The Man Santa Claus emembered!
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Inter-depot Trunk Services Now Operated from South Wales by Former Owner-driver
By S. Buckley, Assoc.Inst.T.
ALOAD of ship's storcs for delivery to Falmouth the next day was the traffic offered on Christmas Eve, 1930, to a young Cardiff owner-driver starting in haulage with a used 5-tonner. Despite personal inconvenience, the job was done and the customer was satisfied.
Today that haulier, Mr. A. Ross, now chairman of Ross Garages, Ltd.. Cardiff, assisted by two of his sons,fMr. T. S. Ross and Mr. N. Ross, operates 21 commercial vehicles, whilst a modern, fully equipped depot was recently opened as their headquarters at Penarth Road, Cardiff (The Commercial Motor, February 22).
Because of his earlier years in shipping it was natural that. ship's stores should be the first main traffic when Mr. A. Ross turned haulier, for which his linguistic ability was an asset. But Cardiff's position as the world's largest coal-exporting port declined with the general fall in coal exports, and with it went the ship's stores traffic.
Changing Traffics
Expansion in South Wales steel production provided compensating loads and steel continues to be the company's main traffic. It is carried in various forms, including processed-steel sheets, tinplate, Tentor bars, coiled wire and bolts. Return loads from steelconsuming areas include canned foodstuffs.
When nationalization came the Ross fleet of five vehicles was the last to be acquired in Cardiff and in February, 1954, the company were the first in the city to purchase vehicles back from British Road Services for long-distance operation on special A licence.
During the intervening years. in addition to maintaining contact with his main customers through the medium of C hirings, Mr. Ross purchased and operated on private hire four Dennis, Commer, Bedford and Mauds lay luxury coaches. The 30-ft. by 8-ft. body of n12 the Maudslay included an imitation coal fire. After denationalization the coaches were sold, The present Ross fleet of 21 vehicles consists of 10 eight-wheelers, five sixwheelers and six four-wheelers, the predominance of heavies being a reflection of the steel traffic carried.
Of these. 13 operate on A or special A licence, four on contract A licence, three on B licence and one on C licence. Fight of the eight-wheelers are AL-C. Mammoth Majors, and two are Leyland Octopuses, both with four-wheeled trailers.
The five six-wheelers are similarly divided between A.E.C. and Leyland and include three Mercury artics," a Hippo and a Steer. Two Albion Chieftains, together with an Austin, a Bedford, a Thames and a Morris, comprise the six four-wheelers.
Loads of steel require special consideration to be given to body design and recent chassis have been fitted with alloy bodies of Duramin and Homalloy construction, but retaining wooden Tentor bars being loaded at a Cardiff steel works on a Carrimore 36-ft. semi-trailer coupled to an A.E.C. Mercury tractor unit. The bars are used to reinforce concrete, the word being a combination of tension and torsion.
floors. These permit scotches to be nailed down at appropriate points (which vary according to the type of load) to prevent the steel slipping. Standardized spacing of scotches proved insufficient.
Tentor bars, for reinforcing concrete, can be 40 ft. long and to convey such traffic Ross Garages operate two 36-ft. semi-trailers specially built by Tasker and Carrimore. Coupled to A.E.C. Mercury tractive units they are used on contract to a Cardiff steel ,works. On other occasions the tractors are employed with a standard 24-ft. semitrailer.
Because of the exceptional concentration of weight relative to area, necessitated by the vertical loading or coiled steel of varying gauges, additional cross-members have been fitted to Ross bodies, reducing the normal spacing from 2 ft. 3 in. to 1 ft. 7 in. The coils are carried vertically to prevent damage which might otherwise occur if laid horizontally.
Body Refinements
Hinged cross-stays are another fea• ture, permitting both full-length side loading and reinforcement of the head board necessitated by heavy loads of steel.
The company's first garage is situated at Bute Street, Cardiff, and is convenient for handling dock traffic. With the expansion of steel traffic after denationalization a second depot was opened in 1954 at Barrow Road, Sheffield, under the supervision of Mr. N. Ross. Another depot has now become the Cardiff headquarters at Penarth Road.
This latest depot includes a fully equipped workshop with a 20-ft. pit fitted with hoses for dispensing grease, gear, axle and penetrating oil. An engine-oil dispenser faces the end of the pit on the workshop wall. Used engine oil can be drained away into an underfloor tank through a telescopic
unit in the pit. The whole of this lubrication system is by Wakefield, cleaning being done by a Laycock Niagara plant and a Weaver steam jenny.
In addition to the repair facilities provided by this workshop, the stores include several exchange units, such as differential assemblies, starter motors, fuel pumbs, faced brake shoes and complete -headlights for both A.E.C. and Leyland chassis. Breakages of main leaves of road springs have been much reduced by fitting Fox clips.
A special feature of all three establishments is a retail filling station which has been found to be a useful ancillary to a 24-hour haulage depot. At Sheffield the filling station was taken over along with a contract for the maintenance of 22 hire cars.
The clerical staff numbers five and the maintenance staff consists of a foreman, two fitters and a carpenter based on Cardiff, with a fitter at Sheffield. Forty-five drivers and mates are normally employed, but 14 are at present suspended because of fuel fationing.
The company take the view that both the employer and the employee are entitled to their rights. Accordingly, Servis recorders are fitted to the vehicles, but membership by employees of their respective unions is facilitated by permitting union subscriptions to be collected through normal wage procedure.
During my visit to their new Cardiff depot, Mr. T. S. Ross emphasized to me that because all the directors had had experience of driving heavy vehicles, they knew most of the difficulties—as well as the dodges. It was their policy to provide every reasonable aid for the driver. As additions to the cabs of wellpowered chassis, they fitted Smiths heaters, Chapman adjustable seats, and traffic indicators.
Automatic chassis lubrication and illuminated head signs are installed in several vehicles. The signs are particularly useful as a means for recognition by night trunk drivers approaching their change-over point, in addition to their advertising value.
As an incentive to the prevention of accidents, the whole of the company's annual no-claim bonus is promptly distributed among the staff, proportional to their respective records, each year standing on its own. Whilst fully supporting all schemes to prevent accidents, Mr. Ross considered that accident-free records of 20 successive years or more under modern traffic conditions by professional drivers called for some reservation.
Resulting from the requirements of their main traffic (steel), Mr. Ross maintains under normal conditions nightly trunk services between Cardiff and Sheffield (with change-over at Bromsgrove) and Cardiff and Warrington (with change-over at Ludlow), where deliveries are effected throughout Lancashire by interworking with an associated company. Local collection and delivery at the termini are done by shunt drivers, the Cardiff depot covering Swansea and South Wales.
Because steel producers in South Wales and Sheffield have customers in their opposite members' area, similar loads are sometimes carried in both directions.
As part of an endeavour to achieve maximum efficiency, the new headquarters at Penarth Road include an office block housing modern equipment, together with a separate room for the private telephone exchange, an all important factor in controlling longdistance transport. The Shannon system of maintenance recording is operated.
Fuel rationing has caused a reduction in trunk services, including the transfer from night to day time operation. Official encouragement to the transfer of steel traffic from road to rail may have ominous implications for the future. Whilst hauliers are expected to move loads of steel at short notice, rail wagons loaded but stationary in
the producers' sidings are accepted as normal service whatever the eventual delivery date.
These are a few of today's problems for hauliers in the position of Ross Garages, Ltd. But the resourcefulness that has seen the company through the eventful haulage years of 1933 and 1947. coupled with flexibility when changing national economies necessitate the search for new traffics, should stand the company in good stead in the fut ure.