PIGGYBACK OPPORTUNMES
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Your report of Neoplan's American project of combining the carriage of passengers and containerised freight on a double-deck coach (CM 5-11 April) reminded me of our application of the principle at the opposite end of the weight scale in 1984.
For rural service on the Scottish islands the Ray Smith Group supplied minibuses which were quickly convertible into light trucks. The chassis carried either a demountable bus body or a demountable van body, Perhaps it was ahead of its time, for it is a concept with even more potential today for obtaining economic viability on rural work.
The difficulty was to build a system that allowed the driver access to the passengers through a central gap, while maintaining a seal to prevent water and noise ingress.
Now the Neoplan idea would inspire extension of the quickly demountable body principle to express coaches.
Neoplan's proposal of taking a 20ft container would be inconvenient and clumsy for the British operating environment, but demountable bodies raise distinct possibilities because in three or four minutes they can be left standing on their retractable legs.
One might envisage, typically, a 5.2m freight body for a 6/7.5-tonne final distribution vehicle, or two transversely carried 2.55m van bodies for Transit-size final distribution. Coach chassis with a flat underfloor rear engine could handle the trunking and body demounts admirably, possibly using air suspension if the raise/lower was sufficient.
There are surely a few express coach operating scenarios where piggybacking a modestly-sized demountable van body could enhance the economies.
What about routes where customer demand never exceeds, say, 55 seats but freight space left within 14m could be a supplementary revenue earner?
What about the seasonal surge in goods as well as passenger traffic to tourist centres that leaves freight operators short of vehicles and drivers? And what about long-distance overnight services where express freight operators would welcome an extra facility?
Probably Commercial Motor readers can imagine other uses for some freight piggybacking; if so, I'd be intrigued to talk through the possibilities. Maybe our dual-mode vehicles of Ti' years ago might spark a 21st century re-interpretation of intermodal interchange.
David Browning.
Joint managing director (sales). Ray Smith Group.