Dne third run empty ms diesel dwindles
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IS THE fuel shortage became more and more apparent this veek a CM survey on Britain's major roads revealed that up to 0 per cent of commercial vehicles are running empty on some oads.
Worst spot for empty runling was the M1 motorway at lemel Hempstead where as riany as a third of the vehicles in the road were running unxlen — and this figure could ot include box vans and those rith enclosed loads including ontainer vehicles.
Spot checks by CM staff howed that a bias of vehicles unning empty away from the ,outh East was apparent as nly six per cent overall of mpty vehicles were spotted unning South and into the ,ondon area — the rest ppeared to be fully loaded. The checks proved that depite clearing house operaions and back loading rrangements British hauliers ould still be wasting precious lel which is running out fast in some places.
At the docks which use appointment systems hauliers are finding that time is being saved and vehicle utilisation is improved and hence fuel wastage is cut.
Last week a Transport and Road Research Laboratory report advocated the use of the appointments system at docks nationwide but it doubted that the financial rewards would be great enough.
But this week spokesmen for some of the bigger operators using Tilbury Docks confirmed that the use of the system allowed vehicles to be turned round in two hours including the loading of a back load — provided all goes according to plan.
John G. Russell (Transport) Ltd has found that it is possible to keep vehicles laden to and from ports if enough notice is given by the shipping companies — and the appointments system gives an operator three days.
But F. B. Atkins does not use the appointments system and has an agent on site to ensure that all documentation is prepared before the vehicle arrives.
Both systems allow operators to cut down on empty running and use their vehicles efficiently — and their stocks of diesel.
Problems are arising at docks when vehicles arrive without appointments or after the expiry of their appointed time — then they can be faced with a wait of up to five hours to be off-loaded — and then only if time permits will they be dealt with.