Demount potential Elgin marvel
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AN ELGIN transport company is to provide overnight accommodation for lorry drivers. ;TRIBUTION managers make insufficient use of demountable hicles, according to a report published by the Polytechnic of ntral London, writes the news editor.
he 240-page report, much of vritten in the jargon of a maimatician, is the result of two a half years' research into subject.
n many cases, companies use mountables for pre-loading, other words as a means of ng warehouse labour when it uld otherwise be idle, and to ieve pressure at potentially ctic peak periods. The alternae of using part-time labour is ;s popular, according to the L team.
t is in the field of direct distri-, tion, avoiding the use of addinal warehousing space, that PCL team sees a greater opirtunity for demountable hides, especially in drawbar mbinations, and it argues that vings of 17 per cent over the e of two rigid vehicles are pos)le.
There also is potential for vings of between eight and 20 cent where a vehicle based way from home is used to deer demountable bodies which trunked into it by another lit.
The authors accept that there e strong industry objections to ader operations, partly beuse of difficulties in controlig drivers at distant locations, id partly because of an unwiligness to introduce night inking.
They believe that these objecms can be overcome relatively but see the absence of iitable transfer points as a ronger obstacle to progress. It is not necessary to create special transfer sites, they say, but there are still too few secure lorry parks.
Demountable vehicles also can help operators overcome the most punitive effects of a strategic lorry ban.
If this trend does develop, PCL suggests that there is scope for local authorities to become more closely involved in the provision of suitable transfer points.
The report sees little opportunity for demountable bodies to be used on British Rail, and the opportunities for their use in place of maximum weight articulated vehicles are limited.
Nevertheless, there is scope for some artic traffic to be car
ried at 10 per cent less cost by rigid demountable vehicle, and this would be even more likely if, the 30mph speed limit which applied to drawbars on nonmotorway roads is increased to 40mph.
• The Economics of Demountables in Distribution is available for £15 (E20 overseas) from the Civil Engineering Secretary, Polytechnic of Central London, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS. AN ELGIN transport company is to provide overnight accommodation for lorry drivers.
Elgin Transport and Storage has been given permission by Moray District Council to put 18 portable accommodation units in a fenced compound at Tyock — on the eastern outskirts of Elgin — to provide basic sleeping accommodation for lorry drivers and safe parking for vehicles, The accommodation block will contain 18 sleeping cubicles, toilets, showers, and a lounge area. It will be cleaned and supervised on a daily basis.