Naafi shops around for rucks
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Whc operates the biggest British fleet on the Continent ? Undoubtedly, it's Naafi, with 3401 commercial vehicles ; many are 1 light vans and a fair number are Ford D-Series mid-weights.
Naturally, the reputation of Naafi—the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes—is heavily dependent on the reliability of its transport activities and to meet continental C and U regulations and operating conditions more readily the vehicle fleet now includes a considerable proportion of equipment obtained by "loc 1 purchase." The transport section is based at Krefeld, and is also responsible for t e maintenance and operation Naafi mobile shops which may carry a stock of up o 400 different lines.
Flexibility
Scheduling of bulk runs I and shop deliveries is linked to a certain extent to the supply line for bread and fresh dairy produce. For th latter service a number of heavy vehicles operate da ly between Krefeld and Denmark. While a number of MAN and elder Biissing-ba ed trunk units are in Naafi service, the recent addition of 20 DAF maximum weight I artics has given the transpOrt section greater flexibility in fleet utilisation.
Several of the DAF 26q0 and 2800 tractors with Ne am semi-trailers are used on traffic into Holland pickin up beer shipped from the U1 or brewed by Dutch concerrs. Naafi runs its own soft drinks plant near Krefeld where 10 million bottles are filled annually under licence from ". . . you know who" and most of the output is shifted by its own vehicles.
The policy of buying competitively priced continental vehicles is now also becoming more evident in transport equipment used by British forces stationed in Germany. For many years, for instance, buses in use in garrison towns have been almost exclusively of German manufacture. One of the ancillary services to Naafi activities in fact is the provision of regular bus services for people wishing to use the larger shopping centres. Ministry of Defence directives take into account international treaty obligations which do not permit discrimination against foreign products especially if UK builders cannot supply what is wanted at the right time. The procurement executive of the MoD has stated therefore that while it will try to purchase British equipment to the maximum extent calls for tender have the primary object of getting value for money.
Cheaper £
That by contrast there is now little incentive for the American forces still in the UK—mainly the Third US Air Force—to buy " locally " rather than ship equipment 4,000 miles must surely point to a flaw in the reasoning that a cheaper E helps our industry? Twenty or so years ago the Americans used fleets of British vehicles, including luxury-bodied Crossley coaches.