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from Exeter to Plymouth. A survey of an M5linking dual-carriageway route from East Brent to Exeter has begun. It is estimated that traffic in Cornwall in midwinter equals the peak that it reached in summer only seven years ago.
Cdr. Shaw pays tribute to the co-operation of local authorities in respect of loading. I gather that there are only one or two who think they know all the answers to transport without consulting the people who have to use it.
FLEET TOPS 700
EVEN the river is the colour of clay although if you are a local resident you might describe it as milky at St. Austell, where L. C. Matthews controls the giant transport subsidiaries of English China Clay Ltd. They stand alone in the south-west with over 700 vehicles in use in the area. Yet many a one-man one-vehicle concern stays in business because of the regular hiring that E.C.C. undertake. This amounts to an average of 60 vehicles a day. Some of these oneman concerns have been tackling this casual work since pre-licensing days. Conversely, E.C.C. do outside general haulage themselves to the extent of about a fifth of their total commitments.
Clay and ancillary products, quarry materials, building materials and agricul= tural lime all in great quantities are their job and their own vehicles move 200,000 tons a month or, if you like, 2im. tons a year.
There are three operating fleets: The Heavy Transport Co. Ltd. (which is known to all and sundry, without any genetic foundation, as Heavy Haulage) with 130 B licences and 190 C; the Western Express Haulage Co. Ltd. with 42 A licences; and Glover and Uglow with 30 A licences and 48 B—making a total of 4.40 in operation covering a total of nearly 10m. miles a year. The majority (in fact some 380) are tippers, while Glover and Uglow have 25 livestock trucks.
In addition there are 270 group service
vans, trucks and light lorries all run on C licences, the full 700 being spread over St. Austell, Callington, Plympton and Exeter, with a few in Cardiff and Preston. Some further 40 C licence vehicles of associate companies are centred on quarries in Leicestershire.
Just now the pride of the transport side of the organization is the new Heavy Transport depot at Plympton which is fully equipped to service 100 lorries and 40 vans and has what is described as the most refined " servo-dock " in the west country, that can deal with 10 lorries at a time.
ONE UNIT
BR.S. manager at St. Austell, P. H. LO• Bennallack shocked me when he said that his fleet consisted of three trailers with one tractive unit. He finds that rates are cut to an impracticable standard in this area, yet he backloads almost every B.R.S. vehicle that comes into Cornwall!
In the first 12 months of this year 466 vehicles came in and 454 went back with loads. PENZANCE
THERE is a bustle about Penzance that
makes it easy to forget that Land's End is just 10 miles away and that the district generally must be regarded as a haulage outpost. Farm produce over a 10-mile radius is the all-important commodity; but the increasing haulage by farmers of neighbours' vegetables is a growing aggravation. One case cited was of a person who had two acres and three 10-tonners. "It is knocking a hole in haulage" was the comment. Nevertheless the Hichen family business is growing on the sound foundation of serviceable vehicles, good timing—" early to market "—in fact reliability at a fair price with long distance work the speciality. They consult with regular customers on acreage sown and probable yield so that the provision of transport can be planned well in advance. The rest is up to the Clerk of the Weather.
Hichen senior started the business in 1919 and now watches his sons, J. L. and R. at the helm. They have doubled their A-licensed fleet in the past four years, the ninth such vehicle going into action in June. The first half of this year was their busiest for years. Agriculture probably provides two-thirds of the work but fish is also brought in at Newlyn and taken to Chichester for canning. They also haul quantities of perforated steel. Newlyn also has the occasional timber and cement boat; coal and timber are discharged at Penzance.
Hichens are always giving thought to ways and means of improving loading so, for green stuff that is packed in nonreturnable crates, they have designed portable side-bars that slot in and can then be stowed away on unloading.
The end of England also has some interesting traders' fleets. 1 learned that J. H. Bennetts, fuel specialists of Penzance are quite notable for their clean bag delivery to consumers.
At Penzance Pickford's manager, 1C. C. Tutthill, who also runs the B.R.S. removals company, Thomas Rowe c 1
(Carriers) Ltd. told me that business is good "but operators down here are incensed over the state of the A30 road ".
NORTH DEVON RATES
IT seems that they have got down to the bone in rate cutting in North Devon, yet still there is no end to it. R.1FLA. sub-area chairman T. S. Lamey describes the situation as futile, especially at the ball clay pits where the railways are apparently able to cut anything, yet some road operators try to match the terms. There is a line directly into the claypit at Torrington and it is proposed that freight and parcels continue despite the recommended closure of the local passenger line.
It was after road transport had kept the clay on the move during the last rail strike that the railways sliced the rate to Staffordshire, so that road charges came down from 69s. to 43s. a ton, a figure that even now is being held only because of the advantages of direct service.
Torridge Transport Ltd., of Torrington, who have 13 A-licensed artics are in the thick of this fight, carrying about a third of the 300 tons that goes out weekly by road.
Rates are the sore point whichever way you turn. In 1949 the general road charge was 45s. a ton to bring in cattle feed and fertilizers from Bristol to Barnstaple; now it is 24s. The big operators from the Midlands contribute to the " war " by taking return loads at cut rates. Slag is brought into the area from Scunthorpe, 300 miles, at 40s. a ton.
The people who can control rates to some extent because they have the specialist handlers are the livestock hauliers as mainly represented by the notable concern of J. Watts and Son, of Braunton. Their position will be even stronger locally from September when Holsworthy Station closes to livestock-in fact to all freight.
North Devon has long gone its own way and may continue to do so in respect of its own ideas for a local tipper group despite the concurrent moves to form a full area group.
Barnstaple and Bideford area hauliers, who include M.P. Percy Browne (Con., Torrington) of P. B. Browne Ltd., at Beaworthy, can amass about 50. tippers. Sub-area secretary W. Glover (who sells Commers) recalls that it is not long since North Devon itself was so split up that Bideford and the older Barnstaple were• so incompatible as to need their own sub-areas. Some maps even show the bay as Barnstaple or Bideford Bay.
The main road to Taunton is described all-embracingly as appalling. The bridge over the Taw at Barnstaple, more than 600 years old, has to take all westward traffic into North Devon and that is considerable at peak times. It was widened a short while ago from 16 to 24 ft. at a cost of 1.260,000, and I am told that an alternative scheme for a second bridge that would have been cheaper and more effective was turned down. Other improvements are of a Minor natuke and -Mr. Glover, i.vho I 2 himself is selling more new vehicles than ever before despite the possibilities of nationalization, asks: "What will happen on these roads when the imnending rail closures take effect?
Reverting to the matter of rate cutting, where does it lead to? Overloading to cover the cost of the job, yet more expense because on the tough gradients linings are gone within 400 miles and brake drums pack up. Black smoke shows up, too; examiners stand regularly on Barnstaple Hill, and in one week Cox of Devon (Bill Glover's company) dealt with five vehicles that had immediate prohibitions slapped on them.
These heavy and commercial specialists tell me that almost automatically now they are doubling the standard size of fuel tank on most vehicles as they pass through their hands. With 80 gallons on board it is possible to get to most parts of England and back without refuelling.
WELCOME TO INDUSTRY Just around the coast at the little port of Appledore, which can accommodate small ships of up to 500 tons, sub-area chairman Ted Larney, commenting on communications and the county council efforts to attract more industry to Devon, says blandly: "We run to London and Bristol daily, to the Midlands three times a week and to Scotland weekly. Industrialists are surprised that North Devon can supply such services." He feels that the drivers sense the state of the roads and that in summer a 100-mile journey may take 20 minutes longer than in winter but that there would be no difficulty in dealing with considerably more industry.
He is one of three brothers who in 1946 rebuilt the business that the father started in 1921 and now offers general haulage, wharfage and shipping storage. Storage facilities in the area are otherwise limited.
Lamey's find that trade is increasing steadily and as some justification for their optimism about attracting industry to the area can point to one of their own stores which they have just leased to an aircraft components concern.
They have 18 vehicles at Appledore and six at Burrington, all A-licence artics and flats.
Eggs, some of which go to Scotland, represent a big contraet fo. the extent of
500 boxes (there. are 30. dozen in a box) a day, and in this year's seemingly neverending egg season this figure has been maintained for several months. Fertilizers for farmers are important .backloads.Foodstuffs for distribution is, as in South Devon, a facet of trade that is increas:ng by leaps and bounds.
B.R.S. manager at Barnstaple, R. C. Adams, is another haulier who refuses to lose sleep over the roads; although he admits to delays on long loads and to sometimes needing two hours to cross Barnstaple. He also suffers from lengthy queues into Bideford. His depot was a traffic office until 1960 and now his fleet of seven vehicles includes four 16-tonners trunking dairy produce as far as Glasgow and timber to South Wales, with basic slag being brought back.
Port Talbot, now a 2f-day journey, will become a comfortable two-day run when the Severn Bridge is open.
Slag also comes by rail to this depot which is sited at the old Victoria passenger station. At peak times B.R.S. sub-contract out 250 tons a week for local deliveries.
Their trade generally shows an upward trend and they have useful storage space and ample room for expansion which has, I gather, been considered.
. On the question of rates, Mr. Adams says "Everyone is undercutting. We cannot meet the 32s. a ton rate that is asked to take wood pulp to Chepstow (150 miles) so the suppliers are doing it themselves on C licence."
Keeping abreast of the times by anticipating new legislation on plating, and other matters, is the ainl and problem of P. Pattison who handles the fleet of Bayly and Bartlett (Holdings) Ltd., timber and builders merchants, headquarters 'Bideford, head office Plymouth.
A Plymouth subsidiary deals with about 20 timber boats a year and at Bideford a further four boats discharge this important commodity. To tackle the many and varied commitments of the group there are 35 B and C licence vehicles dispersed from Bridgwater, Somerset, down to Camborne in Cornwall, the B licence enabling them to clear oddments for customers when delivering supplies. In addition Bayly and Bartlett (Transport) Ltd. hold four A-licensed vehicles which are at full stretch on general haulage.