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Road Transport for the

Fishermen of Scotland

Hauliers Offer Specialized Services to Scottish Fishing Industry and Carry Much of the Heavy Landings of Herring and White Fish By Peter Head

SLOGANS invented by United States advertising men have lately had their effect on the Scottish fishing industry and on the road transport serving it. These inspired words apparently thrill American women with the thought that they need only to "heat an' eat" high-quality fish in order to have the quick answer to the family meal question.

The repercussions of this and other developments have been felt right back along the road to Aberdeen, for the transport factor is vitally important to the Scottish industry.

As the chief fishing port north of the Border, Aberdeen handles the catches not only of some 170 steam trawlers, and many other craft based there, but also draws into its markets the catches from numerous smaller ports of the north-east and northwest, so that altogether a quarter of the Granite City's population derives a living from the industry. They contend with some justification that their fish is the finest to be obtained anywhere in Britain.

That is why it can readily be sold in the United States and places in the Commonwealth where rapid progress has been made in recent years with specialized freezing and distribution. The demand is rising and I am told that at the present time the export market is worth £100,000 a week to the city.

Vast quantities of herring are sent to Russia. Eastern and Western

Germany as well as to Finland and even to South Africa. Home sales are fairly equally divided between England and Scotland and, with denationalization, the road haulage interests have made great efforts to provide for the Scottish traffic on as economic a basis as possible.

For the railways, the strike earlier in the year was singularly unfortunate. Mr. Charles Alexander, of Charles Alexander and Partners, Ltd., Aberdeen, working in conjunc tion with the fish trade, had a road transport emergency scheme planned and all ready for operation.

Reports show that these arrangements worked effectively and later the industry had a further inducement to use local road facilities when Mr. Alexander reduced rates, so helping to place the Aberdeen area on a more competitive basis with the southern centres.

Mr. W. H. Stephen, chairman of the Port Regulation of Landings Committee, said, after the strike had finished, that without Mr. Alexan

der's help a tremendous loss would have been inevitable, for it would have been impossible to have moved a quarter of the quantity involved. Averaged out over the period, more than 500 tons daily were carried from the port solely by road and the Alexander organization transported 840 tons to the London area alone. With the help of road transport Mr. Stephen reckoned that Aberdeen had done as well as any place in the kingdom.

When I was in Aberdeen last month the fish being lifted from the north-east was being taken daily by Alexander's to Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. Altogether 18 vehicles daily were being employed on longdistance fish runs to England, there being over-night services to Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Liverpool, Bolton, Rotherham and Birmingham. Departing from Aberdeen at midday, the drivers change near Kendal and loads reach the respective markets in time for the opening.

Many Scottish hauliers derive substantial business from the fishing industry and, although to the layman the proceeding distinctly smacks of "carrying coals to Newcastle," a vast quantity of fish moves inwards to Aberdeen.

Hauliers offer specialized services to the fishing industry and Highland Haulage, Ltd., Inverness, may be cited as an example. Transport of both white-fish and herring is handled from branch offices at Wick, Ullapool and Gairloch, movement being organized from ports along that coast—Wick, Thurso, Kinlochbervie, Lochinver, Ullapool, Gairloch and Kyle.

Facilities for the transport of whitefish are provided by the company at Newhaven (Edinburgh) where the organization trades as Brands' Road Services. This section is under the management of Mr. Brand, a prenationalization operator who specialized in the type of service required by the white-fish industry.

Services are operated for the transport of fish to English and Scottish markets. White-fish and herring are regularly carried also from the Clyde and the west-coast fishing ports of Oban, Ca.mpbeltown, Tarbert, Greenock and neighbourhood.

The scale of the industry north of the Border can be gauged from the fact that in 1954 British vessels landed 2,607,593 cwt. of herring, or 68 per cent, of the United Kingdom catch, at the Scottish ports. Expressed in thousands of hundred

weight, the large herring catch was divided between 279 sent fresh to home markets, 453 kippered, 138 canned, 370 pickle-cured, 20 quick frozen, 105 sent for pet food and 1,247 sent to the factories for reduction into oil and meal.

The Herring Industry Board have the obligation of purchasing all surplus herring and their transport department has the task of arranging haulage from the place of sale to the factories. The Board do not maintain transport of their own, but provide the 'necessary services by systematic employment of contrac tors. In general terms, itmay be reckoned that 75 per cent. of herring are moved by road.

Many vehicles devoted to herring transport follow their local fishing fleets around the coast as the fishermen make their seasonal migrations. In this way additional capacity is provided which eases what might otherwise be an insoluble problem.

White-fish landings last year by British vessels at Scottish ports amounted to 3,259,416 cwt. compared with Jim. cwt. landed at English and Welsh ports. Of the landings of white-fish, Aberdeen provided 1,663,205 cwt. and Leith (another district of first importance in the fishing world) took 432,926 cwt. The most important ports for white-fish landings are Aberdeen, Leith, Lossiemouth, Buckle, Wick, Oban, Macduff, Fraserburgh and Montrose. The most important areas for herring landings are Fraser burgh and Peterhead, Stornoway and Loch Broom, Oban, Aberdeen and the Firth of Clyde.

Herring and white-fish constitute two entirely different problems for transport men. White-fish vary in their profusion, but the traffic has a certain consistency, whereas herring landings are much more erratic. As an example of what this may mean in the way of spasmodic demand upon the road transport industry, the case may be taken of the north-west coast in the early part of last year.

At the beginning of January catches were good but the demand was weak, so that much of the catch had to be allocated for reduction. The Stornoway factory was closed for overhaul, so the fish sold for this purpose had to be sent by road to Fraserburgh. By the middle of the month the shoals had moved away and so did many of the boats. Both the herring and the boats returned a month later, but activity slackened by the middle of March.

All this is expressed in calls for transport of varying quantity and differing nature. In the early summer

there was increased activity at Ullapool, with the result that not only were the local curers busy, but road transport was in demand from time to time for carrying loads for gutting to -Buckle and Wick.

Periodically, when local condi lions are unpromising, east-coast crews will move over to the west. The 1954 report on the fisheries of Scotland states that "some vessels belonging to east coast ports, notably Macduff and Lossiemouth, con firmed the practice of fishing for much of their time on the west coast, landing at Kinlochbervie and Oban and consigning their catches by road or rail to Aberdeen, Newhaven or Glasgow."

After having been closed for threequarters of a century the little port of Kinlochbervie was reopened in 1948 and now has a resident fleet of over 25 boats. The Duke of Westminster's Estates have given a good deal of encouragement to the development of the fishing industry in this locality and their own vehicles, together at times with quantities of hired transport, carry herring and white-fish to Aberdeen.

The distance involved is 220 miles for the single journey, and vehicles leave Kinlochbervie in the early evening in order to catch the market the following morning. Sometimes loads are carried through to Glasgow and even to Hull. In the Kinlochbervie area whitefish are caught some 10 or 12 miles off shore, mostly by Seine-net boats which are generally owned by the fishermen themselves, many of them coming from Buckle, Banff and Peterhead. They commonly leave in the early hours of the morning and land their catches in late afternoon. When the season is good, the crews will fish for a period of about three weeks and then will make up parties to charter buses to take them home to the east coast for a long week-end break.

Rather different considerations apply to the herring boats, which return at 8 a.m. The Westminster Estates have their own organization in Aberdeen which is responsible for the distribution of the fish from Kinlochbervie.

In many cases, vessels from different east-coast ports send consignments to the market at Aberdeen by road, although some may land catches there. As was pointed out at a licensing hearing in the northeast in September, skippers of fishing boats on the east coast have to decide upon the market to which their catches are most suited. If a Lossiemouth catch is to be marketed at Aberdeen, the landing may be made at Lossiernouth, if it is known that land transport is available.

The value of the fishing industry to road transport and the importance of the facilities that road transport can offer to the industry have been constantly in mind on both sides. The specialist hauliers in recent times have closely scrutinized the manner in which new developments in fish preparation might effect the overall situation.

Large numbers of vehicles are, of course, employed on an ancillary basis, but the professional operators have been particularly active since denationalization commenced. During 1954, more advantageous transport rates were offered by both road and rail between the north-east coast and certain inland markets, also between some of the west-coast ports and Glasgow. Such arrangements, initiated by British Road Services, have been carried on by their successors and, in some instances, even more advantageous terms have been procured.

During the past year or so the services offered by road from the Inverness area have proved irresistible to the trade and during the 12 months to August 31 last the railways' share, which previously had averaged 100 tons weekly, melted away to nothing. Because of this development, hauliers may well expect their activities to come under close scrutiny by the railways.

Following the railway strike, the London wholesale fish trade commented favourably upon the condition of the consignments sent by road in special insulated vans, a method fractionally more expensive to the trader than the employment of general haulage vehicles.

The Alexander interests, working from Aberdeen, are employing six Argonaut-arc-welded containers, varying in capacity from 5 tons to 14 tons. Although not refrigerated, they hold the temperature well and spot tests have shown a loss of only 4° F. during the three-day journey to Southampton.

There is obviously a big future for container transport in the fish industry and, as things develop, it will be interesting to see which form ultimately finds the greatest favour.