JAMES R BURNS & SONS, HAULAGE CONTRACTORS, TEALING (EST 1940's)
This family firm was established by James R Burns Snr in the 1940's and is carried on today by James R Burns Jnr under the name of Burns Transport. Dave Burns recalls "the business began with one vehicle, increasing eventually to five articulated vehicles. Initially, transportation of livestock dominated the workload ie. hauling store and fat cattle to the Marts. As the pig industry grew Muir of Pert, Tealing and Crail, Fife became well known in this field. From these centres 400 weaned pigs were transported weekly to Aberdeen, Dyce and Edinburgh Marts. Pigs were also collected from FMC Contracts for delivery to Ayr, Sheffield and Carlisle. One aspect of farming now gone from these parts was the cultivation of sugar beets. The beet was hauled from farm to the factory at Cupar and this covered a three-month period.
Eventually farming diversified with regard to transportation. Farmers bought their own floats and transported the animals to the Marts. Livestock transportation had disadvantages as vehicles could be sitting at the Marts for several hours waiting for "bought cattle returns" to take back to the farms. This tied the driver at the Marts, unable to do other jobs and it was not economic. It was time to move on to bulk grain and potato haulage and canned food -general transportation as it is today".