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10th November 1961, Page 106
10th November 1961
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klICELS A YEAR

The Best Sem Possible, at the M Reasonable Cost, Aim of B:R. (Parcels), Ltd., Scotland

by Norman H. T c LNG-DISTANCE trunk driving is a cake-walk compared with the work of our collection and delivery shunt drivers," I was told by the manager of the Glasgow depot of British Road Services (Parcels),

Ltd., recently when visiting the Scottish Division's headquarters and the Glasgow branch and depot. His statement could well apply to a comparison between a normal long-distance trunking branch and a parcels depot, especially a depot like Glasgow where, on an average day, some 20,000 packages are handled as a matter of course. The immediate impression that I gained was of a giant post office, with the " letters " weighing anything up to several hundredweights, and consisting of anything from a small carton of bolts to a roll of wire or even a complete electric motor. The " mailbags " were, of course, the familiar green semi-trailer B.R.S. (Parcels) vans. There are, in the Scottish Division, two similar large branches—one at Aberdeen, the other at Edinburgh—and seven smaller depots: Inverness, Elgin, Perth, Dundee, Methil, Earlston and Ayr. Operating between these depots are some 250 vehicles, the majority of which are articulated vans, plus 200 additional trailers. All are authorized under A licences. In overall command of the Scottish Parcels Divisio Mr. J. L. Rule, who has held the position of area maw for the past six years. Before taking up this post, Rule—he has been with B.R.S. since nationalization 1948—was the Edinburgh district manager. He has t in transport all his life; a private operator from 1924 1942, when he was seconded to the Ministry of Trans: as area road haulage officer in Edinburgh, followed R.A.F. service in the Far East.

The headquarters is now housed in new offices in Qt Street, in the heart of Glasgow. Here, centralized ui one roof, are the accourits and claims sections, the cam' cial and traffic sections.

Linked nationally_ with all B.R.S. depots by teleprii Mr. Rule and his heads of departments are able al times to know what the vehicle and/or parcel positie at any depot within the division..

The successful operation of the whole system lie articulation—the skilful use of semi-trailer vans, backe, by a well-tried, all-embracing master plan of integra and inter-working between area depots. Collection delivery vehicles, closely working in conjunction incoming and outgoing trunk vehicles, and in some c trunk vehicles converting into collection and deli vehicles, having been " pre-loac before setting off, all play a part in viding a second-to-none giant p postal service.

Because of the vastness of the covered by the Scottish Division—a glance at an atlas of the British Isles reveal that from the northernmost t the Scottish mainland to the En border, the mileage is equal, roughl the distance between London and 1 castle upon Tyne—the depots have ii. be strategically positioned so as to vide the best service possible as econc ally as is practicable. Although the "end of the line " I Inverness, no vehicles are actually stationed there. ik vehicles from the " parent " base, Aberdeen (100 s away as the crow .flies), are takenover by Inverness' shunt driver, who operates the vehicle as a collection delivery" unit. Pre-sorting of the various drops simplithe task of off-loading in Inverness City and the surKling area.

R.S. (Parcels), however, do not operate in the northern ities above Inverness. Parcels for these areas are led on to Highland Haulage, Ltd., who act as agents B.R.S. A -similar arrangement exists in south-west land where, again, a well-known independent operator as a B.R.S. agent.

arty miles eastwards of Inverness lies the division's nd northernmost depot, at Elgin (Morayshire). Eight s are stationed there, supporting trunk vehicles which direct services from the Aberdeen base. Just as in case of the Inverness depot, these trunk vehicles are loaded for direct delivery withOut transhipment, which ates the unnecessary handling of the parcels.

le Aberdeen base—the main branch in the northates some 35 vehicles, the majority of which are articu1 vans.. These vehicles, or most of them, have a double During the day they deliver and collect; at night they /eft to trunk work. The areas served by Aberdeen are rdeenshire, Kincardine, Angus, Banff, Moray, Nairn Inverness City and its suburbs.

ie" mother " branch for the southern and eastern part le country is situated at Edinburgh. Complementary to branch are the four smaller depots at Perth. Dundee, hit, and in border county Earlston.

le Dundee depot utilizes some 20 vehicles. in a similar to the vehicles at Aberdeen--collection and delivery he daytime, and trunking at night, thus getting the imum benefit from articulation. It was at this depot, ral years ago, that a pilot scheme for 100 per cent. the floor" loading was put into operation, with traffic g conveyed from the vehicle on rollers and pre-sorted cage pallets. From there it is sorted out into delivery or k vehicles.

rhilst only one vehicle operates out of the Perth depot. town is the best served in the country because, situalmost in the centre of Scotland, vehicles from Glas, Edinburgh, Methil and Dundee deliver into the area. Just opposite Edinburgh, on the north side of the Firth of Forth, is the division's Fifeshire base at Methil. Here 12 vehicles are maintained, serving Fife, Clackmannan, Kinross, the eastern part of Stirlingshire and Perth.

The next largest depot to Glasgow is, as one would expect, at Edinburgh. The field of operation for Edinburgh's 45 vehicles, both flats and " artics.," is the city of Edinburgh itself, Central, West and East Lothian, the eastern part of Lanark, the eastern part of Stirling, Clackmannan, southern Fifeshire, parts of eastern Perthshire and the city of Perth.

Earlston (Berwick) has a 13-vehicle fleet and this is operated in precisely the same way as those at the other depots, the motive units hauling trunk loads at night, and shunting locally during the day. Here there is a rather specialized and valuable traffic being regularly dispatched to the south—tweed from border county mills—which is exported, mainly to the United States, via the " Queen vessels from Southampton. Three vehicles are employed exclusively to do this.

The largest depot in the division is at Glasgow. Altogether, 110 vehicles, the greater proportion of which a..e articulated, and over 200 trailers make up the fleet The sphere of local operation covers Glasgow City, Renfrewshire, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, West Lothian, East Stirlingshire, part of eastern Perthshire, and the city of Perth. A small depot is maintained at Ayr, out of which three vehicles operate. They cover the towns of Ayr, Prestwick, Troon and the coastal area.

Long-distance road trunking is operated from a majority of the depots. In addition to this, carrying out the Transport Commission's policy of utilizing rail wagons whereever possible, a considerable amount of traffic :s trunked in railway containers. Thus, nightly, vehicles leave the Scottish depots for Carlisle, Halifax, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Southampton, Birmingham, Bradford, Croydon, Manchester, and so on. Rail containers are loaded on shunt vehicles, transferred to rail wagons for transportation during the night to Leicester, Sheffield, Willenhall, London, Birmingham, Derby, Nottingham, and so on.

Warehousing Service Apart from their main function of collecting, transferring and delivering parcels, B.R.S. (Parcels), Ltd., carry out a specialized warehousing and storing service at Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Methil and Earlston, for nationally known customers.

At Glasgow, for example, where there is a 21,000-sq.-ft. warehouse, special arrangements have had to be made for the stowage of a certain well-known make of chocolatecoated confectionery, To enable the temperature to remain at a static 60, special rubber doors have been constructed to minimize the amount of draught entering the store.

Apart from the safekeeping of goods, a fully documented distribution system is operated, to suit the customer's requirements. At Glasgow, such stocks are fully palletized.

_ Depot in a Foundry Mr. John Leith, manager of the Glasgow branch, showed me around his vast depot. Situated in what had once been a foundry in Portman Street, the intricate operations of vehicle acceptance, unloading, sorting and reloading, are carried out under great difficulty. Space is so limited that many trailers have to be parked in the street which, fortunately, carries little traffic and is tolerated by the police.

From his office, high up in the building, Mr. Leith has an excellent view of the whole depot. So that he knows the exact position at the various loading and unloading bays, a report is made out twice a day—at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.—and sent to him. He can thus ascertain how many vehicles have been received, how many unloaded and how many still remain to be unloaded. The form gives him this information in relation to trunk vehicles, service trailers, collection and delivery vehicles and trailers, containers and the position of vehicles loaded. A special note at the foot of the form specifies any vehicles held up for more than 12 hours, the number of operating staff off sick, and so on. With the help of such forms, Mr. Leith can see on which bays

rIO

bottlenecks are building up in order to take approp. action.

The depot is open, and the work proceeds, all round clock. Teams of checkers and porters work in three st from a large central dock, which is divided into se) loading bays—a bay to receive collection and deli vehicles operating locally; bays for trunk vehicles depai and arriving; bays for railway container traffic; and 1 bays divided into the many delivery districts served in Glasgow area. Overhead signs indicate the destination the vehicles that will use the bays.

Because of the limited space available on the d mechanical handling of the parcels has been found ti impracticable. Apart from a few fork-lifting devices parcels have to he lifted out of the vehicles manually; are then checked for destinations and taken by porter ordinary, railway-type barrows to the various bays.

Seventy vehicles are occupied daily on local delive They mostly operate within a 30-mile radius, but somi operate up to 60 miles from their base.

The collection and delivery vehicles commence I rounds between 7.30 and 8 am. every morning. W these vehicles are out, trunking vehicles from all over country arrive to be unloaded. The majority of the co lion vehicles return about 5 p.m. and are unloadet quickly as possible to enable parcels to be transhippe trunk vehicles or railway containers that are waitim receive them.

Meanwhile, throughout the day, railway containers being loaded and unloaded with trunk traffic and shur the majority of them round to the railway station w is only 200 yards from the depot. Some, however, I to be shunted through the city to Buchanan Street Stal many containers are moved in )loyed to shunt between the day long. this way that drivers are depot and the stations The success of parcel operating is the documentation," Leith considers. This is why a man employed on xis collection and delivery has a far harder and more rous task than his long-distance counterpart, who has comparatively "simple " job of driving his vehicle and from point A to point B, where his task usually ends. lot only has the collection and delivery man to face the culties of city and urban traffic, parking difficulties, -way streets, being "chased" around by the police obstructing the road, and so on, but, with no mate to ) him, he has to carry parcels aud packages Of all pes, sizes and weights, upstairs and downstairs.

ut the actual physical handling of the parcels is only half of it. The driver, in addition, has to be something t clerk-cum-cashier and, in particular, an expert in the of filling in forms and documents.

he documents he carries include log sheets, delivery :ts, consignment notes and insurance forms, and forms customers to sign to acknowledge the fact that their ds are travelling at owner's risk, and so on. Money to be collected from " casual " customers whose goods collected for onward carriage; cash is also collected packages arrive "cash on delivery." In fact, there is so much documentation involving the drivers that 15 minutes has to be allowed after the driver arrives back at the depot for him to complete his documents and hand them and the money over.

The drivers on the various local routes are given an Instruction Sheet which indicates the regular collections to be made on that route, plus any " casual " calls to be made.

A " casual " request for picking up a parcel, made usually by telephone, would come into the depot's traffic office. A clerk fills in an "Order to Collect" form, with particulars of what the consignment is, who it is from, where it is going to, and the approximate weight. From this form a cash consignment note is made out. The "Order to Collect form and the consignment note is then added to the driver's round, sheet for the following day's work, the collection being made on the day following the telephone order. In cases of emergency, however, special pickups can be made by vehicles which can be diverted for this purpose.

Without a doubt, the Scottish Division of British Road Services (Parcels), Ltd., offers an excellent inter-region

service. The offspring of nationalization, they have gradually managed, since denationalization, to rid themselves of the stigma attached to such undertakings that remain under State control. They have only managed to do this by offering a second-to-none service—by giving the best service possible at the most reasonable cost. Slowly and surely they are replacing their vehicles with modern units, modernizing their depots and facilities and generally improving staff conditions.

To the critic who says: "Yes, they ought to supply a good service—they have all the capital in the world at their disposal," I would point out that they are almost under an obligation to carry anything that is offered to them; and this means that• usually they are handed the " awkwardest " load, which no other contractor wants, and it is usually going to the " awkwardest " destination!


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