Rapid Progress of a Southern Haulage Concern
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ARECORD of rapid expansion under single-handed direction is the enviable distinction enjoyed by MacCarriers, Ltd., the head offices of which are at Winton, Bournemouth. The founder of the business Mr. A. E. MacKeen, started eight years ago with a motorcycle and sidecar, first delivering newspapers on a nightly round of 98 miles, and then carrying photographic films between Southampton and Bournemouth.
After that he hired a Ford van and undertook grocery deliveries, building up a reputation for regular services whether the loads he carried warranted making the journeys or not. A reward came in the form of a contract from a well-known confectionery maker to carry cakes, etc., nightly from Southampton to Bournemouth and regularly to London, by two different routes.
Later, Mr. MacKeen began a thriceweekly service between London and Southampton which, two years ago, was extended to Lyraington, Brockenhurst, Blandford, Dorchester and Weymouth, and traders in these towns are now guaranteed a daily service from the metropolitan area. Five small feeder vans POW cover the London district collecting goods for trans-shipment to the large-capacity lorries at the depot at 65, Ewer Street, I3lackfriars, S.E., which was opened durino•' 1930.
During the past 12 months Mr. MacKeen has discarded most of his older vehicles and replaced them with new goods carriers, including two A.E.C. Mammoth heavy-duty models, and a Mammoth Major six-wheeler. The two first-mentioned A.E.C.s are now making six trips a week to London and although between them they have covered 83,000 miles they have not, we are told, yet been off the road for repairs.
The present fleet, including the small feeder vans, numbers 24 vehicles—a remarkable total when one recalls that eight years ago Mr. MacKeen began his business with only a motorcycle and sidecar. The total daily capacity of the fleet, on the basis of the services which are regularly operated by the concern, is 227 tons.
The daily services run by MacCarriers, Ltd., which was made into a private limited company six months ago, are as follow :—London-Southampton ; London Weymouth -Dorchester, via Bournemouth ; Southampton Bournemouth ; Southampton-Weymouth-Dorchester. ; London-Dorchester, via Blandford ; Southampton Weymouth, via Lymington and Wareham.