'Super-service' haulage terminals planned to serve container-port areas
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• An £18m. chain of nine transport terminals offering extensive facilities for repair, maintenance, servicing and secure parking of haulage vehicles, trailers and containers is planned for Britain in an ambitious project linked to the development of container ports. The first would be close to Tilbury and, if the expected financial backing is secured, this depot would be operational before the end of 1969.
A new company–Mercantile Engineering Ltd.–has been set up by the man behind the scheme, Mr. N. P. T. Holmes, to run the organization. The terminal depots would provide modern accommodation for drivers, a comprehensive training school, specialized fuelinjector servicing, bonded and free warehousing, tank and chassis cleaning, pre-MoT test facilities, and a 24-hour medium and heavy recovery service.
Mr. Holmes told CM this week that, fol
lowing completion of the first £14m. depot at West Thurrock, Essex (adjacent to the Dartford-Purfleet tunnel, close to the . Purfleet test station, and barely five miles from Tilbury's growing container port), the other eight depots are planned for completion in this order:–Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, Southampton, Avonmouth, Felixstowe and Grangemouth. The 45-acre site at Motherwell Way, West Thurrock, is adjacent to A13. With moral support from the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Holmes has gained an Industrial Development Certificate for the project and planning permission has been granted; the site is in a worked-out quarry. This area is very heavily trafficked by commercial vehicles, with a high proportion of tankers which serve the great complexes of oil terminals along the Thames Estuary.
A workshop and stores building 52,000 sq.ft in area is planned initially, giving comfortable room for working on about 50 complete max.-capacity vehicles and providing an exceptionally comprehensive stock of parts. Initially at least, no franchise with any particular manufacturer would be sought; all types will be serviced and repaired. Steam-cleaning for chassis undergoing repair or due for MoT test will be provided, as will tank-cleaning, and there will be a complete pre-MoT test bay with roller brake tester and pit.
The workshop will be open day and night and a staff of 40 fitters will be employed. It is planned to train a high proportion of the depot's staff in its own training school on the site, which will also be open to hauliers' staffs. Training will not be limited to workshop men: the whole range of transport staff training will be covered, and this will extend to an h.g.v. driving course. For this, two 32ton artics will be employed on road instruction and two for on-site training—which
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