ACC:
TIDDERSON:
BRS was mentioned earlier, and I have a black and white photo of one of their vans taken in London 1973… could it be the same make (Leyland?) as the blue van from N.Francis & Co. Ltd. of Dalston, S London? Another question is which year they were made, they looks a bit old in the early seventies.[The Austin VA van was designed by BRS engineers and Star Bodies who made them. They came out in about 1958 as Austins with an Austin “wing” on top of the bonnet. They were built till 1976 changing to BMC and then Leyland badges. At one time BRS had about 2,700 mainly at Parcels depots but a few worked on general haulage replacing the old Austin WE seris Regards Peter
Hi all,
I am new to this forum, but I had googled N Francis Parcels and found this.
I drove for this company in the 1970’s up until they acquired Tartan Arrow and moved to Kentish Town.
They only had the one depot in London based at No. 5 Parkholme Road, Dalston E8. The fleet then consisted of 1 Transit swb van, Thames Traders, Leyland FG’s and of course the famous Noddy Vans with Zetters Pools advertised on the sides. The N Francis fleet of Noddy Vans ranged from H to K registrations 1970 to 72. They were all badged as BMC and had 4 speed gearboxes with a crash on 1st, which was never used. All the Traders were 1968 F regs,
They all seemed to have a maximum speed of 45 - 50 mph regardless of whether they were loaded or empty.
The parcel business in that era was a bit cut throat, with lots of companies out there chasing work. N Francis came under the same umbrella as BRS which was the NFC (National Freight Corporation) when transport was still nationalised. I remember NCL, Plaxtons, Pickford, and a company from Aylesford called SE Thomas which got swallowed up by United Carriers.
Alan
This is an interesting thread. I started a Facebook page for United Carriers which has been infiltrated by depot and area managers, it makes for interesting reading about some of the buyouts and takeovers