Irish fleet The Belfast warehouse and office have only been
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in operation a few months but already are running a profitable operation with a monthly turnover in the region of £10,000 and are operating as a separate, self-supporting company, Sayer and Co. (Northern Ireland) Ltd. The company has its own fleet of 10 vehicles ranging from 5cwt vans to Ford D800 models with both van and truck bodies.
Sayer uses mainly the Heysham/Belfast Sealink crossing which leaves Heysham at 11.30 nightly, arriving in Belfast at 7 am. Its only drawback is the lack of provision for commercial vehicles. Only two can be carried on any crossing so Sayer has a permanent booking for one vehicle nightly. Any additional vehicles put on owing to the traffic flow use the Transport Ferry Service crossing from Preston to Lame, but as this sailing is regulated by the tide the service which Sayer is then able to offer when using this is not quite so good. In fact, 'vehicles have to be loaded the night before and must reach Preston for the noon sailing making delivery to Belfast by 10 am the next day.
So well has the Belfast service been received that a similar operation is being built up for Dublin traffic. This will use the Belfast route and be transferred by road to Dublin via an agent on the border at Newry. Details of Dublin traffic are telexed to the agent when the load leaves London so that when the goods arrive at the border at about the middle of the following day clearance will have already been obtained and the vehicle will not be delayed.
Ian Sayer's first principle in running his business is not only to be polite, but to go to, almost any lengths to help rather than reject difficult projects without prior consideration. This approach appears to have paid handsome dividends. He also told me that as a safeguard against economic or trade reces