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T h e O f f i c i a l N e w s l e t t e r o f L a n g d o n G r o u p L t d I s s u e N o . 1 9 J u n e 2 0 1 1

N E W B U I L D AT R E D D I T C HI S O N S C H E D U L E

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Wilf Dickinson, our Consultant Project Manager at Studley Rd is confidentthat he will be handing over the new depot to us by mid-August. There weresome early setbacks with the weather in December and some delaysrelating to old gas pipes that had to be removed, but the contractors havecaught up since then.

Here you can see the stages of development so far:

Demolition of the old factory gets underway- December 2010

Nearly gone - January 2011

Showing the old factory office block which has been retained andrefurbished and also external cladding being put in place. May 2011

Groundwork nearly completeand steelwork started - March 2011

Steelwork nearly finished and mainfloor construction started - April 2011

Insulation panels for the coldstore being fitted. Also showing

the loading bay area takingshape. May 2011

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Geofencing Integrates with MP3Embracing (and using) new technology has always

been part of the culture at Langdons. No department is

more “cutting edge” than our colleagues in IT and once

again they have come up trumps by linking our

Mandata transport management software (MP3) with

the Seven Eye GPS vehicle tracking system.

All of our regular delivery points now have a “virtual”

fence around them, known as a Geofence. As one of our

tracked vehicles crosses one of these fences, a

message is sent back via the tracker to confirm the

arrival of all the consignments on that vehicle. MP3 then immediately updates the status of all those jobs

to “Arrived – GPS” and also updates the customer’s jobs on our Advanced Services web portal (AS).

As the truck crosses through the fence on its way out, the consignment status changes again to

“Departed - GPS”, both in MP3 and AS. In addition the system also logs the arrival and departure times.

In this way transport planners have live “real time”

information making it much easier to manage the 2000 +

deliveries per day which are being made.

This has also enhanced the Advanced Services feature

for our customers who now have up to the minute

information about how their deliveries are progressing.

Your editor dreamed up the Langdons slogan “Driven By

Quality” some years ago. It is now, more than ever, a very

appropriate phrase.

The Default Retirement Age (DRA)Has Been RetiredUntil April this year, the default retirement age in the UK was 65. Legislation stipulated that employers were

required to give employees between six and twelve months notice of the Company’s intention to retire them

on their 65th birthday. The employee could then apply to remain in employment after the age of 65, with any

rejection having to be justified by the employer. This process had to be repeated annually.

From 6th April 2011, the DRA has been abolished and it is now illegal to force retirement on any employee

without a justified reason. Employees will no longer receive notification from the Company of retirement and

when an employee wishes to retire, the normal resignation terms in their contract of employment will apply.

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PAUL ROWEFormer Director and Shareholder RetiresPaul Rowe joined Langdons (Tone Vale Transport part of Price &

Pierce Group) in 1975 working initially as Assistant Accountant in the

Accounts Office at 138 Bridgwater Road, Bathpool then Unit 13

Taunton Trading Estate, Norton Fitzwarren, Taunton.

When the Company operations were merged at the Walford Cross

(Taunton) site in 1980 Paul became Langdons’ Financial Accountant.

In 1982 he was appointed Administration Manager. He was

promoted to Financial Controller in 1985.

In 1986, the then MD, Mike Donoghue, invited Paul to take part in a

management buyout of Langdons and at that time Paul became

Administration Director and a shareholder.

After many years of number crunching, in 1991 when the new chill

store was opened at Walford Cross and the Gerber Juice storage and

distribution contract was won, Paul went “operational” and worked

with Chris Murt and Trevor Searle in a dilapidated portakabin situated just outside the chill store. This was

when he acquired his nickname “Juice”! When the contract settled down, Paul returned to his admin role

and remained a shareholder until the Company was sold to The Nagel Group in 2004 and a few years later

he stood down as a director.

Always the “Quiet Man” of Langdons, Paul preferred to keep in the background, oiling the wheels of the

Langdons’ machine, dealing with truck finance and generally making sure that the “back room” was

functioning properly.

We wish him a very happy retirement.

MD Arran Osman congratulates Paul aftercompleting more than 35 years with Langdons

Langdons at Peterborough College Job FairTony Kane at PET agreed to participate in the annualJob Fair held at the local Thomas Deacon Academy inan attempt to introduce students there to the possibilityof careers in the Logistics Industry.

Tony in turn asked the CPC/Training team to assist himand in this photo you can see Tony Barnes and AndyO’Neil talking to one of the students. Your editor doesnot know whether any job application forms have beenreceived as a result of this !

Clearly seen running in the background of this shot isone of our Powerpoint presentations about ChillNet. Ifany department wants to use this for training pleasecontact Sales at Bridgwater.

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STAFF SPOTLIGHTDAVID LEWISFor this edition our spotlight falls on Dave Lewis, one of the two eldest drivers onthe Langdons fleet - still working full time at the age of 71 ! Your editor thinks it islikely that he is the only great grandfather behind the wheel at Langdons.

Elsewhere in this newsletter you can read about the new laws relating to retirementand Dave is an excellent example of someone who is perfectly fit and capable ofdoing his job, who has chosen to stay on beyond the former retirement age.

Based at Peterborough depot, Dave works a five day week, late shift normally starting about 12.00 noon and running intothe evening. He is usually assigned pallet collections across the Peterborough region and prides himself on his goodrelationship with our customers in that area. As he says “it costs nothing to be polite and take the time and trouble tocheck that pallet labels and paperwork all match up before you leave the factory or cold store “

Although London born, Dave’s parents moved down to Somerset when he was young. On leaving school at the age of15 he worked briefly in a cheese factory in Wells before becoming what was then called a “Lorry Boy” with Showeringsof Shepton Mallet, makers of Babycham and Coates cider. Back then in the 1950’s it was common for long distancedrivers to have a second man to assist with loading and unloading, roping and sheeting etc. The trucks back then wereslow and noisy and were not equipped with heaters. “When it was cold, we would lift up the inspection covers over theengine to get some heat until we could not stand the racket any longer” recalled Dave.

At the age of 18, National Service called and Dave chose to go into the RAF where he would spend the next nine years,mainly on security duties at various bases in the UK and Germany – where he spent over two years. By 1968 Dave wasa qualified driver and had married. He then went back into haulage, working as a local shunter in London for WilliamNuttall. Later he moved to Peterborough and worked for Newham Transport before getting a job driving for local firmA.R.Williams of Oundle, where he stayed for over 17 years mainly hauling bricks using a truck with a lorry mounted crane.After this firm closed, he signed up for a driver agency which is what he was doing when he first came across Langdons.

When a permanent vacancy came up at Peterborough in 2005 he joined the Langdons payroll at the age of 65.

Dave says the best thing about our industry these days is the quality (and safety) of the trucks he drives, the worst thingis the loss of the old “Knight Of The Road” attitude where drivers would help each other out, even if they worked fordifferent firms.

He fully intends to stay on at Langdons at least until he has qualified for his Driver CPC, by which time he will be 75 !

He has two daughters from his first marriage, a step daughter and also a son from his second marriage which took placein 1981. He has a total of seven grandchildren and one great grandson and another great grandchild is due in September.

In his free time, he and his wife, together with another couple, like to visit seaside resorts where the ladies go shoppingand the men seek out real ale pubs for tastings. Only half a pint of each ale in every pub says Dave, forgetting to remindme that some pubs keep as many as ten real ales !

Cheers Dave !!

PS The other “Veteran” driver is Derek Champion of Bridgwater who is three days older than Dave.

Marriage for Redditch CoupleCongratulations to Janet and Tim Ellis from the Redditch depot who got married onSunday 5th December 2010 at Studley Church, Studley, Warwickshire.

Apart from near zero degree temperatures a great day was had by all and Tim and Janetspent their honeymoon staying in a log cabin in the Lake District.

Tim actually proposed to Janet on Christmas Day morning 10 years earlier, thankfully hesorts Makro product quicker than Weddings !!!

Janet joined the Admin team in October 2004 when the Makro contract started, Timjoined the company in late 2009 as a warehouse operative and also works on the Makroside of the operation.

Many of Janet and Tim's work colleagues from the Redditch site attended the church andreception that followed. We wish them all every happiness in their future together.