k hoL ak ird By H. SCOTT HALL,
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M.I.R.T.E.
MR. WILFRED PICKLES'S familiar exhortation is not needed by Mr. E. H. Lee, of E. H. Lee, Ltd., Holly House, New Road, Woodston, Peterborough. He is always ready to "have a go at any haulage job, no matter how unusual or difficult. Indeed, if there be any such job to be done, the word goes round, "Send for Lee; he'll take it on."
Questioned on the point and asked why he seemed to prefer awkward jobs, Mr. Lee said, "I like something to chew, something which makes me put on my thinking cap; I'm not so interested in straightforward haulage. I want a job which has to be planned."
If any of these unusual jobs calls
for vehicles of a type or size which he does not possess, he goes out and buys them.
Two features of his establishment have, I should say, sprung from that attitude.
First is the miscellaneous character of his fleet of over 50 vehicles. They include three 7-ton Fodens, two Seddon tractor-trailer combinations to carry 10 tons, two Bedford articulated 10-tonners; two Vulcan 6-ton tippers, a Vulcan 7-ton longwheelbase lorry, three Albion 42ton rigid six-wheelers, an Albion 15ton rigid eight-wheeler, an Albion 8-ton four-wheeler, an E.R.F. 8tonner, a Seddon 7-tonner, two Bedford 6-ton platform lorries, nine Bedford 6-ton tippers, a Maudslay articulated 12-tonner, two Dennis 800-gallon gully and cesspoolemptiers, and a Dennis 800-gallon cesspool-emptier. In addition, there are many unusual kinds of vehicle, mainly of American military types.
This is obviously a fleet which has been built up, not with any settled plan in view, but to meet the exigencies of each new situation.
The second point in • a sense confirms and emphasizes that statement. Mr. Lee has only 15 longterm licences—five A, five B for agricultural goods and requisites, three to cover the gully and cesspoolemptiers, and two for miscellaneous work. The remaining 35 vehicles are used as occasion arises on shortterm permits or licences. It is significant, too, that, with the usual exception of a couple in the shops for overhaul, all the vehicles are invariably ready for use. At the time of my visit they were all at work„ mainly on sugar-beet haulage.
I have for some time known of Mr. Lee and his unusual attitude towards the haulage business. Recently I heard that he was about to tackle a job that, so far as my knowledge goes, will be unique in haulage. A contract is at present under consideration and the work cannot. therefore, be publicly discussed. When it iscarried out I hope to deal with it in detail. There is interest not only in the work itself, but in Mr. Lee's method of tackling it.
While we were discussing this particular job, he told me of another that he was considering, which, in itself, is sufficiently unorthodox to deserve mention. He attended the sale of a Georgian mansion named Blatherwycke Hall. This large building was being sold for demolition and it was Mr. Lee's idea that he would buy it, demolish it and carry it away, making a profit out of the material sufficient to recoup himself for the purchase price and the haulage.
This seemed a perilous undertaking, until I was told what would be the nature and quantity o the materials involved. These included 120 squares of blueeslates, a large quantity of lead and zinc and an enormous amount of roofing timber, 2,000 super ft. of flooring boards and 7,000-ft. run of skirting boards, together with many miscellaneous stores. As it happens, Mr. Lee was outbid and he did not buy.
This haulier's 'background is of interest. He was a farmer—indeed, he still is, although the active side of that part of his interest is in the hands of a partner. It must be his experience of agriculture which enables him to appreciate the farmer's point of view. He began to develop his interest in haulage 14A years ago with a Bedford 2-ton lorry. He next turned his attention to the road haulage of agricultural produce.
One of Mr. Lee's characteristics is his capacity for seeing any job, orthodox or unorthdox, through the eyes of the customer, and setting himself to do it in the way that the customer would like. I appreciated this fact when walking round the spacious yard in which his 50 vehicles are kept. I was intrigued to notice the number of mechanical loading appliances scattered in and amongst the vehicles. There were 13, of various types, mainly of the
elevator-conveyor kind, but including some Muir-Hill shovels.
It was after seeing these and discussing the various uses to which they are put that I determined to write this article. I am convinced that to be successful in road haulage in the future, operators will have to take advantage of every possible facility to diminish the time needed for the turnround of vehicles.
When 1 was asking Mr. Lee about this equipment I discovered that, although he appreciated the advantages accruing to himself by the use of aids to loading, his principal reason for employing them was that they met the requirements of his customers.
9,500 Tons of Beet I have mentioned sugar beet, and before going farther I should like to dwell on that department of Mr. Lee's activities. This is by no means a record year for beet, but up to November 19 he had already shifted 9,500 tons, and, according to his contracts and assessment of the crop, he should carry about 30,000 tons during, the present campaign. His record in any week so far in this campaign has been 1,622 tons. During a week in November, 1946, 1,652 tons were carried out of a total tonnage of 23,646.
His interest in beet haulage did not develop until after the war started, so that he is comparatively a newcomer, which makes his success the more significant. Most of it, I am sure, comes from his Methods of working. but not all of it, for he is unorthodox in other ways.
Direct Dealing With Farmers For example, he makes his contract with the farmer. He sends his accounts direct to the farmer after he has completely cleared the crop. He does not accept payment through the factory or make his contracts through that medium. The factory, he says. is the place to which he carts beet.
My rendezvous with Mr. Lee was Tempsford, on the Great Noah Road. From there we travelled by narrOw country lanes to the village of Wyboston, which is some 30 miles from the beet-sugar factory at Peterborough.
There, in a field, a six-wheeled Albion was being loaded with 10 or 11 tons of beet. There were five men loading, but they were using a conveyor-belt machine driven by a petrol engine. That beet would be loaded -in 11 hours
Then we went to Abbotsbury, 33 miles from the factory, and saw a a8 similar set-up, except that the vehicle was an articulated Maudslay. There were again five men, including the driver, and a similar powerdriven elevator.
"How long," I asked, "would it take these five men to load these vehicles without the use of the elevator?"
They wouldn't load them at all," was the surprising answer. "The vehicles are too big, the sides are too high and they would never be able to throw the beet up. With that elevator in operation', the vehicle can comfortably do two journeys per day to the factory."
"But how do you persuade the farmer to lend you four men to load beet? I thought it was always difficult to get the farmer to lend labour at all."
"The farmer is glad to give that assistance under the conditions, because he knows that by the loan of his men for an hour or so upwards of 10 tons of beet will be shifted, which is what he wants."
Articulated Outfits Our next call was at Holme. 10 miles from the factory, where the situation was somewhat different. The semi-trailer of one of the Seddons was standing in the farmyard, and near it was a heap of beet. but the vehicle was not being loaded from that. The farmer was bringing the beet direct from the field in horse-drawn wagons and tractordrawn trailers, and it was being shovelled into the elevator and loaded forthwith.
Here, again, was the same characteristic. The farmer was pleased not to have to put all his beet on the ground. He was pleased, too, that in a day, upwards of 30 tons of beet would in that way be carried to the factory. With the tractor-trailer outfit thus engaged, three loads at least, and sometimes four. would be taken to the factory in one day.
A call was later made at Glatton, another village about 10 miles out of Peterborough. There I saw another
• kind of elevator in use with another kind of traffic
Instead of having upwardly projecting prongs, which are convenient for handling beet, this elevator had a conveyor belt somewhat wider than usual, with projecting horizontal ridges. Really it was a sack lifter and was being used to load sacks of corn. There were two men and the driver.
The elevator stands at the rear of the vehicle and the sacks are put on by the two farm hands. The driver stands in the vehicle, takes the sacks front the elevator and stacks them.
Big Saving in Loading Time Here,also, the farmer was pleased. To load sacks by hand is an arduous task, and takes time. The elevator not only takes the hard labour out of the job, but cuts the time needed by 75 per cent. The farmer is willing to lend his labour, because he knows the period for which it is required is short. The haulier gains, because the time during which his vehicle is standing is likewise short.
Now we leave farming and come to some entirely different materials. There is a large traffic in pitch from Wisbech to the Continent, where, I understand, it is used to eke out the coal supplies and even to add to the combustion qualities of the coal used on the Belgian and French railways.
Mr. Lee has a contract for many thousands of tons to be carried from a Peterborough distillery for shipment from Wisbech. Once again mechanical loading is employed— this time, a Ransornes Rapier grab. As much as 160 tons of this traffic is loaded per day.
Excavating Spoil At the time of my visit the Muir-Hill mechanical shovel was also being used at the gasworks, where one of Mr. Lee's Bedford lorries was helping -to clear away some of the refuse and excavated material from the site of a new gasholder.
The latest of these unusual and difficult jobs which Mr. Lee has taken on is at Peterborough, where a new generating station is being built. The site is by the side of the River Nene and is frequently under water, especially in the winter. Consequently, the foundations are being laid on piles and the metalwork of these piles is of constructional steel.
A load of this steel, weighing about 8 tons, has to be conveyed from the railway on to the site. The ground is practically impassable to any ordinary motor vehicle, so Mr. Lee is using six-wheel-drive American trucks