transport‘s Volvos and Leyland Marathons were a familiar sight, not only in the UK, but on the Continent too. In its heyday, it was running 10 trucks internationally, as far afield as Greece, Yugoslavia and even North Africa. “We used to take a load of food parcels from here to Poland too,” remembers Squires. One of the company‘s largest customers at the time was banana importer Fyffes. While he has fond memories of the international work, Squires eventually turned his back on it in the 1990s when it became “a lot of hassle for very little profit”, instead concentrating on moving steel with TJS Transport. He still has an international licence today, but has no intention of competing with cut-price Eastern European operations. “I can‘t believe how many foreign lorries you see over here these days,” he says.

THE SQUIRES Fleet

TJS Transport, and Squires Transport before it, were traditionally big Volvo operators. In fact, one of Terry Squires‘ claims to fame is that he took delivery of the UK‘s first F12. In recent years, the operator has favoured Scania, but Squires says this isn‘t necessarily a permanent switch of allegiance. “We still have two more Euro 5s to replace, and we need to make up our mind whether to go for Scania or Volvo,” he says. The current 12-strong fleet consists of three 6×2 tractors, a pair of previous generation R-series and one FH series 4. It also runs six 26-tonners with front-mounted cranes (Palfinger, Fassi and PM), consisting of three Scania P320s, two new generation P360s and a DAF CF 370. A further three 26-tonne flats are all Scania P320s. With the exception of two Euro 5 26-tonners, which will soon be replaced, everything is Euro 6. The company has a preference for manual gearboxes, and sleeper cabs. While most of the Euro 6 trucks were purchased used, the exceptions are the new generation Scanias.

Photos: The TJS Transport fleet is fast evolving to meet Euro 6 emissions. Any trucks you see that aren‘t bang up to date are now virtually worthless.