New Food Products Boost Transport Need
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IN order to improve its parcels service
in the north west, North Wales and the Midlands, James Latham and Sons (Carriers) Ltd., Crewe, applied for three vans on A licence at Manchester last week.
Mr. J. Backhonse, for the applicant, stated that the company already had eight units on A licence carrying general goods in Lancashire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Shropshire, North Wales and the Midlands, and 14 licensed to carry provisions. parcels, paper, oil and general goods in Lancashire, Cheshire and Shropshire. All these were vans.
Latham provided a parcels service based on Crewe with connecting collection facilities in the greater Manchester area. Consignments were brought into Crewe for distribution, broken down into loads and then dispatched. The eight vehicles with the wider normal user served the Midlands. Business had increased so much recently that now the fleet was over-burdened. The applicant had 253 customers and in a month dealt with 80-81,000 packages. Certain traffic, such as tobacco, was valuable.
Mr. H. I. Turner, a director of the company, produced documentary evidence of earnings and operation. The largest number of drops in a load on one day had been 100 and the lowest 25. In September, 1962, the company had taken over a vehicle which had been licensed to a Mr. J. Fender. This was used to relieve pressure on the Chester and
Wrexham services, but it had not solved all the problems.
The transport manager of A. Bird and Sons Ltd., Mr. E. Ellis, said that Latham had been distributing food products for his company since 1960. As loads had to be delivered within 48 hours, storage did not take place. Bird's business had expanded since instant coffee had proved so popular in Britain. It was hoping to introduce an entirely new product on February 1 and if Latham could not handle this Bird would have to use its own C-licensed vehicles. The development programme was such that new products were tested, and, if a success, introduced at frequent intervals. The hearing is to be continued.