NEWS FOR VORLD boad and air
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1r Andrew Seacombe
.ce,ss with which E. Higgs and Co. Vewspaper Road-air Freight Service m as Carefully Planned as that of the Press Itself
• AT 11.35, p.m. precisely 1 left Price's Street, near London's Blackfriars Bridge, in the cab of a Bedford 4-ton van carrying British newspapers for , France and Belgium, Exactly 25 minutes later, at Croydon Airport, the bulk of the newspapers was being unloaded, direct into a Dakota freight aircraft which left for Paris at a quarter past midnight.
, Like most operations connected with newspapers, the tratisport services that carry them must essentially be speedy, and this is particularly the case when an air-line schedule has to be adhered to. Exceptional efficiency is expected of both vehicles and men in this operation, ar behind it all is the careful planning of a small, high specialized organization.
Tucked away in Ford Road, in the East End London, is the head office of E. Higgs and Co., the bus ness founded by the late Mr. Edward Higgs, wh, for more than 30 years, have handled daily the ma and air freight of newspapers to any part the world. Destinations behind the Iron Cu fain are not excluded, either, some pape being flown regularly to Budapest and Wa saw. The list of customers is long and di tinguished, and is not confined to Britis publications. A leading French paper and tt European edition of one of America's dail journals are also included.
Periodicals, too, are handled, but these al taken in the company's stride, along with th daily papers and according to their day c publication. The Sunday papers ensure du they have a seven-day-week job.
Higgs were responsible earlier this year fc flying a special issue of another Temple Pre journal, The Aeroplane, to Toronto, whet copies were on sale on the same day as in Britain. On that occasion, they handled over 4,000 copies of the journal, weighing nearly. 2 tons. One of the company's Bedford vans carried the consignment to• London Airport
hence the journals were flown by a Trans-Canada " iartered aircraft.
Mr. W. 0. Blackford, manager of Higgs Transport, td., who are the main contractors of E. Higgs and Co, the chief planner of this complicated organization. aiking to him in his office, one is sure to be interrupted y the circulation manager of one of the leading daily ipers or periodicals wanting to get one—or a hundred -copies of his publication to, say, New York. The Limber of copies or the distance he wants them to ) is no problem to Mr. Blackford, and it costs no more per copy to send one than it does a hundr or a thousand.
Higgs Transport Ltd., operate 20 petrol-engined.va ranging from a Bedford 5-6 cwt, and a number o Austin 25-cwt. vehicles to a Bedford 5-tonner. Tw Bedford 4-tanners have bodies specially built for new paper delivery work, and all are fitted with tailboard and roller shutters. Plain black is considered to be the most suitable livery for the work and, of course, it is easily matched if any part of the paintwork is scratch or damaged. J. M. Cross Ltd., whose works are Old Ford Road, built the bodywork of most of the vehicles, but some of the bodies were constructed by the chassis. makers.
On the night of my visit two Bedford 4-tonners and an Austin 30-cwt. van were employed. A Bedford 2-tonner was standing by in case of a breakdown, a necessarily rare occurence in this fleet.
Most of. the vans are used 24 hours a day on newspaper delivery work, but their day-time duties have no connection with the air-freight service. During daylight hours the fleet is taken over by various Wholesale contractors, who use the vehicles for delivering newspapers to retailers in all parts of London.
The job of delivering newspapers to the airports begins in earnest at about 10.30 pm. Apart from -records and invoicing, the scene of activity is transferred from Ford Road to Price's Street where, in two converted garages, the numerous parcels received from the various newspaper and periodical publisher's are assembled, documented, sorted, numbered and loaded on to the vans whieh will take them to Croydon, Northolt or .London Airport. This actiiity goes on every night until dawn.
It was about 10 p.m. when arrived at the depot. A number of parcels had already arrived, but the bulk was yet to come. Each publisher supplies a sheet detailing the number of parcels, number of copies in each parcel, weight and destinations. The value of the papers has also to be stated for Customs purposes. Waybills, supplied by the relevant air lines, have earlier been completed at Ford Road along with the Customs declaration form, but each waybill has now to be related to a particular parcel. This done, each package is marked with the appropriate waybill number and it is then ready for loading into one of the vans.
The time then was 10.10 pm., and vans from three publishers .had just arrived. Four minutes later they had been unloaded and were away.
Bulking Equalizes Rates Weight is the all-important factor in air freight. Rates are based on a mininium of 5; kg. For weights above this amount the air transport companies allow special rebates on freight charges: As all the parcels of newspapers are bulked together, a publisher, no matter whether his consignment is above or below the minimum, receives the full benefit Of this discount. • At 10.55 p.m. the first van left for Northolt with a consignment for Belfast. In just over an hour, it had returned from the 32-mile round trip and was ready to take a second load to NorthoIt. Later, the same van was to carry. a consignment to London Airport, 16 miles away, from where B.O.A.C., B.EA., Trans-Canada, PanAmerican, Air-India and K.L.M. fly the bulk of the papers to such places as Washington (U.S.A.), Nairobi, Cairo, Rome and Johannesburg.
By 11 o'clock the sorting bay was in a state of apparent chaos, but the air-freight dispatch clerk and the van drivers who assist in the sorting and loading knew precisely where and what each parcel was. Publishers' vans were queueing in Price's Street, and as one wa9 unloaded and drove away another took its place.
c10 This continued until just before 11.3011m_, The during a brief lull, it was ascertained that .all the co signmentS for Paris and Brussels had atrived and be' loaded, and the word was given for the van to leave.
At Croydon, the vans are permitted to back up the aircraft on the apron, and are unloaded with ti assistance of,Air Ministry staff. The aeroplanes whit fly the newspapers from there are specially charter' from Transair Freight Services.
Double on Sundays Some 10 tons of newspapers and periodicals a loaded every night of the week, with the exception ; Saturday, when the weight of the Sunday papers is abo 20 tons. Two extra vans are then used to augment ti fleet handling the deliveries, and the first runNortholt with papers for Dublin—is as early as 6.30 p.1 Just as much as the newspapers which they sen Higgs must always be prepared for special events whit warrant rather more than the mu attention by the Press. Among d more recent events special covered by the newspapers was ti Coronation, when greatly enlargt issues were produced, While me of the public were sitting bat watching this great event on tel _ vision or listening to it on the radi Higgs were busy carrying speci editions of the London evenir papers to the airports for shipmei to points all over Britain.
Work on that day began ; 11.30 a.m., and from then mit 6.30 p.m. nearly 20 tons of new papers left Croydon and North° in 24specially chartered aircraf Higgs also handled a special a .delivery of Press protographs froi London to Manchester for publication in the Norther editions of the London papers.
En route to Croydon, I had begun to realize just ha important vehicle maintenance was to Higgs. A vehicles are checked twice daily for petrol, oil, wate lights and tyres, and are washed every other day by high-pressure plant. Drivers have strict instructions t report the slightest fault, or suspected fault, as soon a they bring in their vans.
These reports are followed up immediately, and in th majority of cases the vehicles concerned are ready fc the road the same day. Each vehicle is also given thorough mechanical check weekly.
Engines are replaced by reconditioned units at 70,00 miles. The Hoxton branch of Spurting Motor Bodie: Ltd., handles the Bedford units, and Prynn and Steveno Ltd., Brixton, the 'Austins. Two fitters can replace a engine in a day. The unit-exchange system is applie, also to other major components.
Considering that the vehicles are used chiefly in th; city, and that high mean speeds are maintained, th; average tyre life of 50,000 miles is good. The averag; weekly mileage for each vehicle is 750, the fleet coverini over 750,000 miles annually.
The fuel-consumption rate for the 30-cwt. vans i. 14-15 m.p.g. and for the 5-tonners 11 m.p.g.
Complete records of all the vehicles are kept at thi head office, where a daily mileage against individua contractors is also recorded. Doyen of the fleet is r 1936 Bedford 30-cwt. van which, after being discardet twice, is still giving good service,