OPERATOR PROFILE WH BOWKER LTD
➤54 TRUCKING Summer 2019 http://www.truckingmag.co.ukBlackburn, collecting and delivering
goods for onward transport to Liverpool.
In 1926, during the time of the General
Strikes, food supplies were heavily
disrupted. William was attributed with
setting up the first overnight trucks
loaded with fruit from Liverpool to
Covent Garden. Return loads comprised
of fruit and vegetables for the
Lancashire markets, all loaded under the
church at Covent Garden’s porch roof.
William’s brother, Thomas was
installed as the firm’s first London
manager when a Bowker office was
opened in Covent Garden during the
late 1920s.Going the distance
In the days long before motorways, the
journey between Liverpool and London
was a considerable undertaking, taking a
full shift. With an eye to his men’s
welfare, William used a rolling booking
for rooms at the Strand Palace Hotel,
opposite The Savoy, where his dayshift
and nightshift men could change over.
Inside the rooms, the beds never got
cold, but they provided good
accommodation from a manager who
obviously cared about his staff.
When Bowker’s business was
nationalised in 1949, it then operated afleet in excess of 85
vehicles – the largest
fleet in the country. The
company retained its
warehousing operation
and continued in business
during the period of
nationalisation. William
bought the business out of
nationalisation in 1954,
principally for his two sons Bill and Ken,
and by 1955 the business was operating
31 vehicles. Bowker’s longest working
partnership with a customer stretches
back to 1954, with wallpaper
manufacturer Graham & Brown.
Sadly, William died in 1955 and his
son Bill, aged 19, had to leave university
to take over the running of the business.
In that era of A, B and C operator
licensing, Bowker’s easiest route to
expansion was the purchase of other
local haulage companies.32-pallet ‘Phillips Concept’ Eurotrotter Roadtrain
was among the company’s many Volvo ‘firsts’Leyland
eight-wheeler
WH Bowker used his £75 War Gratuity
to buy his first Leyland lorry in 1919
Family matters: (From L-R) William
Bowker, Bill Bowker, Ken Bowker,
Neil Bowker, Paul Bowker