Atlas Group Expansion
Page 72
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Subsidiary Opens Modern Depot at Dunstable : New Two-acre Depot Being Built in Manchester.
NEW depot, specially designed for
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the most efficient handling of parcels and small consignments, was opened at Dunstable, Beds, on Monday, by °uteri and Armitage (Hauliers), Ltd. At the same time, as the company have been owned since November, 1951, by the Atlas Express CO., Ltd., their name was changed to the Atlas Express Co. (Dunstable). Ltd.
The former premises in Guildford Street, Luton, have been sold, as they had become too small for a growing business. The new Dunstable depot, which is an the Luton Road Industrial Estate, occupies a site of 160 ft. by 100 ft, which allows ample room for expansion.
The island loading deck measures 70 ft. by 30 ft., and can accommodate 16 vehicles. On one side is the unloading bay, with sawlooth platforms giving access to both the side and rear of vans. The loading side is straight, the vans backing in end-on. A further platform across one end can be used for either loading or unloading.
The deck is built on solid chalk with a concrete surface, and has a steelframed superstructure with corrugated asbestos roof and sliding doors all round. A Staeatone pallet lifter is on order for delivery soon.
A.cross the other end is a brick-built block' containing offices, a locked store for sweets (one of the chief items carried) and a workshop for light docks.
At Dunstable there are a Bedford 10tonner, live 5-ton vans (three Bedford and two Thames), and a Thames 3-ton van. The depot is managed by Mr. W. H. Bridges, who has been with Atlas since 1943.
Deliveries arc made to towns within 30 miles of Dunst-able, three times per week to Cambridge, andlwice a day to London. The depot is served also by Humphrey's Transport, of Watford, D. and H. Transport, of London, and D.M.S. • Transport,•of Sheffield.
The move brings the depot closer to the A5 road, which is used by a. nightly London-Manchester-Glasgow service of the parent company with Albion, Thorny croft and Seddon vans. The Atlas group has depots at London (Bermondsey), Leicester, Nottingham, Wakefield, Manchester, Glasgow and Aberdeen, and agencies at Exeter, Bristol, Birmingham, Bradford, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Dundee, also working in conjunction with other hauliers at Brighton and Yarmouth. Of the total Atlas fleet of 100 vehicles, about 30 arc in London, but the London . organization also hires• 20 vans daily from other concerns. The business wasstarted in 1863 and specializes in smalls. As more than half its activities were within a 25-mile radius it was not • nationalized, but it has more reeently purchased nearly 30 vehicles from British Road Services: A new two-acre depot is being built at Manchester, to be opened next month to replace twO exiSting depots with 25 vehicles. Atlas also hope soon to find a site for a new two-acre depot in London,
Another of their actiVities is forward_ ing freight by air from any part of Britain to any part of the world, either " by scheduled air line or by chartering a. special aeroplane.