Newcastle Needs
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Hauliers' Services
Important North-East Coast Toun Which, Says S.T.R., Offers Scope for Road Hauliers Almost Equivalent to that WhiCh is Available in London
riROM the point of view of roadrhaulage interests, Awcastle-upon Tyne has two aspects—its importante as an industrial centre and as a seaport. These, merged, offer yet a third, namely. the importance of the town as a distribution centre and its accessibility from various parts of the country.
Taking the general aspect first; the folloWing.figures are significant. There is, within 125 miles of the centre of the town, a population of 16,500,000, as compared with 16,000,000 within 100 miles of the centre of London. In other words, the need for transport, within the two areas named, is approximately the same.
After the industries mentioned there follow roughly in order of importance these: the manufacture of lead products (including white and red lead paints), of chemicals, cement, paint and colours, and plywood. There is oil blending and the milling of flour and provender, also the manufacture of soap, toffee, leather goods and structural. woodwork. Quite recently, arising from the widespread endeavour to bring fresh life and industry to the depressed areas, a new trading estate has been established at Team Valley, within two miles of Newcastle and just off the Great North Road. Successful efforts to introduce new industries into the area have been made on this estate. Most of the industries are of a light type, contrasting with those for which Newcastle, hitherto, has been most noted.
Typical examples of new trades already established on this new estate are the manufacture of potato crisps.
clothing, chemical products for the building industry, confectionery, laminated glass, machine tools, toys and domestic woodware, motor bodies, glass bottles, lampshades, electrical equipment, shop fittings and furniture. Development is still proceeding apace. and additions to the list are constantly being made.
So much for the industrial aspect of Newcastle, in its relation to the demand for road haulage. I can come, now, to its importance, in the same respect, as a seaport. The first commodity likely to come to the mind of . most hauliers, in thinking of Newcastle as a seaport,
is fish. But that commodity, as the accompanying schedule of a typical month's traffic through the Tyne ports shows, is but one of many. Every one of those named must be carried from the port to various destinations throughout the country. Haulage is needed and the roadtransport industry gets its share.
The total tonnage per month is in excess of 210,000, of which more than 180,000 tons are imported and more than 30,000 are exported. The proportion of each which is carried by .road varies, naturally, according to the traffic. As an example, fish may be taken. It was disclosed during the hearing of the famous fish case at. Newcaltle, that the prouortion of the imported fish conveyed to London by road was from 40 to 60 per cent, of the total.
Those loads which are largely carried by road include machinery, paint, rope, zinc oxide, glass and copper rods, fruit (both wet and dry), confectionery, plywood, lard, hams and bacon, oil, chemicals, twine, eggs and poultry. They are sent, amongst other places, principally to the Humber ports, and to York, Leeds, Bradford, Selby, Pontefracr, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Leith, Manchester, Liverpool. Carlisle, Barrow, and, of course, London.
The prevailing districts to which the traffic goes are as follow:—Iron and steel to Lancashire; pig iron, mining timber, sawn timber, heavy chemicals, 'ire, imported provisions and general goods to south-west Yorkshire, to the Midlands the same as to south-west Yorkshire, except imported provisions; iron and steel, heavy chemicals, manures, paper, glassware and general goods to London and the south; iron and steel, lime, manures, heavy chemicals and general goods to Scotland; iron and steel,' pig iron, heavy chemicals and general goods to Wales; manures, ore slag. salt, iron and steel and general goods to Lincolnshire; and timber, oil, manures and heavy • chemicals to Cumberland.
The foregoing information is of importance and interest to hauliers coming into Newcastle ff-om those destinations and wishing to know what are the best possibilities of obtaining loads with which they can efficiently deal on their journeys back to their headquarters. So far as another aspect of this subject is concerned, namely, the accessibility of Newcastle by road, the following brief schedule of mileages from Newcastle to various centres of industry may be helpful:—To Aberdeen, 232; Birmingham, 198; Bristol, 282; Cardiff, 304; Derby, 165; Dover, 345; Edinburgh, 120; Exeter, 350; Glasgow, 152; Leeds, 86; Lincoln, 144; Liverpool, 152; London, 273; Manchester, 140; Sheffield, 116; Southampton, 298; York, 80.