Bird's Eye
Page 59
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ViewBY THE HAWK
First?
IICH is the oldest-established transport company in the /odd? There's a question inviting trouble, or I'm no judge. ty, while I sit back and wait for the claims to roll in, let's if with the Ford Motor Company's suggestion that it is the Porters' Society, of Aberdeen, established in 1498.
he early days of the society, when supply roads did not all goods had to be brought by sea to coastal ports. Ships at Aberdeen and other Scottish coastal ports brought from Poland, Norway and Denmark.
Shore Porters (then known as the Pynours. from the
poiner "to toil") charged one penny "Scots" for every carried from the quayside and delivered within the bounof the borough.
society still remains in business, with seven active and :tired members. and it is interesting that exactly 300 years initiated what probably was the first pension scheme in industry for its members.
ides used by the society have progressed from the original rawn bogies to a current fleet of 28 modern trucks: the iddition is the Ford D.800 pictured above.
vy Sequel
:RE was a happy sequel to colleague Ron Cater's eventful to Brighton with the RAF Leyland (Bird's Eye View last Visiting the Borehamwood depot of Simms Motor Units le offending sparkless magneto. he tells me he met some old
from his haulage days. They all had a good laugh about mts of the previous Sunday but, more to the point, Simms d the mag for nothing and sent him on his way in the same al state that he arrived.
hton in one sprint next year?
gress !
W many motor vehicles do you need to do the work of a iven number of horses? Not as academic as you might because L. A. Wells. Scotland's deputy Licensing ity, had just this sort of sum to do recently when he heard Ilication by George Robbie, of Dundee. The company was for three vehicles on B licence to work within a 10-mile and it was said in evidence that these three were to do the f six horse-drawn vehicles.
Wells expressed himself as intrigued by the basis on which io of three to six had been arrived at and was told that Is a finding derived from earlier successful applications. ied to very short journeys of 400 yd. to half-a mile, on le work.
LA granted the application but said he wasn't too sure basis of measurement, since he had recently heard an tion where it had been said that traffic congestion had t the dockside motor vehicle down to the same rate of s the horse.
aps the breweries had better hang on to those gorgeous st a little bit longer. . .
So Long?
SPEAKING at the RHA dinner last week, Mrs. Barbara Castle began by saying: "In the four years since I became Minister— I mean, of course, four months—it just feels like four years...." By the way, a new term emerged at the dinner. We had have nationalization and integration—and now castlelization!
Strictly for the Birds
ALITTLE bird in Soho Square whispered that the Metropolitan Licensing Court is moving out to Acton. From his lofty position "The Hawk" cannot see any stir in the building.
Our homing pigeons at the Ministry Press office are eagerly awaiting the release of the news.
Customers Answer Back
OMPLAINTS regarding deliveries and service provided by the motor trade usually go direct to the managements concerned. The managements pass them on, probably to the foremen who pass them on again. And in all this process the note of urgency is all too likely to get muted.
So that his staff might have the opportunity of seeing things through the customers' eyes Mr. Keith Weeks, managing director of PLP Motors Ltd., Warrington, fixed up a confrontation earlier this month. All 70 of the staff, from apprentices to directors, were invited to an evening meeting at which three customers were asked to express their honest opinions of the treatment they had received. Representing the commercial vehicle side, Maj. E. S. N. Clarke, transport manager of Tetley Walker Production Ltd., had criticisms to make of uncertainties about delivery dates and delays in supplies of spares, two questions that produced explanations from representatives who were present from Vauxhall Motors Ltd. Maj. Clarke also urged the need for availability of facilities to complete minor repair work out of normal hours so that if a vehicle had to be taken off service at 4 p.m. it could be ready for the road again first thing the following day. Generally. the grumbles about PLP Motors were very mild—but, of course, a company that pioneers a teach-in of this kind is hardly the sort to have a slap-happy attitude to its basic job.
Parking the Progeny
ONE of the facilities reported to be provided in a new £2m. six-storey BMC centre in Stockholm is a kindergarten. This is staffed by a teacher and a nurse and is intended for the use of children of BMC staff working in the building.
Apparently the provision of this facility is important in Sweden, where many mothers also follow a career. I know the same thing is done in Britain in factories employing mainly women, but it is a practice which could usefully be extended in view of the present difficulties in getting staff.
But I wonder who takes the kids to work. Do they go with mum or dad?