RETAIL TR ADE CONSIDERING TRANSPORT POOLING
Page 16
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
AQUESTIONNAIRE to associations and _other representative bodies in the general retail trade has been sent out by the Secretary, Retail Trade Committee, Industries and Manufactures Department, Board of Trade, Millbank, London, S.W.1. This deals mainly with the possible reduction in the number of retail shops, but one interesting request is for suggestions for the pooling of transport to effect economy (a) in the distribution of goods to retailers and (b) in the delivery of goods to customers.
A SCHEME FOR EXCHANGING NEW VEHICLES,
A N interesting suggestion put forward by the National Conference of Express Carriers concerns the allocation of new vehicles. Operators who obtain these have no real choice in connection with the particular types allocated to them, and it may be that a user has received a make with which he is unfamiliar ad which he would gladly exchange for another. The Conference is, therefore, triig to facilitate this exchange, and gnposes to list in its bulletin vehicles to which owners would like this procedure applied.
LICENCES FOR INTERNATIONAL • CHASSIS
ELSEWHERE in this issue will be found details of the new chassis built by the International Harvester Company, purchased from the U.S.A., and being assembled in this country. They are intended to assist in making good a shortage of home-produced vehicles. Any operator urgently in peed of lorries and whose application for a licence to acquire a new vehicle has not yet been dealt with, should write to the Road Transport Division (Room 516), Horseferry House, Horseferry
is 14
Road, London, SW 1, for the necessary licence.
The price is £710 for the chassis and cab. Each complete vehicle will carry up to 7 tons and has right-hand drive. Early delivery is promised, and arrangements have been made for a satisfactory supply of spare parts.
ADDITIONS TO ESSENTIAL WORK SCHEDULE
WE are informed by the Ministry of VV War Transport that the Minister of Labour and National Service is now ready to schedules-under the Essential Work (General Provisions) Order, 1941, motor repair shops which are departments of undertakings engaged in the manufacture of motor vehicles.
Those shops which are departments of undertakings engaged in road haulage or in the operation of public-service vehicles, trams or trolleybuses will be accepted for scheduling at the same time as the undertakings of which they are departments. In respkt of other repair shops, details will be given later.
As regards haulage concerns, the limit of 20 vehicles still holds good, but consideration is being given to concerns operating fewer, and a further notice will be issued. Notice will also be given when the Minister is ready to accept p.s.v. operators for scheduling.
Repair-shop undertakings which are now eligible for scheduling should approach the Regional Transport Commissioner in whose area they are situated, giving the number of employees engaged in repair work and a short statement of the _work on which the shop is normally Occupied.
BRUSH COACHWORK LONDON H.Q.
WE learn that the London office of VV Brush Coachwork, Ltd., and the Brush Electrical Engineering Co., Ltd., is now at Bush House, North West Wing, Aldwych, W.C.2. "A BIT OF TROUBLE" OVER NEW WAGES PROPOSALS SOME doubt was expressed at a meetinging of the Bradford and District Chamber of Trade's Transport SectiOn last week as to whether the further increase in wages, which has been proposed by the Road Haulage Central Wages Board, will be sanctioned by the Minister of War Transport. One Speaker said that "a bit of trouble " had arisen in London in connection with the matter, and others suggested that the increase might be withheld because of the Gov,ernment's desire to avoid inflation, to which a vicious .spiral of increasing Prices and rising wages would contribute.
FIRST-HAND STUDY OF .BRICK-HAULAGE COSTS THE establishment in Yorkshire of a schedule of rates for the transport of bricks by road is t6e object of discussions now taking place between a sub-committee of the Road Panel of the Yorkshire Road-Rail Regional Committee and representatives of the brick interests. For the purpose of studying brick-haulage costs, Mr. W. J. Lowe, secretary of the Yorkshire Area of A.R.O., has lately been acting as mate on a vehicle employed on this traffic.
WOMEN TO DRIVE SALOON BUSES
ALETTER has been sent from the Minister of War Transport to associations representing bus operators, referring to the shortage of bus drivers. The Minister says he understands that, in nearlif all cases, men conductors who are suitable as drivers have been trained for this purpose, and there are unlikely to .'be other sources. He, therefore, suggests the desirability of employing and training women to act as drivers of single-d.eck buses, and he will be glad to learn that operators are ready to take steps in this direction.