Three Centuries of Road-transport Operation How the Pickford Concern Has
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Progressed Over 300 Years : Early Transport Recollections S0iVIE 300 years ago, when roads were few and hardly worthy of the name, a certain Thomas Pickford started a service Of pack-horses, which were used to transport loads to and
from different towns. Many of the loads were obtained at the fairs held in different parts of the country, which served for the exchange of goods on a large scale.
The pack-horses, carrying loads of about 700 lb in double panniers, were escorted by mounted men carrying blunderbusses, pistols and cutlasses, as protection against highwaymen and footpads. Often the escorts were in leaguewith the highwaymen, and allowed the pack-trains to be pillaged. Losses were considerable, and through this originated the present-day law of common carrier," making the carrier insurer of the goods he transports. Despite these setbacks business developed, and in a short time Pickford bad many " pack-trains " operating, particularly in the north.
With the gradual improvement of roads, vehicular traffic came into use, but as this was taxed, the price on the carriage of goods had to be increased. In 1675, Pickford had some wagons designed with wheel rims measuring 18 ins, in breadth, primarily to negotiate swampy ground. Broad wheels also meant paying less tax as they were Considered useful as heavy rollers to grind flint stones into pot-holes, In 1777, Matthew Pickford intro • duced his " Flying Waggons " for the conveyance of goods and passengers, the journey between Manchester and London occupying 4i. days. This service operated twice weekly, but in 1809 a daily service was instituted.
With the coming of the canals, and recognizing the ease with which goods could be carried, Pickfords introduced regular services of canal boats, and a system of canal-head distribution was arranged through wagons which met the boats at given points.
The advent of the railways was viewed by canal and road-transport concerns with considerable trepidation. Pickfords, however, welcomed the newcomers as a means for increasing the transport business as a whole, and in fact lent their clerks to the railway companies for the purpose of explaining the system of rates and accounting, and for introducing forms and returns.
In 1830 the firm proposed to the Liverpool and Manchester Railway that there should be a wagon " to have a movable body to be transferred to cartwheels at each end of the line." This was the forerunner of the rail-container system and was operated as part of the firm's collection and delivery service, forming the link between the depots in Manchester and London.
At the present time there are few • forms of transport in which the Pickford undertaking is not concerned. It has developed a removal and storage business, which is an off-shoot of its collection and delivery work, with branches all over the country. These branches also form part of the travelagency business of which the passengercarrying coaches were the ancestors.
The new depot at Willow Walk, used as a centre for collections and deliveries in the London area, and having similar, though. possibly smaller, facsimiles in the large provincial ,centres, handles -some 30,000 packages daily. It has ample room for loading simul
taneously 14$ motor vehicles. As a result goods traffic has been speeded up to such an extent that packages collected in Birmingham in the evening can be delivered in south roast towns before noon the next day.
It is the company's boast that if a load he capable of being carried, it can tackle it. Giant •propellers for liners, too large for conveyance by rail—as in the case of those for the " Queen Mary "—are delivered at the seaports. In early days one of the huge guns, now shown at the Tower of London, was transported to Constantinople by 700 men; in • recent years, with its modern machinery, only four of Pickfords men were required to handle it.