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TI R haulage service speeds exports
Page 32
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• From West Thurrock in Essex to the Western Docks at Dover is approximately 75 miles. The road is through the new Dartford road tunnel, out through Kent along A2 and then M2 to Canterbury. From Canterbury the road again becomes A2 through to Dover.
Once a week a Mark 3 Boden TIR semitrailer on hire to Alltransport Ltd. has been leaving West Thurrock to go via Dover to Milan and Turin in Italy and then back again to Essex in five days and in all weathers, with stopwatch regularity and with no vital ferry sailings missed.
One such recent trip started at 3.45 on a bitterly cold and rainy morning. The 10-metre trailer, carrying 19 tons of assorted freight collected from all over the UK, including car parts
for Alfa Romeo and Fiat, machinery. knitwear and carpets, was hauled by a Mercedes tractive unit. By 6a. m. the 30 tons of g.t.w. outfit, after a smooth 75-mile run, was awaiting Customs clearance at Dover. The ferry Hampton, run by British Railways, which was to carry the vehicle across the channel, was unloading sleeping cars of the Paris-London night express together with through goods traffic from the French. Italian and Spanish Railways.
Dover to Dunkirk takes three hours, and from then on the outfit has four and a half days to get to Milan and Turin, unload and then return to West Thurrock. This transit time is the result of close, demanding schedules worked out by Alltransport Ltd.