Chapter 13

Despite her happiness Eleanor was not yet ready to tell her parents that she and Reg were in love. She wanted them to see for themselves what was so special about him.

She was not entirely successful. She had bounced in the previous evening, told her parents what had happened during the day including the fact that she and Reg were reconciled and that he had volunteered to have a dyslexia assessment. This evening, although she said nothing other than that Reg was home and settled. Nevertheless, Bridget, being a perceptive mother, was quick to notice that Eleanor was walking on air but said nothing to her. She did mention it to David.

"Que sera," he said. "I trust her judgement. Don't you?"

"Yes I do but I'm still a bit apprehensive."

David smiled. "Understandable."

The next ten days passed quickly. Eleanor finished off her analysis, wrote recommendations, had them all copied and presented them to Ray.

"Well done, Eleanor, and thank you," he said. "The next step is for the Board to read what you've done after which they will doubtless want to talk to you."

Eleanor nodded. "Um, Ray, I'm sure you'll have gathered by now that Reg has been quite a lot involved in this."

Ray smiled. "Yes. Your father breached your confidence and told me."

Eleanor smiled. "I might have guessed he would but all Daddy really knew was that Reg had told me how useless Dobsons' were and had suggested having our own up to date fleet of lorries. He did a lot more. All the remaining suggestions about how to improve productivity other than the automated conveyor, which was Len Fairbrother's idea, are his. Would it be all right if I had Reg with me for the Board Meeting?"

Ray looked at her speculatively for a moment. This might be an excellent chance to see how young Reg lived up to her expectations.

"All right," he said. "You're on."

Eleanor's face lit up. "Thank you, Ray. I think you'll be impressed."

"I hope so," he smiled back. "And now no doubt you'll want to go back to nursing your patient."

"Yes please, Ray."

"OK. Clock in with me each morning at eight so that I can give you work to take with you and to report how things are going."

Eleanor nodded vigorously. "Have you got anything for me now?"

"Let me see. No, Eleanor, I think you've earned a day of rest."

That earned him a brilliant smile and an excited jiggle which he did not miss.

She was back with Reg by half past nine. She told him all that Ray had said. He was less enthusiastic than she about the Board Meeting but was happy that she was happy.

"Not entirely a day of rest," he observed. "Anita at eleven forty-five."

"But we could go somewhere after that. It's a lovely day."

"How about Birches Valley Forest Centre?"

"Where's that?"

"Near Rugely."

"Is it flat?"

"Ish."

"And even?"

"Ish."

"Hmm, OK then but I'm not sure I trust you. However, 'cos I love you I won't argue."

She kissed him gently. "I really do, my Reg."

"And I really do love you, my Eleanor. Does that earn me another kiss?"

"I suppose so," she replied reluctantly but her shining eyes belied her words as did the kiss.

The Board Meeting was arranged for the following Tuesday at ten o'clock. There was no lift at the factory to the offices on the first floor so Reg and Eleanor went in through the warehouse and asked Len for help. He and Wes carried Reg up in his wheelchair.

Reg felt very uncomfortable in his one and only suit with the left sleeve tucked in his jacket pocket. He was also tongue-tied with shyness. All the same he was welcomed warmly. David shook his hand and teased him about being a malingerer. Reg managed to reply to that by smilingly blaming the beauty of his nurse. It was Bridget who brought him a cup of coffee, sat down beside him and told him that Eleanor had told her how much he had liked the Weber. Reg's eyes shone with enthusiasm and the ice was broken. Edwin was introduced, shook his hand and thanked him warmly for saving Eleanor. Reg relaxed. Nobody was being condescending but warm and welcoming.

Eleanor was invited to make a short presentation.

"I imagine you are all aware of the long term project to increase profitability. I mentioned it to Reg during a hospital visit. His immediate reaction was that we needed to get rid of Dobsons' who were unreliable and had a limited range of vehicles. He suggested running our own fleet and I mentioned this to Ray who asked me to do a cost analysis.

"The cost analysis looked first at a vehicle fleet of our own and then at continuing to hire but from hauliers with more modern vehicles. Reg suggested that rather than going to a haulage firm as such we might do better to hire from a well known truck manufacturer who would ensure we were always using their most up to date vehicles and who would carry out all the servicing. He also suspected that they would be looking for return trips rather than us having to meet the cost of a truck returning empty. I looked at two haulage firms and two truck manufacturers. I also investigated running our own fleet. My recommendation is that we go for hiring from one of the manufacturers. There is little difference in cost and they both produce first class vehicles. I have recommended one above the other as it has a depot only five miles away and would be able to react more quickly if we needed extra vehicles in a hurry.

"It was not in my remit to deal with other means of improving distribution but various other factors which I have mentioned affected the selection of the recommended solution. They were enlarging the warehouse, palletisation and an automated conveyor system. The first two were put forward by Reg and the conveyor system by Len Fairbrother, the warehouse foreman. Reg can answer any questions you may have on all those improvements."

"Thank you, Eleanor. I think everyone will agree that your cost analysis is first rate. Does everyone agree that we should accept the recommended solution?"

There was agreement all round.

"Right," said David. "Let's move on to the suggested improvements. First of all the expansion of the warehouse. Reg, would you care to expand on that?"

Reg was momentarily seized with shyness but a warm encouraging smile from Eleanor and a reassuring but surreptitious squeeze of his thigh under the table set him off.

"If I may, sir, I'd like to say a bit about pallets first. At the moment a forklift puts a stack of four boxes on the tail of the truck. Those are then manually moved forward and stacked which is time consuming and manpower intensive. That time makes the company no money. The modern trucks we will be employing are side-loading and one forklift will be able to lift pallets of twenty boxes and stack them; a huge saving of time and therefore hire costs. The trouble is that the aisles as they are now are too narrow for the pallets.

"The next major factor is that the conveyor system envisaged is an overhead one. With the present roof height we would lose valuable stacking room which with wider aisles loses essential storage space. Ideally we would expand laterally and also upward. We have not looked into the costs but suspect roofs come expensive and, of course, while the roof was being raised the warehouse would be out of commission and production would have to stop."