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Staging-post system for beer deliveries
Page 20
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• A delivery system has been introduced by Whitbreads in the Southend area, which, it is claimed, will give still better service to customers.
Known as the staging-post system—it takes the name from the old-time stage coach—it will operate initially between the company's Manor Park depot and customers in the Southend district.
It consists of a specially adapted combination of a lorry and trailer, which travels to Southend as one vehicle for the transfer of goods and there splits into two customer delivery vehicles. The trailer is simply unhitched from the lorry and transferred to a tractor.
The combination consists of a 74 ton payload rigid Bedford truck, which pulls a 74 ton payload articulated York trailer. When the combination splits the trailer is pulled by a Bedford KGA tractor. The old system required a depot and two locally based delivery vehicles, but the new system does not need a local depot and delivery vehicles—thereby cutting out the second handling that occurs when transferring loads to the local depot for distribution to customers.
From the customer's point of view, it means that he can select from a wider range of stock than before, and can phone his orders to one central point at which all stock is held. Under the new system, there will be a telephone sales girl based at Manor Park, who will phone customers on a regular rota basis at a pre-arranged time and date. Advantages claimed for the system include higher vehicle utilization and lower stockholding. Whitbreads have been testing the system in the North of England for some months. Its success there encouraged them to introduce it in the South.