Let Hauliers Carry. Produce
Page 42
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THE article, " Vegetable Growers Need Their Own vehicles," by L. M. Marshall, published in your issue dated June 30, reads curiously to me, and probably to anyone else with a fairly wide knowledge of transport and the needs of fruit and vegetable producers. It is not clear whether he is expressing his own views or purveying those of a "Mr. A. H. Hoare, of the Ministry of Agriculture," who is said to have made significant observations on the place of road transport in connection with the production of vegetables and the part it plays in distribution.
My knowledge extends only to Kent, but that county is no mean producer of fruit and vegetables, and I feel justified in criticizing in terms of what obtains there.
As far as London is concerned, road hauliers have been able to build up such an excellent service that the railways have been almost eliminated from this traffic, and it is not the rates charged that have been responsible for this. It is only service that has made the road haulier supreme. Since early in 1940, rates for this traffic have been published under the mgis of the Road Haulage Association, the members of which have been chiefly concerned, and the schedules have been widely accepted by hauliers, growers and selling concerns.
Kent fruit and produce hauliers have built up an 3rganization which is a fine example of the success of Free-enterprise public transport, in furnishing growers with the equivalent of private transport.
How does Mr. Marshall suggest that the grower is to ;end to market his part-loads, of which there are quite
few because of the vagaries of weather and consumer Jemand? The latter can fluctuate enormously, and prices range, over the season, from levels which make the return less than the cost of picking and packing, to high profits. The grower has enough to contend with ipart from the bother of running his own transport.
Mr. Marshall also says nothing about the quandary in which the grower and his helpers, if any, are placed in getting a vehicle or vehicles to market at 3 a.m., and in waiting to get empties to take back. They would iced to be superhuman to tend land and crops all day And attend markets all night. For this-reason alone the big grower usually hires the transport for market work, even when he owns lorries. When he does not hire transport it is often because he is financially interested in the distribution and wholesaling of the goods.
Amongst fruit and produce hauliers in Kent, one rule is that they must fit their service into customers' requirements. The only new factor is the Road Haulage Executive, which now owns some fleets that used to give this service under free transport. Frequently they are under the same management as formerly and with the same drivers.
It is important to stress the value of the driver in this matter. Provided that the R.H.E. is wise enough to leave depot superintendents and drivers free to do the work as they have always done it, and can retain their services, there is no reason to suppose that, as far as those .fleets are concerned, the quality of the work will deteriorate.
The remaining independent hauliers should be left in possession of their original permits instead of encouraging growers to use their own transport. Friends of the 118
free haulier will do him a great disservice by suggesting that, with the advent of the R.H.E., growers and distributors should increase their C-licensed fleets. Without the hauliers the service of the R.H.E. would be quite inadequate and would decrease in quality.
Gillingham. CHERRYWAG.
WE ARE PINKED BY A CRITICAL READER IN the road test of the Morris Cowley 10-cwt. van, in I your issue dated May 19, you say " Direct-drive acceleration was smooth and unaccompanied by detona tion." . . . The dictionary terms detonation as exploding with a loud report.
As applied to the internal-combustion engine, detonation takes place to commence the working stroke. How does the Morris manage to accelerate smoothly without detonation? Do you not mean " pre-detonation " or just plain "pinking "?
PHILIP J. CAWSEY.
Bovey Tracey.
[Sorry, Mr. Cawsey. Unfortunately the dictionary definition of pinking is "the act or process of decorating fabrics for dress or upholstery with a pinking iron or of punching a scalloped pattern on the margin of any fabric or material." This does not apply to the metallic noise sometimes found during the combustion stroke of an internal-combustion engine. Perhaps your definition " predetonation " also is a trifle previous, and for want of a better terms we might compromise on "post-detonation," were it not that the Postmaster-General would perhaps consider this to be a reference to an explosion in a pillarbox. In any case, the technically inclined might disagree with your statement that "detonation takes place to commence the working stroke." In the usually accepted sense of the term, it is not the action occurring within a cylinder during the early stage of the firing stroke. There is a period of flame propagation when the mixture begins to burn ,rather than explode, and it is only when the temperature and pressure rise considerably that the remainder of the charge may detonate or fire without the original flame reaching it, as happens earlier in the stroke with unsuitable fuels. Many designers have applied themselves to reducing detonation. It is this smoothing out that will help a vehicle to accelerate more smoothly or permit it to hang on to a higher gear when climbing.—En.]
VICTORY AT THE LAST DITCH
FURTHER to my letter, "Fighting to the Last Ditch," which you published on March 3, I think I ought to let you know that, following this publication, I received a letter from the Road Haulage Executive to the effect that my letter had been seen in your paper, and that, as the circumstances appeared to be contrary to the policy the Executive had adopted, a...report had been called for from the local officials.
It further stated that from this report it was obvious that a mistake had been made and that an original permit should be issued. I am happy to tell you that I duly received an original permit and that I immediately recommenced my long-;. distance work.
I wish to place on record my grcat appreciation of the publicity that your valued periodical gave•to this matter,. to which 1 entirely attribute a satisfactory conclusion. Exeter. F. G.,,HEALE.