2,500-ton Contract for Hauliers
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AFTER winning the valuable Royal Show contract from the railways for the first time in 20 years, hauliers have moved more than half the 2,500-ton consignment of show material in less than a month.
The tender which snatched the traffic from British Railways is still " a deadly secret," according to the main contractors, Road Hauliers (East Midlands), Ltd., Nottingham. But they are so pleased with the smoothness of The project that they intend to tender again next year.
So far, most of the material—exhibition stands, show rings, huts and buildings—has been carried on a return-load system from Costessey, Norwich, to Whitchurch Airport, Bristol. An average movement of 75 tons a day has been maintained on a sub-contracting basis.
Mr. W. M. Wood, general manager of Road Hauliers, told The Commercial Motor: "It's service that counts, and the Royal Show committee were very pleased with the way we handled 300 tons of stands two years ago." •
Mr. Wood,. who is mainly responsible for seeing the operation completed, is working in close liaison with Mr. Edward Wood (no relation), of Edward Wood and Sons, Ltd., Derby. This company have the 12-month task of dismantling the material in Norwich, seeing it safely to Bristol, and putting it together again. Seven or eight vehicles arc being loaded every day in Norwich.
The last time the railways lost in tendering for the traffic was in 1936, when they had had an unbroken run of 30 years. Since then they have succeeded in securing the contract every year.
WESTERN HAULIE'RS AGREED ON INTERWORKING.
AT a meeting of the long-distance hauliers' committee of the Devon and Cornwall Area of the Road Haulage Association last week, the delegates agreod that some method of interworking should be formulated, on a national scale if possible, to solve the acute problem of foreign-based hauliers gaining return traffic at "ridiculously low rates."
Members discussed in particular two reports in writing, one from the chairman, Mr. L. G. Valiance, of W. L. Valiance, Ltd., Newton Abbot, the other from Mr. T. S. Larney, of W. I. Lamey and Sons, Ltd., Appledore. Devon.
The committee were unable to decide on any particular form of interworking until the views of the national longdistan ce committee were apparent.
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