NM is new King Coal
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• Derbyshire-based National Plant and Transport has won the latest British Coal transport operations contract for the Central Area, covering Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire and parts of Staffordshire.
The company, formed 17 months ago initially to deal exclusively with British Coal, is in its second year of running the former British Coal transport operation in Nottinghamshire. This contract is, geographically, a natural extension of our Nottinghamshire operation," says National Plant and Transport's managing director Ernest Richardson.
The Central Area contract is for two years, with the option of a third, explains Richardson, and involves 145 vehicles, ranging from car-derived vans to 32-tonne artics, plus 36 trailers. The Nottinghamshire contract included 182 vehicles.
National Plant and Transport has also been running British Coal's plant contract in South Wales for the past two years (transport is contracted to BRS Western).
The firm is expanding, Richardson points out, and is now running non-BC contracts.
But he will not be drawn on whether it would bid for BC's Yorkshire transport contract, should it come up for tender.
"British Coal's Yorkshire area plant operation will be privatised," says Richardson, "but it is not yet certain whether road transport will go the same way."
E Meanwhile 12 new Seddon Atkinson eight-wheelers have started work on a contract which Stoke-on-Trent-based Maurice Nield Transport has signed with British Coal.
Under the deal Maurice Nield has taken on 200 British Coal vehicles and staff in BC's Western area, covering Lancashire and parts of Staffordshire. The new eightwheelers form the first part of a vehicle replacement programme aimed at improving the coal fleet's profitability, says the company.