Newsflow on the road
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• This week the National Freight Consortium's youngest distribution company, Newsflow, took to the road delivering Robert Maxwell's new 29-hour newspaper, the London Daily News.
NFC chairman Sir Peter Thompson describes the Newsflow operation as one of the consortium's largest contracts.
The new company will be responsible for the distribution of no less than five editions of the new newspaper each day. Around 245 vehicles will together carry 700,000 papers to 6,300 outlets every 24 hours.
Doug Cartin, managing director of Newsflow, says the fleet will make around 15,000 drops each day, with most vehicles doing double shifts. Newsflow is an operating subsidiary of National Carriers Contract Services.
More than 430 drivers have been recruited by Newsflow to work the unusual shifts associated with newspaper distribution. Cartin says some of his vehicles will be on the road with different drivers from 2am to 6.30pm.
Distribution will vary according to the time of day. The early morning 'Gold Top' edi
tion will be distributed with trunking vehicles and local deliveries, but later editions will be delivered straight to the newsagents from the printers.
Newsflow's bright red and yellow fleet of vans, worth around £2.5 million, is all British-made. Cartin says: "If the equipment is available with the technical capability, we believe we should put British vehicles on the road. Freight Rover and Austin Rover were prepared to deliver in the time scale we required — something the other manufacturers were not prepared to do."
There are 178 high-roof Sherpa 350s in the Newsflow fleet. They are fitted with sliding drivers' doors and sliding nearside doors for easy loading. Cartin has specified the high-roof version to allow drivers to stand upright within the vehicle when loading and unloading.
A further 45 high-roof Sherpa 250 vans and 22 Maestro 500 vans, all powered by Perkins' new direct-injection diesel engine, make up the rest of the fleet. These smal
ler vehicles will be used in the centre of London, where their manoeuvrability will be put to the best use.
Sir Peter Thompson denies any immediate plans to extend his company's newspaper distribution work: "In the next few months we will solely be interested in getting Newsflow started in London," he says. "If in the fullness of time Fleet Street sees distribution with Newsflow as desirable, then we shall see."
Contrary to earlier reports, Newsflow is not jointly owned by the NFC and Robert Maxwell. Maxwell holds no shares in the company at present and denies any plans to use Newsflow to distribute his other papers in the London region.
Maxwell expects his new paper to reach 20% more news outlets than the rival Evening Standard, and says: "As the world's fastest expanding media group we have teamed up with the most efficient distribution group in the United Kingdom."
OThe NFC's entry into the newspaper distribution business follows TNT's eventful experience distributing Rupert Murdoch's News International titles.