AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

STORAGE ids Service t FARMERS

6th January 1956, Page 63
6th January 1956
Page 63
Page 63, 6th January 1956 — STORAGE ids Service t FARMERS
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

With a Century-old Tradition, Norfolk' Haulage Co. Cover. .Whole of Norfolk and Suffolk with 90 Vehicles

‘‘ . HEN there's something that particularly needs

doing, ,I just can't get rid of my staff at the normal knocking-off time," is the way in which Mr. C. L. Holmes, a director of the Norfolk Haulage Co., Ltd., Trowse, near Norfolk, describes the attitude of his office workers to their job.

In agricultural haulage, clocknatching and an arbitrary view of their responsibilities on the part of the staff would be disastrous to efficiency, and Mr. Holmes' emphasis on "the loyalty and conscientiousness that permeate the organization" is indicative of his valuation of team spirit.

This applies equally to the drivers, rnany of whom have had long service with the company. Each can give the customer the personal and knowledgeable attention which is so essential to a service dealing with agricultural produce and materials.

The whole of Norfolk and Suffolk is covered by the 90 vehicles in the fleet, and the large number of farms visited reqpires the drivers to have an intimate knowledge of the districts, and of the many different types of traffic and the farm workers' activities.

Norfolk Haulage dates back to the middle of the last century, when Spruce's Transport, Ltd., was formed to operate horse-drawn vehicles and Norfolk wherries. •W. Spruce and Son, Ltd. founded founded later by the family, is now one of the Norfolk Haulage subsidiary companies.

Businesses Taken Over

A number of other concerns in the two counties was also acquired some years before the nationalization of long-distance road transport. The object of this was partly to maintain a service unimpaired by restrictive legislation. Centres include the main depot in Trowse, and four others in Thetford, Mileham, FIockwold and Harleston.

The large acreage of sugar beet in the area, grown under contract to the British Sugar Corporation, Ltd., provides the main traffic, the beet being collected from the farms and delivered to factories at Cantley, Bury St. Edmunds, Wissington, King's Lynn and Ely. The sugar beet pulp produced at the factories is returned to the farms either in wet or dry form., Grain is another important crop which is carried in large quantities, and which requires careful handling. The use of corn bine harvesters in the district intensifies the corn-haulage problem, because the corn must be removed from the fields immediately. Formerly it became available progressively over the months after threshing.

Only drivers with long experience of grain haulage are employed on this traffic, which represents a policy that is applied to all types of produce. There is no need for a farmer to .ask for an individual driver to be assured of good service; a driver sent on a job is always fully conversant wjth the traffic. • A complete list of instruetiOns, giving technical and general information, is issued to the drivers, who are expected to have sufficientt-rnechanical knowledge to report -defects. They are not, however, required to assist with the maintenance of the vchidle.

Straw, root crops. and flax are handled in the season, and -materials delivered to the . farms include fertilizers, seeds and manure, The carriage of flax presents an individual problem, in that it is slippery and requires expert loading.

The mixed fleet comprises vehicles with carrying capacities ranging from 3 tons to 12 tons, so that the most suitable size of vehicle is normally available

for evei'y job. The smaller vehicles include Bedfords and Dodges, the 12-tormers being Internationals.

A number of these was purchased during the war and, with many years of excellent service behind them—and a large stock of spares in hand—it was decided to continue their use indefinitely. A few have had their Lycoming petrol engines replaced by Gardner 5LW oil engines in the workshops.

Conversion to Oil

Conversion presented many difficulties, and required extensive modifications to chassis details, but it has proved worthwhile. The power developed by the Gardner engine is more than adequate for all types of operation, including rough going on farm roads, and the gain in fuel economy has proved valuable. On the average, the oilers cover double the mileage that the petrol-engined vehicles achieved on one gallon of fuel.

Apart from crankshaft grinding and cylinder boring, all overhauls and reconditioning are undertaken in the fully equipped workshops. Wood bodies are built on the premises to conform with a standard of construction rarely obtainable from bodybuilders.

So mixed are the duties of the vehicles (on some runs it is estimated that the wear-and-tear rate is three times that on the better runs) that an overhaul schedule 'based on either time or mileage would not be workable. The vehicles are servieed every three weeks at the central depot,. and at the same time, components are ex'amined for wear and damage.

the of the nine mechanics then tests the lorry on the road, and issues a report with recounnendations regarding its condition and potential life before a major overhaul will be required. Special attention is -paid to tyros, which are regularly inspected by a ,mechanic trained for the job.

In addition to the vehicles employed on normal agricultural traffic, a smalls' service is operated. This was inaugurated in September, last year, after the purchase of a number of lorries with speCial A 'licences. This enables farmers to obtain delivery of urgently needed consignments,at short notice. Deliveries to the larger ,centres are organized on a24-hour basis, and can be made to out-of'the-way farms within 48 hours or less. Included O in the goods regularly carried by the vehicles are lubricants, wire rope, seeds, disinfectants and

cleaning compounds, and unusual consignments such as sacks of feathers and grape stones. A piece of equipment that was recently urgently

needed to foster the well-being of newly born piglets was an infra-red lamp. An important feature of the company's facilities, in connection with both the agricultural and smalls service, , is the -availability at a ,number of premises of storage space with a total capacity of several thousand tons.

Grain Storage

Grain can be stored, if required, and reserve stocks of fertilizer are -maintained for distribution in the spring. Several kinds of product used by farmers are also stored for the manufacturers.

In addition to a large store in Rackheath, there are three small stores in Trowse and one in Norwich. Goods leaving the stores are loaded on the vehicles overnight ready for an early morning start. The availability of ample storage space, and a carefully regulated loading procedure, are essential features of the service.

A lime-sludge excavation and spreading service, claimed to be the only one of its kind in the country, is provided under contract to the Cantley factory of the British Sugar Corporation by W. Spruce and Son.

The sludge is a by-product of sugar manufacture, and is discharged into large pits after the lime has been utilized as a chemical agent. Temporary roadways are built on the pits after the sludge has dried sufficiently to allow excavators to dig out the lime for loading on road vehicles, and the material is then taken to farms within a radius of 25 miles for spreading.

Compared with lime, this material is moisture-logged and heavy, and spreading presents extremely arduous work for the machines employed. All of these have been rebuilt to give them the necessary mechanical strength. P.A.C.B.

Tags

Locations: Norwich

comments powered by Disqus