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Giving the Farmer What He Wants
Page 112
Page 117
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By C. S. Dunbar, M.Inst.T.
WORCESTERSHIRE FARMERS, LTD., exists primarily to supply its .members with all their business needs as cheaply and conveniently as possible. The company aptly describes its organization as "the Farmer in business." In 10 years its membership has grown From 768 to 3,025, and its annual turnover is about £3m. It is particularly solicitous to help the farmer or smallholder who has to buy in small quantities, and the latest additions to the fleet are indicative of this.
For some years the company has had retail shops at Worcester, Tenbury Wells and Upton-on-Severn where all sorts of farm requisites can be bought. Now it is going to try the experiment of taking the shop to the farmer. Two Karrier Bantams have been bought, each fitted with a Smith mobile-shop body built to the special requirements of the company. Customers enter at the nearside rear of the vehicle and find a great variety bf goods displayed in 55 trays or wire baskets of uniform size, which are stacked in racks on each side of a central alley. The racking is designed so that varying space can be allowed vertically between the trays or baskets. There is a separate display case for veterinary medicines.
The shop side, however, is a very small part of the company's activities. Its biggest job is the purchase of grain, produce, eggs, fruit and vegetables from members and the supply of fertilizers and feeding stuffs to them. The business is organized into three sections. The agricultural department deals with the purchase and sale of feeding stuffs, fertilizers and fuel and the running of shops. The other two sections are the fruit, vegetable and eggs department and the machinery department.
County Mills, Worcester, overlooking the bus station and close to the quay, is the headquarters of the organization: here grain is taken in and processed to produce a great variety of feeds. Over 750 tons a week are put through. The bulk raw material can be taken in through a trapdoor in the roadway at one side of the building, or in sacks at three other points.
A good proportion of the inward material is fetched from Avonmouth or Sharpness, and for the daily runs to these places the transport department usually uses an eightwheeled Foden with a 6-ton trailer and a Leyland Beaver with a Bonallack-bodied semi-trailer, incorporating a builtin hopper with rotary seal.
Avonmouth is about as far as the company's vehicles actually go, as Worcestershire Farmers' policy is to use hauliers wherever possible for distances in excess of 50 miles. This is a sound arrangement which has distinct advantages both for the company and for the hauliers. One contractor, for example, who regularly carries loads back from King's Lynn for Worcestershire Farmers has been able to obtain regular work outwards to that neighbourhood. By this means the traffic is carried at a lower rate than the company could handle it on its own vehicles, . remembering that these would almost certainly have to travel empty outwards from Worcester, a's they are on a C licence.
In the delivery of fertilizers and feeding-stuffs, the company's own vehicles are used for the most part except in the peak periods. For these vehicles, the policy is increasingly towards articulation. Direct deliveries are not normally made from County Mills unless the order is very large. The usual arrangement is to stock up depots at Perdiswell (in the suburbs of Worcester), Kidderminster, Tenbury Wells and Defford, near Pershore. Defford in turn supplies depots at
Upton-on-Severn and also at Evesham.
For this sort of work, the three Leyland Super Comet artics. are just the thing. The platform bodies on the semi-trailers hold eight pallets and on each pallet 41 sacks, each weighing I-cwt., are loaded. At County Mills loaded sacks, which have been mechanically filled and weighed, reach the deck by chutes and gravity containers which bring them close to the vehicles for manual loading onto the pallets. At the depots fork-lift trucks are used for unloading and stacking. For final delivery to farms and also for collection from farms, four-wheeled vehicles are employed, usually of sixor seven-ton capacity fitted with sackloaders, but also including some threeand four-tonners.
An important part of the company's service to members is the supplying of over a million gallons of fuel oil a year. For this, three tankers are employed and another of 1,800 gallons is on order. Farmers can also buy their machinery through the company. A low-loader semi-trailer is available to haul such equipment from the machinery department's depot which is next door to the transport repair shops at Henwick, just over a mile from County Mills.
At the opposite end of the scale to the artics., and the Foden and trailer already mentioned are seven 7and 10cwt. vans, so that in fitting the vehicle to the job Worcestershire Farmers cover a wide range. The main fleet, which
is controlled by Mr. P. A. Shaddock, transport manager. numbers 49 prime movers, plus one four-wheeled and eight semi-trailers, a Land-Rover and 30 cars. All repair work on these (except the maintenance of fuel pumps) is done at Henwick, and this depot also maintains the separate fleet of 17 Austin and Ford 2/3 tonners which are run by the produce section. The repair staff consists of a foreman, five mechanics and two youths.
Of the 17 produce vehicles, 10 are on egg collection and delivery and the rest on fruit and vegetables. Some of these have B licences, as they handle fruit which the company sells on commission for its members at the Worcester and Evesham markets. There is also a daily collection of imported fruit from Birmingham market.