National Freight Corporation

The National Freight Corporation was a major British transport business between 1948 and 2000. It was listed on the London Stock Exchange and at one time, as NFC plc, was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.

National Freight Corporation

Fate	Merged with Ocean Group plc
Successor	Exel
Founded	1948
Defunct	2000
Headquarters	London , England
Key people	Christopher Bland (Chairman) Gerry Murphy (CEO)

History

BRS liveried trucks

The company was established in 1948 as British Road Services (BRS). It was the road transport company formed by the nationalisation of Britain's road haulage industry, under the British Transport Commission, as a result of the Transport Act 1947.[1]

From 1963 the company was administered by the Transport Holding Company and had four main operating areas: British Road Services, BRS Parcels, Pickfords and Containerway & Roadferry.

On 1 January 1969 it was renamed the National Freight Corporation.[2][3][4] On the same date a 51% share in Freightliner was transferred from the British Railways Board (BRB).[5] This was transferred back to the BRB on 1 August 1978.[6][7][8][9]

In 1980 the assets of the National Freight Corporation were transferred to the National Freight Company.[10][11] In 1982, the company was sold to its employees as the National Freight Consortium in one of the first privatisations of state-owned industry.[12][13] The new company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1989 and subsequently became NFC plc.

BRS Parcels was rebranded as Roadline and was sold in a management buy-out as Lynx Express in 1997.[1] NFC disposed of Pickfords in 1999 to Allied Van Lines.[14]

In 2000 the company merged with Ocean Group plc to form Exel plc.[14]

References

1. "Gordon Mustoe, BRS Parcels Services and The Express Carriers". Nynehead-books.co.uk. 1 January 1955. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
2. "Railway road haulage services". Railwaybritain.co.uk. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 10 August 2011.
3. National Freight Corporation Commercial Motor 3 January 1969 page 3
4. Now the National Freight Federation Commercial Motor 7 March 1969 page 46
5. "Freightliners Limited formed" Railway Gazette 7 February 1969 page 86
6. Freightliner railway Commercial Motor 25 November 1977 page 6
7. "Freightliners go back to BR" Railway Gazette International December 1977 page 448
8. "Freightliners Ltd returned to British Rail free of debt" Railway Gazette International January 1978 page 5
9. Goodwill should remain Commercial Motor 21 July 1978 page 6
10. In Brief Commercial Motor 5 July 1980 page 5
11. NFC dead NFC born Commercial Motor 20 September 1980 page 5
12. Its a deal: Howell yes to NFC buy-out Commercial Motor 24 October 1981 page 3
13. NFC is over hurdle Commercial Motor 20 February 1982 page 4
14. NFC and Ocean forge £3.2bn alliance to exploit e-commerce The Independent 22 February 2000

Further reading

• E.J. Gubbins (2003). Managing Transport Operations. Kogan Page. ISBN 978-0-7494-3928-6.