No Resting on Laurels
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•
for the Dale Family
by C. S. Dunbar,
M. Inst. T.
How a North Staffs Company, Started with One Lorry in 1926, Have Overcome Wartime
and Later Difficulties
BEFORE the war, when one of the London depots of Red Arrow Deliveries, Ltd., was in Malt Street, Old Kent Road, Mr. A. J. Dale was manager of the London depot of Longton Transport, Ltd., which was in the same street. T was connected with Red Arrow and many of our London customers used to give us traffic for North Staffs with their smalls for the rest of the Midlands. To save delay in transhipping them in Birmingham we used to give them to Longton to carry direct from London. This arrangement lasted from 1934 until Hitler disrupted it in 19411
The Longton business was founded by Mr. A. G. Dale, who died in 1952. He was originally a colliery agent and coal factor, but in 1926, in order to help a relative, he bought a Karrier lorry which took on any job the driver could get.
Mr. Dale's own business was adversely affected by the tendency of the collieries to market their own products and, deciding that he must try another career, he persuaded a few friends to help him found a transport company. This was Longton Transport, Ltd., registered in February, 1928, with a nominal capital of £3,500, of which £1,600 was paid up.
The company bought a disused and derelict ex-Midland Railway goods shed in Church Street, Longton, and started a daily service to London. The Karrier referred to was soon replaced by a Saurer and trailer, which, with a Morris 1-tormer, formed the whole fleet.
Owner-drivers' Share
In the first year or two, expansion was mainly by sub-contracting to owner-drivers and this enabled traffic to be accepted for all parts of the country. At first it seemed that the enforcement of Section 19 of the 1930 Act would hinder the company's development, as most owner-drivers found it impossible to make a living out of long-distance work at the rates then prevailing if they had to keep an eye on the clock all the time.
A way out was found by offering to buy the sub-contractors' vehicles and to give the vendors shares and a job in the company. Fourteen, owning between them 18 vehicles, accepted and some now hold shares.
As a further aid to the observance of legal schedules, a London depot was opened in April, 1932, and after a temporary sojourn in St. James' Road, Rotherhithe, the company moved into the Malt Street premises in October of the same year. This was a great step forward, because it enabled control to be exercised over the relief drivers, made the organization of collection and delivery vehicles possible, and greatly assisted in obtaining return loads.
The company's position in the London area was further strengthened by the purchase in 1938 of the business known as Vigurs and Roberts at Romford. Also in 1932, Mr. P. 1. W. Pemberton joined the board on the absorption of his business, which owned a Thornycroft and five Beans. Mr. Pemberton died at an early age in 1948.
• By the purchase in 1933 of the vehicles run by Messrs. Evans of Barthomley, near Crewe, Longton became interested in milk collection over a large area of Cheshire.
The Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, with its limitation of unladen weight and the ensuing difficulty in securing any increase, caused the company to try all possible means for improving the efficiency of their fleet—for example, by more intensive operation and the use of newer vehicles giving a greater carrying capacity without an increase in unladen weight. Their success can be gauged by the fact that earnings per ton of unladen weight rose from £316 a year in 1934-35 to £362 in 1937-38.
So that services could be built up to all the main industrial centres of England and Wales, relief drivers were engaged in several places as well as in London. These men were stationed at Gloucester to take over South Wales and Bristol-bound vehicles, Banbury for the South Coast, Darlington for the north-east coast and Huddersfield for Yorkshire.
In addition, mutual arrangements were made with other carriers so that quite small consignments could be delivered expeditiously to most parts.
Naturally, 75 per cent. of the traffic handled outwards from North Staffs was pottery, usually packed in crates. Where, however, there was a full lorry-load for one destination, other, of course, than the docks, it was common to pack loose direct on to the vehicle, which was fitted with special high racked sides.
The large crates and casks used in the pottery trade have always been a nuisance to carriers, particularly
the return of them, because of their enormous bulk in relation to their weight. Because of the uneven contours of the crates, in particular, they do not make for good stowing and a great step forward in recent years has been the adoption of steelmesh crates for export, which it is said, save about 10 per cent. of a given space in a ship's hold.
Mr. A. J. Dale told me that one good thing B.R.S. had done in the Potteries was to institute a central empties depot and clearing house on some extensive waste land in Stoke belonging to the railways.
In addition to pottery, sanitary ware, tyres and engineering products were carried outwards from the Potteries, whilst in the return loads from London fruit and vegetables and imported foodstuffs made up the bulk of the traffic.
Steamers Put on Road
At first, the war did not greatly burden the company's activities, but the gradual tightening-up of petrol rationing made some alteration to the long-distance services necessary. It was decided to buy six Super Sentinel steam wagons and two of these were put on to the London service in 1940. They ran for about 18 months despite great difficulties, the worst of which was finding suitable drivers. Then the fuel ration was increased and the steamers were withdrawn.
It would be interesting to know who ran the last steamer on trunk service in Great Britain. Producergas was not tried at Longton, but experiments were made with a by product of coal-tar, This, which necessitated the fitting of dual carburetters, gave good results, except in cold weather when the fuel pipes became blocked with crystal. one means or another, the Ion service was kept going all igh the war, although the dayrunning and the shortage of greatly redeiced the tonnage that I be handled.
great blow came one night in ber, 1940, when Malt Street was bed. I was in London that night, going over to Old Kent Road as as I could net morning found my own depot and Longton's sorry state and quite unusable. e were given temporary hospi, by Wiggs, the coach owners in ham Park Road, whilst Langton d a place at Watford, where carried on until 1942. They moved again to Hampstead but not there long before the formaof the Ministry of Transport's i Haulage Organization cornly changed the set-up.
May, 1943, Longton became a rolled undertaking with Mr. ard Dale as unit controller and, ich, had no need of a London t. The unit at the Potteries was ! up to about 130 vehicles and )nly handled the traditional probut aircraft and munition rials.
Strong Position
hen the R.H.O. was dissolved ugust, 1946, the company were strong position. They owned 39 :s and six trailers with a total
ring capacity of 283 tons. In they occupied, and the next bought, an ex-L.N.W.R. goods t next door to their original uses. The latter were sold to 3r Sales (Langton), Ltd., a subry which had been formed in to provide a public garage ce, to handle the Thornycroft cy and to build bodies.
hen the sub-contractors were
into Longton Transport in , the small fleet had 11 different Cs.; by 1939 these had been ced to three, and by the end of war the whole fleet was of .nycroft make.
e company's progressive outlook ell illustrated by two events of ost-war period. Mr. A. J. Dale, !turning from the Forces, won a rier Memorial Scholarship and a year at the London School :onomics, whilst on the practical an agreement was made for ing return traffic from London Liverpool.
nigton Transport, Ltd., joined Cadman and Ridge, Ltd., Harry ris (Tunstall), Ltd., and Ralph (Rugeley), Ltd., to form the ordshire Transport Co., and this tership (which was not a limited company) restored the old London depot in Malt Street and opened an office in the Liverpool Fruit Exchange.
Each member put in an equal amount of capital to start, -after which commission was charged according to the traffic handed out. Profits or losses were shared equally. The unusual feature of this arrangentent was, perhaps, its oneway nature, as the partners, not being connected financially at the Potteries end, remained in competition for the outward traffic.
Reopening of the London depot made possible the restoration of an efficient nightly service to London, and here again there was an interesting point about Longton operating methods. The seven vehicles normally required for the service in each direction ran as a convoy, all arriving at the farther terminal about 7 a.m. The last vehicle in the convoy was driven by a foreman-driver who could attend to any trouble which might occur en route.
The post-war fleet differed in one important particular from that of 1939—the introduction of articulated 10-tonners, which would in a few years have become the standard trunk vehicle had nationalization not come along.
The undertaking of Langton Transport, Ltd., was compulsorily acquired by the British Transport Commission in October, 1949, and formed the basis of the Langton group, but the company continued in existence as a legal entity.
B.R.S. Took Lease
The ex-L.N.W.R. goods depot already mentioned had been acquired by another subsidiary, Longton Storage and Warehousing, Ltd., which in turn had let the premises on a short-term lease to Longton TraNsport, Ltd. The directors of both Longton Storage and Langton Transport are Mr. D. H. Bates, Mr. E. G. Dale, Mr. G. Drake and Mr. A. J. Dale. This lease was taken over by British Road Services:
After the transfer, Longton was included in the Stoke district and Mr. A. J. Dale became district traffic superintendent. At the end of 1950, the Stoke district was merged with the Stafford district and other changes took place which Mr. Dale did not care for, so he resigned and devoted himself to the family interests.
Part of the cash received from the B.T.C. was used to buy the ninevehicle furniture-removing business of C. Knight and Sons, Ltd., which included a furniture depository with 20,000 sq. ft. of floor space. Other money went into James and Talton. Ltd., ironmongers and builders' mer chants. Both Motor Sales (under Mr. E. G. Dale) and Langton Storage (under Mr. Drake) were excluded from nationalization.
Great attention was given to the warehousing side, where in addition to the straightforward storage and delivery from stock of goods received already cased and bagged, bulk storage is undertaken and consignments are packed and bagged to customers' requirements. At Langton there is 650,000 cu. ft. of covered storage and at Weston-super-Mare 400,000 Cu. ft. (A local delivery service is not at present given from Weston.)
Two New Companies
When denationalization began, the family formed two new companies— Langton and North Staffs Transport, Ltd., and Dale and Drake, Ltd. The directors of both these companies are Mr. E. G. Dale, Mr. A. J. Dale and Mr. G. Drake, with Mr. D, H. Dale as secretary. The arrangement is that the Dale and Drake company are vehicle owners whilst Longton and North Staffs will not own any vehicles but operate partly as hirers from their associated company and partly as a clearing house. Dale and Drake were successful tenderers for 12 Thornycroft vehicles—a 15-tonner a 12-tanner, four articulated 10tanners and six 6-tonners.
Fortunately, the lease to B.R.S. of the ex-L.N.W.R. depot fell in conveniently and this, of course, greatly facilitated the restarting of the old business. The nightly trunk service to London is running again and so is the daily service to Liverpool. Much general haulage is being done as well as distribution from warehouse over a roughly triangular area which has its apex at Wilmslow and its base on a line from Oswestry through Shrewsbury to Lichfield.
It has not been possible to go back to the old London depot or to find suitable premises. The London end is being controlled from an office in Philpot Lane, but this isin unsatisfactory arrangement and the company are urgently seeking a proper depot.
Thg directors, as this story indicates, do not rest on their laurels. They want to go ahead and get their business back to its prenationalization footing. This cannot, in any case, be done overnight, as their capital is to some extent tied up in other, ventures, but they intend to pursue that aim. if the political situation allows.