Page 65 - It's a Rum Life Book 3 "Ivy House Tales 1970 to 1984"

In the early 1970's, packaging was a relatively new industry and very specialized. New
products perhaps could not justify huge expense on in house packaging machinery so the
raw material went to be packed. That is where we came in.
The potato powder had to go to Stockport just outside Manchester.

The route I took was my decision, the powder just had to be there at a certain time on a
certain day, the vital thing was that it had to kept dry!
Box lorries were still a relative rarity and only used mainly by companies with their own
transport. (In a later tale, we explain about cauliflowers and indeed all other fresh veg.
were still being carried long distances on open vehicles.)

The ‘Wonderbun’ came at just the right time, in fact I had to order ‘her’! Just as soon as I
was told by SWEL that they would have this need for a box lorry for several months, the
first folks I thought of were Glentons of Grimsby!

“FJK 140” was its manufacturers model number, an Austin 12.5 ton commercial, with huge
24 feet long box body with fibreglass roof and steel floor inside.

The hydraulic tail lift meant I could use a hand operated pallet truck to unload the cargo
loaded on individual pallets.

Likewise, once the pallets were
put onto the back on the lorry I
could simply wheel them down
into the body.

A system popular today 40
years or so later!

We were developing something
totally new, quite by chance
and necessity!

Picture of tail lift lorry with
driver using a pallet truck!

The second-hand pallet truck came from my
neighbours, Rundles of course, where they were
beginning to buy and sell more and more second-hand
machinery to supplement their traditional agricultural
engineering business.

I did not have time to paint the lorry, she had some
MOT test time left so road tax was no problem, I just
painted out the ‘Wonderloaf’ emblem.

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