Contract A to A

25th September 1964, Page 98

25th September 1964

Page 98

Page 98, 25th September 1964 — Contract A to A

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Switch for Seven MACBRAYNE GET A N application oy Thomas Bros.

(Thornham) Ltd. heard at Manchester last week before the North Western Licensing Authority, Maj.-Gen. A. F. J. Elmslie, for a new A licence in respect of seven tippers was granted in full.

Mr. Edward Jones, representing Thomas Bros., said that the vehicles were, with others, licensed and operated by John MacGregor Industries (Oldham) Ltd. This company had entered a programme of rapid expansion and at about the middle of last. year started purchasing the most up-to-date and valuable equipment possible. Financial assistance was " poured " into the company and, in order to carry out all the work, contract arrangements were made with customers and Contract A licences were issued. But two contracts did not materialize as was hoped. This, apparently, said Mr. Jones started the slide and the vehicles purchased were re-possessed.

The commitments which the company had entered into were now far too large for the remaining contracts to cope with and a receiver was appointed to manage the company's affairs, went on Mr. Jones. The remaining vehicles were owned by Thomas Bros., who had hired them out to MacGregor's. It was then decided to sell off the vehicles and Williams Bros. (Queensferry) Ltd., from whom the present application stemmed, were contacted and a purchase price was agreed. It was only then that the customers, mainly solid fuel factors, learned of MacGregor's predicament and requests were made for the vehicles to be retained and allowed to undertake work they were already doing. Some of these customers were also large clients of the Williams Group and it would have had embarrassing repercussions to have removed the vehicle's altogether.

Investigations revealed that a large number of the vehicles were completely inflexible on Contract A licences and could have been operated far more economically on an open licence, said Mr. Jones. Since then Williams Bros. had taken control and their directors had been placed on the board of Thomas Bros. (Thomham) Ltd.

Mr. E. L. Williams, group traffic manager for Williams Bros.. said that if the licence were granted solid fuels would be the main traffic carried. Asked by the Licensing Authority what he meant by " ", Mr. Williams replied "90 per cent ". Work would be carried out mainly for Rea Ltd., Geo. Moxon and Sons Ltd., the National Coal Board and C.W.S. Ltd., all previous customers of MacGregor's. The normal user applied for was "mainly solid fuels, Midlands, Yorkshire and Lancashire". Williams Bros. operated more than 100 vehicles within the group, centred in Lancashire.