South Yorkshire Times Friday 10 February, 1933
Carting Charges Reduced
The annual meeting of the Denaby and Cadeby Rome Coal Carting Committee was held on Sunday in the Denaby Welfare Institute. Mr. Tom Hill presiding.
The balance sheet submitted by Mr. George Smith showed a profit of £512. The collections from the employees of the collieries served by the committee totalled £1,537. The major items of expenditure were: Wages £2107, petrol and oil £486. repairs £2.40, licences £171, and insurance £77.
At last year’s annual meeting reductions in the delivery charges of threepence for those living in Denaby and sixpence outside were made. The men’s contributions for that year were £4924.
Mr Tom Hill said that in 1930 the committee delivered 33,819 loads of coal, in 1931 they delivered 29,174, and last year 32,812. The average cost of carting was 2s. 9d. a load, There are 3,914 employees at the collieries served by the committee and the lorries travelled a distance of more than 100,000 miles. The men live as far apart as Thorne, Sheffield and Holmfirth.
Mr. Hill said the committee remodelled the adoption of a scale of graduated reductions in the charge for delivery, a reduction of 3d. for those at present paying 2s. 3d. to 3s. 3d. (1,234) people); for those paying 3s 6d. to 4s 6d., a reduction of 6d. (550 people); those paying 7s. Pd. to 8s 9d., a reduction of 1s. 9d.; and all over that figure reduction down to 10s.
The loss in income to the committee would’ be £475, on the basis of last year’s working.
The recommendations were approved.
Mr. Tom Hill explained the advantages of the two new diesel-engined lorries which the committee have just purchased for £1,500. They had been subjected to a severe test, on the road from the tip to Conanby. The lorries ran much further per gallon of fuel than petrol lorries, and the cost of the crude oil was 4d. a gallon against the price of 1s. 3d. for petrol in bulk.
They had purchased sufficient crude oil to last them two years. They had bought a large quantity in case the Chancellor of the Exchequer put a tax on. They were saving 19s. a day for 52 weeks using the new lorries, in fuel costs alone. By keeping abreast of modern methods of transport and mechanical improvements the committee had reduced the charges to the men considerably. In 1928 the men contributed £6,600. and last year about the same number of men had contributed £4,500.
A vote of thanks to officials and committee was carried.