The Powerful Voice of B.R.S.
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DOCK WORK AND TRUNKING
IVIOVING house and business was the Peldouble headache of the man charged with conducting the affairs of the formidable B.R.S. fleet, the recently appointed North Western District Manager, Mr. L. Hill, when I called on him in the centre of Manchester. Mr. Hill returns
to his home town after many years in the Eastern and East Midland areas and one of his earliest tasks was the reorganization of administration to bring the staff together in one building.
General expansion with economy, keeping abreast of what should be steady industrial development, is the aim with the 700 general haulage vehicles operating from North Lancashire out to North Wales, about a half of them being based in the area under review in this feature. There is, in addition, a total contract fleet of 300.
The continuing trend is towards even more articulation, which really comes into its own at the docks, where they have a range of equipment to facilitate smoothly operating overside collections. The traffic of all kinds indicates the importance of the B.R.S. voice in the district; the monthly work at the dock office involves cargo in the region of 10,000 tons.
A high percentage of the fleet is engaged on a great weight of trunk and regular services to main terminals throughout Britain. BIG BILL'S BIG AREA
FROM Carlisle down to Macclesfield, taking in everything west of the Pennines and throwing in a foothold in Belfast, is the B.R.S. parcels area that is managed by the man known from Aberdeen to Penzance as Big Hitt Evans. He certainly has a big enough slice of territory and strategically placed branches to control from Manchester, and in the Greater Manchester area alone he has some 12,000 customers and more than 60,000 packages a day.
Storage and distribution for national customers of anything from foodstuffs and chemical sundries to light engineering components, and school luggage, anything from 8 lb. to 2 or 3 cwt. is tackled. And although the port of Manchester provides mainly general haulage, the parcels side comes into its own at Christmas when the gift parcels pour in from Australia,
The Manchester White City branch is vast, the vehicles totalling 150and with the swing to articulation continuing semitrailers have now reached 300 in number.
The policy is expansion: trade, Mr. Evans feels, is buoyant, the future looks bright, competition keeps them on their toes and keenness in branch management is bringing success.
The extra business that has been captured is a tribute to improved methods and an intensive commercial drive, following up news of all new projects, even though they may still be on the drawing board.
Modernization continues apace: Burnley branch, with nearly 50 vehicles, is operating in a newly opened depot with a traffic shed covering 34,000 sq. ft., the loading bank of 45 ft. by 282 ft. having a 3-ft.-wide conveyor belt down the centre. Some 60 vehicles can be accommodated on the bank.
Mr. F. Wolstenholine had just a week or two at the new depot before moving over to manage the Preston branch of similar size. Here again there is a modern building, just two years old but lacking a conveyor belt. It has proved somewhat vulnerable to the winds and protective walling is to be completed before winter.