Doing it Themselves
Page 52
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Ancillary Fleet Built up by Polycell Products, Ltd., Reduces Distribution Costs and Speeds Delivery Service
ALTHOUGH the ancillary fleet used to distribute the goods of Polycell Products, Ltd.. Kentish Town. London, has grown largely because of the savings in packaging costs which road delivery, as distinct from rail, makes possible, art underlying factor is that the expansion has been in step with the public's increasing acceptance of `` elo-ityourself," the company's products selling chiefly to the home handyman.
The concern arc associated with Shand Kydd, Ltd., Kentish Town, old-established makers of wallpaper. Shand Kydd had
used the railways to a great extent, but having found that dispatches could be speeded by using hired road vehicles, acquired two Albion 10-tonners under C licence in 1954.
It was further discovered that security advantages lay in having goods delivered by direct labour, and that many customers could be given a quicker service.
These vehicles carried wallpaper and some of the new Polycell products, and in 1955 were augmented by an Austin 3-tonner. Pursuing a well-thought-out sales-promotion policy in respect of the goods, which at that time were being introduced to the public, the operators adopted a colour scheme for the Austin which formed a part of their advertising efforts.
The paintwork of the van, carried out by Wright Signs, Cockfosters, Herts, matched the appearance of the cartons in which Polycell, an adhesive for wallpaper, is packaged, having vertical stripes of white and yellow and a blue facia on each side, on which the name of the product was written.
c14 Vehicles subsequently acquired. through Coaches and Components, Ltd., were similarly painted, except that some had either red facias with the legend Polyfilla or mauve with Polyclens. Polyfilla is a special plaster compound for filling cracks.
Polyclens is a liquid cleanser primarily used for cleaning paint brushes and milers. it has also many industrial uses and is naturally used by the operators for the -washing of their vehicles. A clean turn-out is doubly important on the scores of the importance attached to the vehicles as advertising media and the nature of the product.
The present fleet used by the two companies is almost wholly in colours appropriate to Polycell Products, Ltd.. and compr ises the two Albions mentioned, another Austin 3-tanner, four 5-tonners, four 7-tanners and three 4-tanners of Albion manufacture. four Bedford 5-tanners, and an Austin 1-ton and two if-ton vans.
All these vehicles are oilers and are used for distributing goods to the main sales areas. The Albions have lightalloy bodywork, with integral cabs, by G. Scammell and Nephew, Ltd., and composite bodies by A. Hawes and Son, Ltd., are based on Bedford and Austin chassis.
Most raw materials are delivered to the companies' adjacent factories in Kentish Town by road, and a Jen-Tug and two semi-trailers are used to bring cartons from warehouses at Highgate and Islington. Polycell is packed in 2-oz, and 1-oz. bags, and is made up into boxes of one gross. Polyfilla is cartoned in 1-1b. and 4-1b. sizes, and 1-1b. packages are formed into boxes of 36. and 4-1b. into boxes of eight.
Bottles of Polyclens contain 10 oz. and a carton 36 bottles. This product is also sold in +-gal. cans made up into cartons containing six, and in 5-gal. cans, A further I line, Polypeel, a preparation for stripping wallpaper, is packed in 3-oz. bags, 72 of which are contained in a box. Polylink, a compound which can be used in place of lining paper, is packed in 1-1b. bags, 36 to a box.
At the ends of the production lines, the boxes are stacked on stillages and taken to the transit warehouse by Collis trucks. Some of the output may be loaded from the stillages straight into the company's vehicles, hut it is in the transit warehouse where most loads are prepared, partiallady the railway loads which have to be labelled ready for collection by the nine British Railways' collecting vehicles which call daily, and other consignments for British Road Services' vehicles.
Three-quarters of the mileage covered by the ancillary fleet is over regular routes to all parts of the country, and the remainder is represented by dispatches sent mit according to customers' orders. Four vehicles operate solely in the London area, and average 300 miles a week, .bompared with 800 miles a week by long-distance vans.
Fueltconsumption rates returned by the Albion; Bedford and Austin vans are as follow: 113-ton, 11-14 m.p.g.; 7-ton, 17-18 m.p.g.; 4-ton, 20-22 m.p.g.; 3-ton, 24-25 m.p.g.;,1-11-ton, 32 m.p.g. Operating costs of the fleet are worked out pEriodically, bnt individual vehicle costs are not rale alOed.
This will, however, shortly be done. So far the executives in charge of the Beet have been concentrating on operational aspects, coping with the distribution of increasing tonnages of goods and building up C-licence capacity. Maintenance is almost entirely contracted to vehicle makers' agents.