A family affair for haulage company, Wm Armstrong

This business has been undergoing huge transformations over the years to make it the success it is today. From livestock to milk to single/multi-pallet consignments to MOT centre to selling vehicles and parts – you name it, the Armstrong family covers it!

The business has always continued through the family and is now managed by the third generation in the shape of managing director, Jennifer Whyberd; sales director, Geof Armstrong; livestock director, Derek Armstrong, along with some of the fourth generation who are working in the business to keep the family tradition very much alive.

 

The organisation was founded in 1927 by William Armstrong when he purchased a small 25-acre holding at Newton, Brampton. His original Model T Ford could only carry one cow at that time, so he never made a fortune, even after he came across the opportunity to retail coal for 6p a cwt to add another string to his bow.

Everything was trial and error to get the company going, but the first to really establish the business as a bigger concern was carting milk in 1928 for Nestle and the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, in Carlisle.

To put it into perspective, the Armstrongs were tasked with bringing nine churns of milk into the dairy every day for a sum of 10 shillings (50p) and this rapidly gave the business a sound footing to literally take off.

The Model T Ford no longer had the capacity to fulfil their rising tide of customers and this resulted in an addition of a Chevrolet and two Bedfords, which provided the fleet for a solid 11 years, hauling feed on top of milk churns, and any other small jobs William could get his hands on.

truck exiting the wash bay at the Longtown depot Ref:RH20032191 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

The 1950s witnessed a rapid growth for the firm, with William’s seven children beginning to come through, with the oldest, Bob, taking over the responsibilities of all lorries in 1947 at the age of just 17, while William concentrated on the large farm the family had bought at Penton.

Bob was soon joined by his brothers, Harold, Jock and Cyril, and his wife, Margaret. Within the past two years, the family business suffered the loss of both Bob and Cyril, who were very much seen as the ‘crux’ of the businesses.

The takeover of Millican’s livestock vehicles was the start of a bigger change to livestock hauling in 1953 and has become a huge part of the business today. On the general side of things, there was a strong developed business by the 1970s, having revolutionised the fleet with the purchase of articulated vehicles, palletised goods and forklift trucks.

Another major turn for the company was 1984, which saw the death of William and his two sons, Jock and Harold. This was not an easy time for the business and it relied on the reserves and loyal workforces around the remaining family to continue to survive.

on to the next job two of the Armstrong lorries head over the Longtown Bridge which spans the river Esk Ref:RH200321127 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

Foot-and-mouth a catalyst for change

But, over the years, Wm Armstrong has grown massively to become one of the largest livestock hauliers in both Scotland and England. Importantly, in the year of foot-and-mouth (2001) confirmed that markets in Scotland could rely on them, as their official ‘Scottish’ status was conferred in a letter from the Scottish Office stating that the firm was Scottish and was exempt from a ban on English hauliers moving livestock north of the Border.

“That year, 2001, was a watershed for our business. Foot-and-mouth came to that market across the road on February 27 and at that time we had about 40 trucks, with a third of our business in livestock, a third in general haulage and a third in milk.

“We lost all the livestock and the milk started diminishing as farms began to be hit by the disease. We saw our business just declining.

“But, we had great relationships with our suppliers and pulled in every favour we could. On Mothers’ Day, 2001, we all went to lunch and that afternoon said we would have to start making redundancies.

“But we didn’t want to lose those key livestock people because if they went to something different, we had lost them for good,” said Jennifer. The turning point was a phone call from the Ministry of Agriculture offering a contract to move sheep to be slaughtered in a cull of all sheep and goats in a 3km radius of the farms in North Cumbria that had had foot-and-mouth.

“It gave us a breathing space for Geof and the general haulage team to look at increasing that side of the business as much as we could,” explained Jennifer.

Wm Armstrong of Longtown provides quality Haulage Services to a wide range of industries Ref:RH20032193 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

The same year they knew they had to diversify away from just agricultural income streams and joined with other UK hauliers to form Palletforce – a palletised goods distribution network for single/multi-pallet consignments run by its members operating throughout the UK and Europe.

On-going expansion has not stopped, with the acquisition of Robsons Haulage and Forster’s Light Haulage, as well as the opening of a new depot at Uddingston, near Glasgow.

This depot allowed the company to diversify into commercial vehicle sales and services alongside its established Cumbria Truck Centre.

Working with Palletforce in 2001 was seen as a way of saving the business and since then, Wm Armstrong has now become a member for North Cumbria, Central Scotland and Southern Scotland, offering same day express pallet deliveries/collections and other services to suit customers’ requirements.

The commitment to Palletforce was behind the huge investment of setting up that 40,000sq ft general haulage depot in Uddingston in 2005.

When Armstrong started with Palletforce, the company was mainly delivering pallets put into the network by members further south. A successful network, however, requires more or less balanced volumes either way, otherwise trucks are running empty on one leg – a significant added cost.

Now, while it still takes out more pallets than it puts in, Armstrong’s wide range of palletised freight into the network, ranging from packaging and food, to horticultural products, means that vehicles are fully loaded in both North-bound and South-bound directions.

Cumbria Truck Centre DVSA/VOSA-approved Authorised Testing Facility (ATF). Which is a fully equipped facility at the Longtown depot, all makes and models of Trucks, Trailers and PSVs can be MOT tested on site by DVSA employed staff Ref:RH200321125

Investment north of the Border

More recently, in 2019 the eight-acre site at Uddingston was also transformed into Armstrong Vehicle Centre, a new build to undertake maintenance and MOTs for private cars and small vehicles.

Although not currently undertaking MOT for lorries, the establishment is fit for purpose if the opportunity was to arise in future years.

The Cumbria Truck Centre had been another stabilising addition to the sometimes volatile business. This operates a DVSA Authorised Testing Facility (ATF) for large goods vehicles. As well as a range of services, parts and sales for Isuzu trucks, LDV vans and the Maxus van range of both light and commercial vehicles.

However, just as it did in its very early years, one of the core elements was milk transport. From 1994 to 2004, Armstrong worked with its original customer, Nestle, which was once again getting milk directly from farmers, to deliver milk to its dairies. In 2004, there was a tender process which the business lost and for the first time in its history, had no business for its milk tanker fleet.

Daf 410 are used for Milk Haulage which has been at the core of Wm Armstrong's activities for almost 90 years Ref:RH200321134 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

That soon turned around in 2007 when Dutch entrepreneur, Ron Akkerman, came to talk to farmers about setting up a co-operative to process their own milk at a dairy in West Cumbria, with Armstrong given the task of collecting the milk.

Then, in 2008, working with Meadow Foods, milk is also collected from Cumbrian farms to make ingredients for the food industry in factories in Chester, Holme-on-Spalding-Moor and Peterborough. The Armstrongs also collects milk from farms in Cumbria and the North-east for Lanchester Dairies, in Durham, where they supply traditional bottled milk and retail products.

In 2019, Armstrong’s opened its Aspatria depot when it won the tender to collect milk from First Milk’s Cumbrian farms who supply the Lake District Creamery, at Aspatria.

Milk is a ‘risky’ business

“Like all specialised transport, operating milk tankers is a high-risk sector. While milk always needs collecting from farms every single day of the year, the upheavals in the market mean customer requirements change day-by-day.

“It is also hard to rent a milk tanker, so we always have a spare vehicle on standby in case of a breakdown,” said Jennifer.

Tankers are among the most modern in Europe. They are equipped with the latest on-board computerised measuring and automatic sampling equipment from 15,000 litre to 30,000 litre capacity, use sophisticated pumping equipment and have steering axles for

On the livestock side of things, the family are well situated on the Border to work in both Scotland and England for hauling livestock; undertaking any live transportation that customers require.

“We cover all over Scotland from as far as Caithness through our depot near Wick to Aberdeen; back down to Ayr and through the Western Isles, with our main customer base being Stirling and Dingwall,” said Derek, who also runs a depot in Caithness, which houses two lorries.

“Up north, farmers seemed to really struggle with hauliers, the family driven haulage businesses have just not seen the younger generation coming through and it is a real shame not having any local wagons on the go,” he explained.

“Farmers were very limited to where they could sell their stock, but we have been up in that region since the 1950s. The two lorries up there do all the local work, bringing animals down the country to get a fairer price for the livestock for our customers, the increase in price they can receive by transporting their stock makes a real difference for them,” added Derek, who is in charge of running 15 livestock lorries in total, along with sub-contracting 15 further lorries to cover the workload.

Vehicles operate locally throughout the UK, transporting up to two million animals a year. Armstrong vehicles can be found at all Scottish markets throughout the year Ref:RH200321111 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

Jennifer added: “For us, the livestock haulage industry has become relatively small, but we travel the length and breadth of the country every day and while our head office is here in Cumbria, we are not a Cumbrian haulier when it comes to livestock.

“Local livestock haulage has almost disappeared with farmers using their own trailers, so there are just very few about now which means that at the peak of the season it’s all hands on deck, with all hauliers busy.”

“Livestock haulage is moving with the times and is currently trying to go paper free, by introducing electronic ear tags for all livestock. The tags are to try and control livestock traceability by recording everything from birth to death with all medical records equipped.

“It is going to be a challenge for the industry. The farming world is ageing and many don’t understand the technology as it is, but we have to embrace change and try to adapt as much as we can, but to start with it will be double the work,” explained Derek.

all the livestock trailers have storage for bags of sawdust to keep the inside of the unit clean and dry Ref:RH200321110 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

Brexit adds to haulage woes

Although not directly sending vehicles abroad, working with our customer’s exports and imports, the latest rules and regulations with the UK leaving Europe have caused a lot of extra work and an uproar within the haulage industry.

“Trying to understand the new regulations is becoming impossible for any company at the moment as they are still continuing to change significantly. Every port is log-jammed because of the confusing paper trail and our customers are not realising what documents are required. It has been an utter nightmare, let alone actually trying to haul out to Europe.

“We have already lost business over it and will continue to do so as there are too many underlying issues which revolves around who is paying the tariffs and VAT. It is a massive learning curve for everyone – everyone says it is political, but we need to get it under control to ensure trade agreements continue,” said Geof.

Derek added: “The same is kicking off in livestock and it is all coming down to traceability. The vets have to accept and approve every drop off of livestock, which not only is time consuming, but it comes at a cost, although it is good for food security.

“A lot of hauliers are having to sit and wait at depots for no apparent reason and they are losing money over it. It is just a matter of time until some of them give up.”

Another ongoing concern is low emission areas and that is one of the reasons Armstrongs keep an up-to-date fleet of Euro 6 compliant engines.

“London is already a low emission zone and it won’t be long until the bigger cities in Scotland are the same. We are very much a modern fleet and that is down to aiming to meet emission criteria, efficiency and reliability,” said Jennifer. She added that the business is also selling electric vans and hopes to go to electric lorries in the future, although the technology is just not there just yet for the bigger machines.

some of the modern-day fleet that consists of 130 vehicles and 180 trailers with a mix of MAN, DAF, Scania Ref:RH200321102 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

Keeping a modern fleet

The Wm Armstrong modern-day fleet consists of 130 vehicles and 180 trailers, with a mix of MAN, Daf, Scania and Isuzu, for its smaller vehicles.

“We run them for three, four and at a stretch five years, depending on the job. New trucks are selected for the particular specialist type of work – it is important to get the right vehicle for the job,” said Jennifer. Being self-sufficient in having their own workshop provides specialist support to keep the fleet and their customers’ vehicles on the road 365 days of the year.

On the other hand, the pandemic has had a mixed impact on Wm Armstrong. After just setting up the brand-new Armstrong Vehicle Centre, in Uddingston, for car and van MOTs and then lockdown three weeks later and thereafter all MOTs cancelled, it was a challenging time to start up.

“We were extremely busy to begin with and then, of course, MOTs got forgotten about, so we were getting no work during the first lockdown, which was a real panic after the investment we had just made. Thankfully, we are back up and running again and it is now looking more positive,” added Jennifer.

“However, the haulage side of things has been very much up and down, but now we see all sections thriving! The first lockdown was quiet to begin with but as more companies began to realise what was essential and what consumers wanted, we were rushed off our feet.

the tankers are equipped with the latest on-board computerised measuring and automatic sampling equipment from 15,000 litre to 30,000 litre capacity Ref:RH200321135 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

“This current lockdown is almost normal, more of our customers are open with the food industry staying strong throughout,” she said.

Geof added: “In the first lockdown, toilet roll supplies went crazy, with 15 loads of toilet rolls a day to Scotland alone! Supermarkets were finally told they couldn’t have any more, because producers simply couldn’t supply it.

“The palletised freight work had also been mad, with 1000 pallets per night, much of it coming from more home deliveries – it is something we never expected.”

Agreeing with that and commenting on the livestock side, Derek, pointed out: “Livestock was booming during lockdown as more folk were buying meat and stocking up. It is the busiest I have seen the livestock side of things for years.

“We are delighted with the trade we have been receiving and customers are getting that little extra for the produce, which makes the job worthwhile for all in the chain.”

But making the work ‘happen’ couldn’t be done without Wm Armstrong’s team of more than 320 employees, with long service being a feature for many of those.

“We want people to enjoy their work and we will suit their requirements the best we can. We are thankful we have such a hard-working and keenly enthusiastic team,” said Jennifer.

Cumbria Truck Centre DVSA/VOSA-approved Authorised Testing Facility (ATF). Which is a fully equipped facility at the Longtown depot, all makes and models of Trucks, Trailers and PSVs can be MOT tested on site by DVSA employed staff Ref:RH200321122

Finding drivers a problem

However, a shortage of drivers in the industry is an ongoing problem and although the business does its best to fill the gap, through training schemes and apprenticeships, it does not seem to be enough.

Back in the 1970s a driver could pick up milk, haul cattle to market, deliver fertiliser and do general haulage. Now, the regulations for each are different and the certification of drivers does not allow this flexibility anymore.

“It isn’t that our hours are unsociable any more as we have come to realise that was a downside to the job and have accommodated the best we can, with various shift patterns for every lifestyle. We have to be flexible to try and support others,” said Jennifer, but even so, with some lorries running 24 hours seven days a week, it takes a lot of planning and driver co-operation to allow that.

Derek added: “In the livestock side, it is even harder to find drivers than general haulage. It is a difficult job and requires people with the right mindset and willingness to handle and care for livestock – driving is secondary.

“This shortage is the biggest challenge for the industry without a doubt,” he said.

23Additional services available at Longtown include the Cumbria Truck Centre dealership for Hino and Isuzu trucks, which in conjunction with the Armstrong Trucks dealership in Glasgow Ref:RH200321132 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...

Looking into statistics, only 8% of those employed in the UK haulage industry are women and with 47% of employment in the UK being carried out by females, it is a dramatically low percentage for the haulage industry.

As a business, Wm Armstrong employs 10% women – which is above the national average – but is always looking to improve on this by encouraging a wider range of people into the industry.

The team also uses accredited sub-contractors to help cover busier times of the years, as well as staff holidays.

“We are lucky we have a good team, that pull together. When the going gets tough the tough gets going,” said Geof.

Jennifer added: “The industry is not so good at promoting itself as a good place to work. Some businesses spoil things by expecting too much from some people, but that is not the modern way of life.

“Drivers are our lifeline and we offer jobs that are open and flexible to meet everyone’s requirements. We strive to be a family friendly employer and we want drivers to be proud to be part of the Armstrong team!”

Looking to the future, there is still so much to come from the family: “Our family business has been through some challenging times over the years, and when we are having a difficult time, we look at each other and say ‘well it’s not as bad as foot and mouth’ – nothing could be as bad as that. We just have to knuckle down and get on with the challenges that lie in front of the industry today.

“We can’t sit back and say that’s how it has always been – we have to accept change and look at the different outcomes,” concluded the Armstrong family team.

Ref:RH20032192 Rob Haining / The Scottish Farmer...