Running on a Full Tank

Gillian Hislop is one business woman who knows her tank, all 79, 365 pounds of hulking stainless steel.

Hislop, Director of All Clear, a company based in Glencoe, has carved a niche for herself by transporting liquids and powders. Not into your stereotypical business woman, Hislop is at ease in jeans and boots as other women are in stockings and pumps. With twenty-five tanks under her watch, each carrying  6,500 gallons and transporting substances which range from the innocuous-like water to the truly hazardous stuff, ammonia. All tanks are ISO certified and undergo safety measures like pressure testing. Unlike traditional drums they are built with fixtures and piping to facilitate proper transportation of the product. There is also a safety release valve on each tank which prevents products from escaping. The company was formed in 1982 by Gillian Hislop’s father, Aldwin Hislop,  a marketing manager for Shell. The name is actually derived from the combined first names of Hislop’s parents, Aldwin and Claire.

Hislop, a former student of Bishop Anstey High School, said she learned her marketing and sales skills from her father. He taught her “how to penetrate an account, how to move clients from what they’re used to into something new.” After apprenticing with her dad for two years and getting to know the ins and outs of the business, Hislop took the helm. In what is typically a male-dominated industry, she has been pushing the envelope the past five years. Her clients are diverse ranging from manufacturers to bulk exporters of products in powder or liquid form. In TT, she has locked in ten clients and hooked an additional six throughout the region. She is optimistic that business will pick up in the Caribbean region. The challenge, according to Hislop, is to educate prospective clients on ISO tanks and the benefit of choosing them over traditional drums. “Recycled traditional drums are less sturdy than the ones of long ago,” she says, adding that clients bringing in drums have problems with disposal because they contained hazardous materials.

One advantage she thinks she has is that her tanks offer an expedient way to solve these environmental concerns: her tanks are easily cleaned in a two- hour process at stations in Laventille and Barataria. “We must be environmentally conscious,” says Hislop. In fact, preserving the environment is a chief driving force behind her efforts, so much so that she will at times make “cold calls” at companies, simply walking in and introducing herself and her service to the appropriate persons, if she becomes aware that they are still using drums. Leasing the drums makes no economic sense, because leasing companies have hidden charges like repair costs which, she adds, are incurred after the initial bill. At All Clear there is just one bill, inclusive of repairs. Leasing, she adds, are for a minimum of one year; with All Clear the client only pays for the period between the time the tank is loaded until it returns to the point of origin.

Hislop is also willing to accommodate clients who need a one-way service but this is negotiated on an individual basis. “People are trying to outsource for items that are not their core competencies,” she explains.  “You don’t have to hire a full-time logistics person to manage your tanks,” says Hislop, a member of the Association of Female Executives of Trinidad and Tobago. What may have placed her a notch above the rest is her belief in service, something ingrained in her when she was in the hospitality business prior to joining All Clear. “I love dealing with people” she says. “My other main motivator, besides the environment, is to satisfy my clients.” Gillian sees customer service as a key ingredient in her work ethic. “I am self-motivated but I don’t see myself as being my own boss. My client is my boss. If my client calls I jump.”

When Hislop is not winning over prospective clients, she and her small staff are busy creating proposals, filing records and arranging repairs. They use a computerised system comprised of specially designed software to track the containers. On an average day, they liase with several agencies such as suppliers and brokers who haul cargo as well as keep tabs on the shipping industry. By cementing ties with all the shipping lines, she has been able to generate business and often makes special arrangements with the shipping lines when they have to drop off  highly flammable cargo. Over the years, All Clear has aligned itself with several international companies thereby boosting its credibility and competititiveness in the local arena. Its tanks, for instance, are manufactured in South Africa, its depots are in Louisiana, Houston and Florida.

In addition, it is financed through a parent company, Trans Nexus Logistics, which operates out of New Jersey. This latter company pays the freight and haulers, handles the bills and owns the tanks outright. When pressed on how lucrative her business was, Hislop would only concede that it is thriving and was looking to expand. “Any business depends on the work you’ve brought into it,” she says, noting that her business has grown not only because of aggressive  marketing but also because TT’s economy is so bouyant. “You gain some business and you lose some business,” she says. “It is lucrative but it is competitive.” Hislop emphasises, however, that although she has competition in the form of conventional drums and leasing companies, All Clear maintains an edge in the market by offering a unique service: conveyance of materials in tanks at an economical rate. But Hislop is also in  the chemical business. All Clear also sells chemicals used in the manufacturing process such as Vam, which is used for making glue, and products needed by foam, paint and petroleum based companies.

Hislop also uses her organising talents to assist producers with plays and performances. Shanghai Moon done by Cherise Parsons and Nikki Does featuring Nikki Crosby are merely two productions in her portfolio. She is now assisting Meiling with her up-coming fashion show in July and is helping to arrange the Cacique Awards this year. “Money,” she says, “should never be your God. “I never tell my clients no. At least I say, ‘Let me see what I can do.’ The impossible at times ends up being quite do-able.”