lIT's 'secret' fleet
Page 5
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
2CELS carrier TNT has Aly gathered a fleet of vehicles for its ambitious highly ctmtroversial atpt to enter the national simper distribution market. undreds of plain white very vans which carry no ier's identity are being : in depots around the 'try with up to 1(X) at c depots, it has been
M has visited TNT's Bydepot in Surrey and seen Hid 40 C-registered uned Volkswagen LT45 te vans ill a separate comnd, along with two white iia tractive units.
he fleet has been gathered the past year, and has
ready to start work on a atnewspaper project since ember. Reliable sources indicate that they are part a new TNT newspaper LOU code-named Division and that drivers all over country are being reted to drive them.
ut with Fleet Street about )e thrown into industrial e as its owners try to ,k print union power, it is surprising that TNT is to talk about the tence of a fleet which is al at the print union's nghold of national news:r distribution.
NT general manager Alan ”; denied that TNT has ,ht a new newspaper fleet, refused to comment when
asked if it has leased them instead.
But he did say that after last weekend's successful delivery of the new Sunday Times supplement from News International's printing plant in Wapping, East London, to the rest of the country, TNT has secured that contract from now On.
This is the first time national newspaper distribution has been taken out of the print union Sogat '82 hands.
The Sunday Times supplement operation involved 300 vehicles including ones very similar to those in the Byfleet compound.
And Jones hopes that ii will encourage News International to give TNT the contract for the new daily newspaper, the London Post, which should begin production in March, This would create 2,000 jobs for TNT. Jones estimated.
But Sogat national newspaper officer Bill Miles told CM that he thinks TNT's plans go beyond the Sunday Times supplement and the London Post.
“We have confirmed it through the Transport and General Workers Union that News International has made this fleet available to itself to distribute all of its titles in the event of industrial action by the print unions,he said. The picketing of TNT lorries, in such circumstances, could not be ruled out, he added.