Wheels Upon Wheels
Page 31
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MORE than lm. cars were produced in this country last year, half of which went for export. . Yet successive announcements of increased output have tended to inculcate public opinion to accept these remarkable post-war achievements of the motor industry as almost inevitable. As a result, secondary repercussions. stemming from the emergence of this major factor in the economy of the country do not receive the attention they deserve.
Car collection and delivery is a case in point. Since the advent of the internal-combustion engine, cars have been collected from the factory on trade plates. Having regard to the revolutionary developments which have taken place in car design and production techniques over the past 50 years, it would indeed be incongruous if methods employed at the turn of the century for collection and delivery remained adequate today.
Admittedly, the transporter is already carrying a proportion of the total output, the actual percentage depending on both the policy of individual manufacturers and the quantity destined for export. But there is still ample opportunity for their greater use, and the benefits accruing to car owners must be obvious to all.
By this means, cars are supplied in genuinely new and clean condition. Even when the most conscientious car collection driver is emplOyed, the principle of charging the customer for causing wear, however small, to his own supposedly new vehicle has an element of the iniquitous. When conveyed by transporter, cars can be delivered with no recorded mileage and with no possibility of damage through overdriving, pilferage or accident. .
When rising standards of living are making increasing demands on man-. power, it is incompatible with the national interest that any substantial proportion of the huge car output of the future should continue to be delivered singly on trade plates. 'Additionally, on major roads at least, traffic congestion is reduced by the bulk delivery of cars on transporters. Already many customers overseas are in a position to demand that their cars shall be delivered from the factory to the docks by transporter, and the time may not be far distant when the home market will expect a similar service.