Continuing Expansion Of Transport Business

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31661, 23 April 1968, Page 19

Continuing Expansion Of Transport Business

John Brightling, owner of hundreds of horses and carts and founder of one of Christchurch’s biggest transport companies, would hardly recognise his business today. As it celebrates its 101st birthday, Brightling’s Transport, Ltd, can marshall a fleet of 54 vehicles, including 40 trucks ranging from 15cwt to 26 tons, and has an authorised capital of $400,000. The company’s capital was increased from $70,000 a year ago to cope with expected expansion. Of its authorised capital, $98,000 is issued.

The opening of the new seaway terminal in .Chapman's Road, Heathcote, today marks the company’s biggest expansion move for some years. It follows the spending of $BO,OOO on new trucks, forklifts and trailers in the space of three months, between November and February. Although transport is the company’s main business, it also specialises in the installation of heavy machinery and boilers (as did John Brightling himself), and acts as storage and customs agents. During the war the company was agent for the Flood Controller and stored tea and coconut which could be issued to merchants only on the controller’s orders. Today it is the sole carrier of sugar in Christchurch for the New Zealand Sugar Company, transporting 15,000 tons into store each year and distributing it in retail packs and 701 b bags. The company also stores large quantities of printing paper, machinery and general goods. Fifteen years ago it became the first transport company in Christchurch to move bulk shipments from (

the Lyttelton wharf, carting bananas direct - from the ship to the market. When New Zealand Breweries, Ltd, moved to their Antigua Street premises, Brightling’s installed the plant, and the company has also moved practically every bakers’ oven in the city at one time or another. One of its most awkward installations was a 26-ton press for a stainless steel manufacturer. It stood more than 25ft high. Recently a Christchurchbuilt oven weighing 18 tons was carted from Bromley on a trailer for shipment on the Hawea to Auckland.

The company installed all the gas-fired boilers at Princess Margaret ■ Hospital, having to try and fit them into the basement after the hospital was built. Mr R. C. Higgott, the company's managing director, says that sort of problem is a common one. Customers buy garages without measuring tbe width of their drives, and the company's employees have 'o try to squeeze them on to the site. The company claims to have the best selection of specialised equipment in the city. For long loads of prefabricated steel it has designed special trucks with one-man narrow cabs, allowing the steel to run the full length of the vehicle on each side. The cabs are of glass fibre to withstand knocks. The three new vehicles replace eight smaller ones on which the lengths of steel were less secure. Another recent addition to the fleet is the first triaxle semi-trailer in the city It will take a 26-ton load, supporting it on 16 wheels. The design of some of the specialised vehicles was based on Mr Higgott's ideas. He began with the company as office boy 33 years ago

and has worked in every aspect of the business. An executive member of the Christchurch Road Carriers’ Association for the last It years, Mr Higgott has been manager of the company since 1957 and was made managing director 18 months ago.

Last November the company changed its name John Brightling, Ltd, to Brightling’s Transport, Ltd.

The truck at the right was specially designed to carry

long loads of steel. Below is Brightling’s Transport, Ltd’s new seaway terminal, seen from the loading docks side.