Page 120 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

down.
Nothing for unloading or keeping necessary exacting records.
We were simply paid so much for every tyre we delivered. Not much for small ones, more
for truck tyres.
Consequently we worked hard to earn a reputation for regular and reliable deliveries. At
the same time as I was responsible for stock ordering and stock levels, within reason, we
always had what clients needed.

Phew! This section is beginning to look more like a book. I found it a fascinating time in my
life and something I could really get my teeth into.
Those of you who may find it a bit tedious can skip to the next section!

UNIROYAL CONTINUED
The initial area we covered was from the Humber estuary in the north to central Norfolk
and north Cambridgeshire.
The boundary on the west was basically the A1 major road. This gave us a good area to
service but needed careful journey control to provide best delivery service at economic
cost to ourselves.
Our original and existing collection service for complaint commercial tyres gave us a “back
load” although as time went by there was obvious conflict with Uniroyal in that the
complaint tyres were largely dirty and messy and the new tyres needed delivering in
pristine condition.

“EYE IN THE SKY”
We were “looked over” by a lanky but weedy, smarmy, youngish white haired chap who
drifted down from his position as Manager of the Uniroyal “own” distribution depot in
Leeds.
Basically we had more knowledge of tyre wholesale distribution than he had and he felt it
his sole responsibility to try and catch us out with any infringement of our Uniroyal
agreement.
He loathed the fact that we could order our own stock. There
were other stocking points within his “command”, one in
Spennymore, County Durham and another in Lancashire.
Both of these had to obtain permission before actual stock
could be ordered each week. This did not apply to us.
Being autonomous was one of the prime negotiating points
emphasised by both myself and Harry Thorne.
A large part of the “Leeds” original area had been given to
us when we were appointed and this “our supervisor” always
resented.
He also loathed the fact that we had autonomy in carrying
other makes of new tyre. Uniroyal did not pay our whole
wage bill and they were explicit that we should never rely on
them entirely.
Consequently we were always looking for other
wholesale tyre importers to fill our vehicles on all our
complaint tyre collect journeys throughout the UK.
In fact we dealt with companies who imported tyres from all over the world.

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