Successful Extensions.
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Report from the Newcastle-on-Tyne Branch of the Co-operative Wholesale Society.
Mr. J. E. Gill, manager of the Co-operative Wholesale Society, Ltd., of West Blandford Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne, who is a member of the Motor Van and Wagon Users' Association, by which body "THE COMMERCIAL MoroR " is officially recognised, has furnished us with sonic exclusive particulars and photographs of his commercial motors. He informs us that his stock consists of three Thornycrofts, two Yorkshires, and one Londonderry, these being all steampropelled ; in addition, he has a i-ton Albion petrol lorry, which was supplied to him by the local agents, Messrs.
Frank Little and Co. The Thornycroft vehicles have been in use for five years, and they generally carry an average load of 2i tons each, whereas the Yorkshire wagons, which are of a more recent date, having been purchased only two years ago, have done good work carrying average loads of 4 tons each. The Londonderry wagon has now been in service close upon five months, and Mr. Gill remarks that its work includes some of the roughest roads in the North. Hills with a gradient of i in g, the vehicle carrying 5-ton loads, and trips of 25 miles without stopping for water, come
in no way amiss to this machine, whose owners find the coke consumption extremely low and the working cost equally satisfactory. The petrol lorry, which is of the type best known to our readers in England and Wales as the Lacre, has already, in less than three months, -travelled over 3,000 miles without a single hitch, carrying from 20 to 22cwt. loads, and working regularly six days a week. Journeys which a horse had taken a day to do are regularly completed by this motor in two hours.
The Co-operative Wholesale Society's vehicles are mostly employed for the conveyance of goods which used to be sent by rail, and the length of trip varies from Jo to 30 miles out. The company employs a night engineer who attends to adjustments and repairs, the cleaning out of boilers, and other small incidental matters which enable the vehicles to maintain full weeks on the road. Each motor wagon has proved to save between i:;4 and £5 per working week, and the nature of the haulage undertaken is such that no horse could stand up to the strain under any circumstances.
Although both dep8t-to-depot and individual deliveries are undertaken, the latter class of work preponderates. The company has a stock of 42 horses, and motors were purchased owing to the extension of its business through the starting of extra departments, and to ensure quick delivery.