bit of coach building and painting and we also had the remnants of a fibreglass shop.
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One of the biggest jobs for the bodybuilding shops was the construction of a cab for Albion four-wheelers.
In those days, the Albion was supplied in chassis/scuttle form only so a jig built ash framed cab was built with aluminium panels which sold for £165. Over 600 of these were built eventually between 1955 and 1962.
In 1970, the bodywork section was moved from the old coachbuilding shops to the premises next door where two 18.3m (60ft) spray lanes were installed. At the same time, the company started to employ cabinet makers who became involved in making kitchen furniture. We had the woodworking machinery anyway so we were interested in putting it to use. We turn nowt away.'"
Then in 1972 along came Carryfast and in September Harrisons of Dewsbury Ltd agreed to sell out. Carryfast itself was a Miles Druce company which had grown up around the collective organisations of Packhams, H. B. Ever-ton Roadways and HalletSilberman.
As far as the bodybuilding side goes, Carryfast takes up about 50 per cent of the shop capacity with the remainder being offered for service outside.
The standard 4.9m (16ft) body for the Ford and Bedford KD chassis has full runners and bearers throughout with Z-section pillars and panelling in 22-gauge aluminium. Martin Oldroyd said that they did not like using full-width roller shutters at the back, preferring those of 1.5m (5ft) width which stopped the shutters flapping and gave them a chance to build strong corners into the
The panelling is pop riveted on. In Martin's own words this "might look a bit untidy but it's easy and cheap to replace.-The wings are another example of this philosphy consisting merely of flat sheets of aluminium.
The 5.6 and 6,7m (18f1 6in and 22ft) bodies are built rather like a chassisless trailer in container form to sit on outriggers. As an example to illustrate the weight the 5.6m version weighs 1,120kg (22cwt) complete with outriggers.
The unit has a steel base frame and Martin Oldroyd said that they were rather overbuilt as Carryfast never ran at the full gross weight anyway owing to the very nature of the parcels business.
One of the more unusual sidelines of the Dewsbury operation is the utilisation of the cabinet making facility for the equipment of specialist vehicles. A case in point was in 1975 when the company were asked to quote for providing mobile medical units for Qatar. They were to be built on 4.9m (16ft) drawbar trailers to go behind petrol engined Bedford four-wheelers.
The trailer itself was a fairly standard boxvan with a lot of specialist equipment inside. Split into two sections. the first part was arranged as a consulting area complete with hot and cold water facilities and a couch. The other section was used as a dispensing area.
The trailer also carried its own generator, refrigerator and air-conditioning equipment. The complete medical units (four in all) were to be used at a football festival — one at each corner of the pitch! After that they were used as mobile dispensing units.
In January of last year, Martin Oldroyd brought in an ex-Leyland man. Roy Atkinson, as productivity and development manager. One of his projects was to look at the viability of continuing with the bodywork side if only to provide bodies for Carryfast's own fleet. His verdict was that it had a good future so Martin Oldroyd said: -OK, go and do it yourself," and put him in charge of bodywork, glassfibre and cabinet making. The company is now going after further business in the medical unit market.
To enable the managers and workforce to have a complete picture of the company's performance on a week to week basis, Miles Druce insttuted a management information ser vice which involved people from management level downwards.
The system provides for a profit/loss account for the previous week's operation to be available on a Monday with 95 per cent accuracy, In the words
of Martin Oldroyd: -This me we can get out of problE almost before they've stage( provides good discipline i management control. The' no point in doing sornethin you don't know whether yot making a profit.