A Nerve Centre of Parcels Traffic
Page 37
Page 38
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
By Ashley Taylor, A. M.1.R.T.E. AN example of the effects of large-scale organization in road transport, such as nationalization has produced, is provided by the White City headquarters of the Manchester Parcels Group of the Road Haulage Executive. By combining the parcels business of five former hauliers, centralized control for all the parcels traffic in a wide area has been instituted.
At White City, there is the largest island platform used by road transport vehicles, anywhere in the British Isles. It is 530 ft. long, .57 -ft. 6 ins, wide, and on it are handled an average of some 15,650 packages a day. Beneath the platform there is a warehouse which discharges a dual function.
Its primary purpose is to hold " security" or vulnerable traffic which is best kept under lock and key. It also serves as a breaking-down point for goods delivered to Manchester in bulk by manufacturers who reserve space in the warehouse. Once there, the goods are sent out to detail orders for distribution throughout the country by British Road Services vehicles. An average of 70 tons of goods move into and out of the warehouse every day.
Individual members of the staff responsible for breaking down the bulk deliveries have acquired specialized knowledge of the concerns for which they act. They can readily recognize particular grades of goods among the variety present, consisting perhaps, of 140 or more different types of product held on behalf of certain firms. Trolleys are used for the internal movement of goods and gravity rollers are extensively employed. Traps at top platform level give direct access to the vehicles and the roller racks are extended inside the bodies of large vans to minimize loaders' movements.
Some 360 vehicles a day pass through the White City depot. of which 122 are operated by the group from that point. Of these, 83 are employed on local collection and delivery, 25 on trunk operation and 14 have the dual function of working local rounds and moving bulk consignments in containers to and from the railway. The depot staff numbers over 450.
In former times, individual parcels depots made up their ov•oh Manchester —London loads and dispatched them at various times in the evening for arrival in London the following morning. With the development of the combined organization, however, it was found that various advantages would accrue from the integration of this traffic with the railway.
Arrangements were made for the London Midland Region of British Railways, to run a nightly train from Edgeley, Stockport, to Broad Street, London. This carries containers loaded with parcels traffic on the through journey. The stock employed is fully vacuum-braked and so can be worked to a passenger train schedule. The 180-mile journey is therefore completed inside six hours. •
The containers are loaded at the White City and delivered by the vehicles already mentioned, to Edgeley, this point being chosen as the northern terminal as it is well clear of the railways' hard-pressed section in the vicinity of London Road, Manchester. The parcels train arrives at Broad Street, London, in the early hours of the morning, the containers are collected for delivery to the appropriate London parcels depots and the parcels are soon ready for the Arst local delivery rounds in London.
Similar facilities are provided in the reverse direction. The train is used exclusively by the Manchester Parcels Group so that there is no possibility of goods going astray en route.
The White City depot was formerly the headquarters of the Fisher-Renwick organization and after nationalization the question of obtaining maximum use from the premises was examined care. fully. It was decided to concentrate there, the parcels section of the former businesses of Bouts-Tillotson, Ltd., Dutfields Transport (Manchester), Ltd., Hanson and Holdsworth, Ltd., Young's
Express Deliveries, Ltd., and FisherRenwick Services, Ltd. Previously, all had operated depots in the Manchester area. Now, the combined organization is responsible for smalls collection and delivery in a large part of the city and the adjacent territory.
Circulating through the one-way traffic around the platform, one secs trunk vehicles connecting with London, Southampton, Chelmsford, Welwyn Garden City, Birmingham, Willenhall, Coventry, Leicester, Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham, Bristol, Cardilf, Liverpool, Leeds, Brad ford, Stockton-on-Tees, Newcastle upon Tyne, Carlisle, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. For each destination there is an appropriate bay on the platform and indicator boards show not only the name of the depot, but also details of places served by the local distribution agencies beyond the trunk line terminals. Traffic is also sent to these same depots for trans-shipment and reforwarding.
Particularly between 6-9 a.m. and between 6-9 p.m., the platform is a scene of great activity. Apparently endless successions of consignments are transferred from bay to bay as they interchange, coming in on a trunk service vehicle and departing for local delivery, coming in on local collection vehicles and departing by trunk vehicles, or coming in on one trunk vehicle and departing on another. The Dundee trunk van, for instance, may have as part of its load, parcels collected beyond Aberdeen and destined for south-west England. These will be transshipped at Manchester and will continue to Southampton or Bristol for sorting and reforwarding. Some traffic for delivery in the Manchester area has to be transferred to the other Manchester depots, but in some cases, as with goods for Leicester and Nottingham, for example, it4s pre-sorted so that'it arrives at the correct Manchester depot. Cross-city ferrying is therefore obviated.
Although the R.H.E. does not compete with the Kist Office, the parcels handled may be quite small, many of them obviously weighing less than 1 lb. Large quantities of single books are collected in bulk from Manchester publishing houses, mostly with individual pack ings that would be too light for the postal service. These are distributed singly either in the neighbouring streets or at the other end of the country. " Parcels " up to a ton are normally carried, but many awkward and bulky items are also accepted. For example, batches of lengthy fire-escape ladders,
made locally, are collected in quantity but have to be delivered individually to various parts of the country.
The manner in which specific traffic is handled by the parcels organization is seen in the case of a special depot in Manchester, where the principal loads are groceries and similar commodities. To avoid the risk of deterioration, close liaison is maintained with the biscuit manufacturers and in one particular case goods produced during the day are collected from the manufacturer the same night, travel on the trunk route the following day, are sorted during the next night and are delivered to the shops the day after that. Biscuits which leave the oven on Monday are available 200 miles awayon Wednesday.
Before departing with his vehicle, each trunk service driver takes charge of the documents relating to the various consignments in his care. He hands these in complete at the destination. At times, local deliveries could conveniently be made direct from the trunk vehicle, but this is. not the responsibility of the trunk vehicle driver and before detailed distribution can take place, the load must be put in charge of a "shunter."
The " vulne rabl e " goods store located in the warehouse beneath the White City platform has already been described. Into this section comes all traffic hearing labels on which a capital W, for "Watch," appears. These
labels are applied to commodities particularly likely to go astray or which, experience has proved, are liable to receive "undesirable attention." The stickers are sometimes fixed by customers to whom they are specially supplied, but more often by the originating depot. At each trans-shipment, parcels so labelled must go through the security cages. They are signed for when received and the driver, too, has to sign for them when they are in his vehicle. An insurance voucher schegie exists for consignments which are, in excess of liability admitted under conditions of carriage.
One of the two R.H.E, national teleprinter exchanges is located at White City, where there are connections to all northern depots and to the whole network in the south. Apart from routine communications, the teleprinter enables instant inquiry to be made whenever any discrepancy is discovered. Where action by the security staff is required there is therefore a minimum of delay and a greatly increased chance of a successful conclusion to any investigations.
The White City island, together with the circulating road and all ancillary equipment, is completely enclosed ig a building 636 ft. long, 168 ft. wide and 27 ft, high, so that every transshipment takes place under cover. Two travellingscranes, one of 2 tons and one of 5-tons capacity deal with heavy traffic.
Approximately half the goodspassing through are connected in one way or another with the textile industry, but the remainder is more notable for its variety than for anything else. At one moment, a loader may be coping with the snake-like contortions of a big length of armoured hose and the next he may be carrying a family's holiday luggage, for many coach passengers nowadays send their heavier baggage on by good vehicle.
Controlling the movement of these thousands of consignments which travel up, down, and across the country, is an impressive administrative section in which mechanized accounting systems are employed.