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Fresh fruit deliveries
Page 81
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lUEHICLE tail-lifts provide obvious time saving opportunities and their use has increased markedly of late. The usefulness in the delivery of cartoned foodstuffs to supermarkets and other outlets is well accepted; that the same delivery technique is possible in the greengrocery trade needed to be demonstrated.
G. M. Gerrards (Fruiterers) Ltd., of Southall, from their transport depot at Park Royal have pioneered in many mechanical handling techniques; for example, they have successfully palletized flowers and house plants. The company, through Mr. W. Coulter, their transport manager, is now engaged on proving trials with a batch of 11 USI tail-lifts in conjunction with Unitainers„ made by Horville-McKinnon Ltd., 114 Station Road, Sidcup, Kent.
Gerrards, and two subsidiary companies, operate a chain of 141 fruit shops in London and the Home Counties. Basic to Gerrards' trading policy is the daily delivery of fresh produce to their shops. Depending on seasonal variations, from 40 to 150 packages a day must be delivered to each shop, demands being particularly heavy On Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Previously, shop deliveries took on average about 45 min. per shop. With the USI-Unitainer system, deliveries are taking from 4 to 10 mm. "This system seems to have 'rung the bell'" Mr. Coulter told me. "The drivers are thrilled, for their work is greatly eased, and our whole operations have been speeded up."
I asked what effect this innovation was likely to have on the fleet strength. "Our costing and operational evaluation is incomplete", Mr. Coulter replied, "but it seems probable that our present 57-vehicle fleet could be quite substantially reduced in number."