Four lose Rover delivery
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• Four major car transporters are losing lucrative contracts at Longbridge and Cowley since Rover's decision to reorganise its car distribution network.
The work has been awarded to two companies, Car and Commercial and Mainland. Out go BRS Automotive, Tolemans, Silcock Express and Autocar who, together with Car and Commercial and Mainland, shared the distribution of vehicles to Rover's UK dealership network.
Car and Commercial and Mainland have benefited from Rover's decision to move to a network of seven regional stocking centres.
Car and Commercial takes on the Longbridge distribution, switching from a former contract at Cowley, while Mainland takes on the Cowley work.
"We aim to improve vehicle distribution by setting up regional stocking depots which eliminates the need for delivery from the factory direct to the dealers," says a Rover spokesman. The new contracts with Car and Commercial and Mainland begin on 28 September.
Car and Commercial and Mainland are two of the four carriers who will operate the regional distribution centres — the other two are Richard Lawson and Walon. One of the sites will be close to Longbridge at Birmingham. Walon will operate two sites — a south-west centre at Royal Portbury Dock in Bristol, and a north-east depot at Doncaster. Rover says planning permission for some sites has yet to be finalised.
Longbridge and Cowley manufacture the Rover 200 and Metro ranges and the anticipated production of 450,000 vehicles this year is at least 50,000 below its peak.