GWR Route: Banbury to Wolverhampton
Hockley Station: gwrhd2663
In 1934 the Great Western Railway issued a revised Railhead
Distribution Booklet which detailed the facilities available for large
commercial customers. The following extract from Guide to Economical
Transport describes this service:
Intimately linked with the Companys warehouse
facilities are the specialised railhead delivery services known as railhead
distribution schemes, which have been developed in recent years at the
principal centres of the Great Western Railway.
By means of express freight services giving early next
morning arrivals at Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, Birmingham and Exeter. Goods are
transported from the producers to the railheads, where they are immediately
sorted and delivered to customers throughout an area of 30 miles radius.
Fleets of express cartage vehicles are specially allocated to perform this
delivery of stocks direct to the shop, so that retailers in remote districts
are assured of next-day deliveries, and the maintenance by them of large stocks
is eliminated.
In addition to actual distribution the Company will arrange
for the collection and return of empties, the issue of credit notes, and the
maintenance of stocks.
The Senders secure the benefit of savings in packing and
carriage costs consequent upon the bulking of consignments to the railhead.
By arrangement a number of firms whose business
necessitates the full-time employment of cartage vehicles have had the Great
Western distributing vans painted in their own colours, with their trade names,
whilst the railway staff wear the firms liveries. Quite apart from its
advertising value, this arrangement conveys the impression to customers that
the delivery is being effected by the senders own motors.
Robert Ferris
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