Build-up in Barking
Page 29
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• Almost exactly a year ago a one-acre plot of land on the industrial estate in Thames Rd., Barking, Essex, was mostly marsh and pond. Today, it is occupied by the 24-hours, round-the-clock headquarters of Frank Willis and Sons (London) Ltd. (member of the United Carriers Group) which moved there from Plaistow to begin operations on September 29.
During daytime, goods are collected and delivered throughout the Greater London area. At night the company's fleet of 14 Bedford TKs and two Commer artics handles approximately 500 consignments going up country to depots at Northampton and Wellingborough, with a similar number coming into Thames Road. The day staff on the loading bank consists of a foreman and six operatives; the night shift is one foreman and four men.
The loading platform is a 210ft by 50ft concrete structure with 21 roller-shuttered bays. Built in with it is an administration block containing offices, rest room, stores and toilets. Across the spacious compound is a vehicle washing stand over which is suspended an up-and-down spraying frame manufactured and installed by Ultrasonic Machines Ltd., a diesel fuel pump installation covered by a galvanized steel cantilever roof, and a maintenance service building capable of accommodating at the same time two artics. An electric hoist is part of the up-to-date equipment.
Extensive use is made of fluorescent lighting in all the enclosed buildings and their surrounds and the main yard is floodlit from a 50ft steel mast located alongside the entrance gate office, staffed at weekends by Securicor officers.
Showing roe round the £100,000, spick-and-span premises, managing director Mr J. C. Smith, who was one of the original founders of the business when in 1957 he operated a single lorry in Edmonton, told me that it is planned presently to extend the company's field of trunking to UCL depots at
Bristol, Leeds and Bury. R.R.H.