'Super-service' terminals
Page 26
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continued from page 19
includes the use of a very large skid-pan.
Fitters will receive classroom training, practical workshop instruction and then serve a period at manufacturers' own schools to give them special knowledge.
All staff, including fitters, will be salaried, their salary covering a basic week; overtime will still be paid. But staff will be expected to sign a firm contract of service in which the employers' requirements will be in detail.
Attached to the workshop and training units will be a refuelling and oiling station designed to accommodate the heaviest lorries, while there will be vehicle parks and warehouses available to operators who, perhaps having no depot in the area, will make this their southern base. As well as 12 acres of secure parking and 100,000 sq. ft of warehousing hauliers will be offered regular vehicle servicing facilities and operational communications (Telex, for instance). No cash will change hands. To eliminate the possibility of 'fiddling' by unscrupulous drivers, all charges will be by a sophisticated monthly accounting system which has been devised to meet the needs of such a comprehensive set-up.
Accommodation for drivers will at first be in a new 18-bedroom block with divan beds, h. and c., central heating and a 24-hour meals service, but this is designed for expansion.
Groupage facilities for part-loads will be offered, as will plug-in points for refrigerated vehicles and containers.
Mr. Holmes sees container traffic as providing a growing part of any such depot's activities, and he has accordingly arranged for a 25,000 sq. ft container repair section to be set up, to cope with everything from minor dents to major rebuilds; and container makers have indicated their readiness to provide spares and advice. He will also have two flying squads to tackle emergency container re,pairs at the port or on the road.
The whole depot would employ about 150 men, and already plans for the main buildings have been drawn up by architects. William Brandts, the merchant bankers, are assisting Mercantile Engineering in the project, which is now in the advanced planning stage and has, we are told, been welcomed by operators who were approached.
(See editorial comment, page 17)