I BACK TO SPAIN. .. EMPTY
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by Carolyn Hyams
PP\ SCUAL HERMANOS SRC, of Valencia, has inaugurated a weekly road deilvery service between Spain and the UK for the delivery of out-of-season fruit and vegetables to its subsidiary, Pascual (Fruit Imports) Ltd., of Faversham, Kent.
Operating Spanish-built Pegaso vehicles with a carrying capacity of 12/13 tons net, it is bringing in six or seven 9-ton loads of beans every week. Based in Spain, the vehicles are fitted with Thermo King refrigeration equipment and the bodies were built by Gozalbo, of Valencia.
The journey from Valencia takes two days, two Spanish drivers operating each vehicle. Some vehicles are covered by TIR carnet but others have to go through Customs at Irun on the Spanish side of the border and at Hendaye on the French side. After driving north through France there are Customs formalities at Dunkirk 'where the vehicles board the ferry for Dover.
Mr. Luis Ferandez, the UK manager, told me that Customs clearance at Dover takes about one to two hours but since the goods are perishable the officials tend to take the occasional load at random for a complete examination. Mr. Ferandez said return loads were available—but import and export licence restrictions in Spain made them uneconomical. Normal turnround time at Faversham was two days although it had been accomplished in one day.
The service was still in the experimental stage, said Mr. Ferandez and the firm was still weighing up the potentialities of various vehicles and he had yet to consider British-built vehicles. It was possible, he told me, that because roads in France and England were better than in . Spain, special back axles might have to be fitted.
The road service was a little more expensive than normal refrigerated rail transport but was justified for selected luxury produce at certain times of the year.