'Beefy' transport serves Scotland's markets
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THE BRITISH love their meat — and Sunday is not Sunday without the roast beef. So as a nation we know our beef and if you want the best there will be no argument that Scotch beef reigns supreme throughout the land. Much of that beef is reared in the Grampian region of Scotland on the pastures inland of Aberdeen — a town with a name famous in the beef world.
Today, the town is also closely linked with the North Sea oilfield operation and the massive financial investment in the area is readily apparent in the growth of new oil related industries and the prospecting bought by Western style oil boom.
But, cattle is still big business in the area, transported south in their thousands from cattle markets large and small throughout the region.
It is the traditional cattle industry that has provided a lifetime's work for Henry Thomson & Sons, a livestock remover, for 50 years. Based at Sauchen about 12 miles south west of Aberdeen, the Thomson fleet of five articulated and five rigid cattle trucks — two operated with drawbar trailer t — is on the move every day at one of the many cattle markets within a 30mile radius of Aberdeen.
To give some idea of the scale of operation Henry Thomson & Sons transports 1,500 cattle, 2,00 sheep and 200 pigs in just one good week. These animals will be going to Glasgow and Carlisle slaughterhouses or further south to customers in the Midlands.
In recent years, following a reduction in Scottish herds owing to an outbreak of cattle disease, there has been a brisk business in return loads of young cattle to build up the cattle stocks once again. So the vehicles used in the Thomson fleet have to be adaptable — perhaps sheep to Carlisle and cattle back or pigs and cattle down South and all cattle loads back.
This flexibility requirement is perhaps best exemplified by the newest vehicle in the fleet — a Volvo F12 6x2 rigid and drawbar outfit supplied by local Volvo distributor, James M. Forbes (Motors) of Aberdeen.
With the TD 120C engine producing 246kW (330bhp) at 2,200rpm (BSAU 141A) driving through an SR 62 16-speed gearbox, the sleeper cab F12 has completed 48,000 miles since it entered service in January this year. Laden in both directions the vehicle is achieving 6.5 — 7.00mpg average fuel consumption.
The rig provides maximum floor area — a must for livestock movement where space rather than weight is the critical factor. The six-wheel configuration gives maximum weight operation when the rigid is used solo and a lifting rear axle is vital, for the outfit must often operate offroad and in constricted areas.
The metal bodies are specially built by E. C. Paton of Netherly, near Aberdeen, and again reflect the flexibility of operation. Each body, rigid and drawbar, is capable of three-deck operation with an interior folding second deck and a top third deck which folds upwards if required. Through loading from the rear of
3. drawbar is easily achieved th the prime mover rear door )pping down to form a bridge tween the two units and the le slatted doors opening to -m side "fences".
Nhile pessimists warn that the will run out one day and the ottish East Coast oil boom will ie away, specialist hauliers a Henry Thomson & Sons are nfident that Scottish beef will main a firm favourite on itish menus and they confintly look forward to celebrag the company's centenary.
A national television publicity impaign is about to be inched which will promote the wth Sea prawn and Norway )ster, which will hopefully stiulate housewives into 3ching for the well-known and label of Moray Seafoods shops and supermarkets
throughout the country. Behind this campaign is a company which sees the scampi Nephrops Novegicus as "its baby" — a small reddish-pink shellfish disdained and thrown away by fishermen as a nuisance catch only a few years ago. Now selected tails of this shellfish are prepared to form delicious scampi.
Today, for Moray Seafoods of Buckle on the exposed North ,Sea coast of Scotland, the scampi is the cornerstone of a business stretching throughout the UK, Europe and Scandinavia to all parts of the USA and Canada. It is a business built by Charles E. Eckersley, who came to Buckie and started Moray Seafoods from scratch 20-odd years ago.
His modern processing and packing plant alongside Buckie quayside produces over £6,000,000 of shellfish products every year. The Buckie plant is just a few yards from the regular quayside fish market and shellfish are delivered into the factory within a couple of hours of being lifted out of the holds of the Buckle fishing fleet.
Such is the demand for Moray Seafoods products that the company has expanded its manufacturing capacity by establishing plants at Portree on the Island of Skye and the important fishing port of Mallaig on the West Coast of Scotland.
Seafoods produced at these wholly owned subsidiaries are transported by refrigerated truck to the main cold store at Buckle, where national and international distribution begins.
At certain times of the year the Buckle fishing fleet will have to work in areas away from the Scottish coast, following the fish as they move around the North Sea. Catches will then be landed at the nearest port, and Moray Seafoods will have its lorries waiting at the quayside to collect the shelldish and transport them back to Buckie.
So with this movement of the "raw" material coming in and the finished frozen product being delivered to UK and overseas customers, road transport plays an important part in the Moray Seafoods operation.
A fleet of five 32-ton articulated outfits look after the trucking and export operations. Volvo F12 tractive units pulling Gray and Adams 12-metre insulated semi-trailers with Petter refrigeration equipment leave every week for European or Scandinavian destinations. These lorries were supplied by James M. Forbes {Motors), the distributor in Aberdeen, with which Moray Seafoods has had a long association.
With the high value of frozen prepared shellfish products, a load can be valued at anything between £50,000 and £100,000.
A typical run is the one which left during my visit. What one tends to forget is that Buckie is 200 miles further north than Glasgow, so a day's driving south only gets a lorry over the border to somewhere like Carlisle. A crucial factor here is the type of roads encountered in the North of Scotland, not conducive to high-speed heavy vehicles trun king.
Although south from Carlisle is mostly motorway running, the haul down the length of England to the South Coast ports takes another good day's driving. It is then over on the Newhaven/Dieppe ferry down through France to the Mediterranean coast and over the border at Ventimiglia into Italy and on to Rome.
In this way the TD 120C sleeper cab trucks clock up around 100,000 miles a year — much of it run on the Continent. Thus the distinctive Menzies tartan used on all the Moray vehicles with the new livery now adoped for the box trailer sides is a familiar sight to many European cities.
Anticipating new legislation, the first tri-axle semi-trailer with super single tyres has now entered service and is used on TIR work.
Having operated Volvo trucks for the past 10 years, Charles Eckersley is well aware of the back-up service claimed by the company — especially on the Continent. However, he points out that he is unable to confirm or deny this facility as his drivers have never really required assistance on the road — "what better reason do you need to by a particular make. With highvalue quality frozen products such as ours, hold-ups and mechanical failures are just that bit more serious than if you've just got ordinary freight on board, so vehicle selection is important."
Moray Seafoods' existing premises are about to undergo a major expansion with new frozen storage facilities and larger processing areas. This entails a large investment in new equipment and machinery and the bigger output will lead to greater demands on the haulage fleet, with some new vehicles required.
Also planned for the future is a new product line for the company with a planned entry into the "ready meal" market — with shellfish as the main ingredient of course!