In 1951, F D Welters Ltd were at the forefront of a minor revolution in the transportation of new furniture items. Previously, this service was carried out by the Road Haulage Executive, a postwar publicly owned organisation which had nationalised much of the prewar transportation firms operating nationally at the time, with Pickfords being assigned specifically for the purpose of furniture transportation. This had garnered strong criticism from the furniture industry and most notably the British Furniture Manufacturers Association, who proceeded to set up a joint committee between the RHE and the BFM with a view to having more control over conditions of carriage and charges.
The pressure applied by the BFM on behalf of the Industry resulted in an initial allocation of revised regional responsibilities, which was followed by further deregulation to allow manufacturers the freedom to manage their own transportation. Being on the committee for the BFM at the time, F D Welters Ltd provided their support in this change, which encouraged further dismantling of the Government controlled RHE, paving the way for privatisation across the road haulage network.
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