USERS DISCUSS MOTOR v. HORSED HAULAGE.
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Lancashire Transport Officials Express Their Views on "The Commercial Motor" Suggestion for Eliminating the Horsed Vehicle from Congested Areas.
I N discussing the question of how to eliminate horsed transport from congested areas, the value of negative opinions and objections must be recognized. Unless they are taken into account, the problem concerning what is holding development in check can neither be correctly or adequately diagnosed, nor a sound remedy propounded. Consequently, the views of Liverpool transport men, whilst not enthusiastic for the paying off of horses, constitute a distinct challenge to inventive genius to devise a means to cope with the heavy transport requirements of the future.
Liverpool, the home of heavy haulage, the pioneer of the earliest , commercial motor experiments, so far back as 1868, still boasts the possession of the finest heavy draugla horses in the world-5,000 of Wan I Does it not seem paradoxical that both forms of transport should thrive and develop side by side? The explanation is simple —the great volume of distance transport is dealt with by motors, whilst for the great volume of short hauls large-capacity horsed lorries are frequently used. The arguments in the accompanying interviews are worthy of careful analysis.
In an interview with one who has intimate knowledge of the economics of both horsed cartage and motor haulage and is in a position to speak authoritatively, the writer was informed that for distances of two to three miles, when goods have to be removed expeditiously and when facilities exist for the prompt loading and discharge of wagons, there is much to be said for the self-propelled vehicle, but that did not mean, especially in dockside traffic, that the elimination of the horse would make things any better for either the port, those who carried on its business, or its transport resonrces.
"We have to recognize," he said, "that the transport costs of this port are based on horse-tonnage rates. Thus, for local distances the same tonnage rates are quoted officially, whether horse or motor be employed. That does not mean to say that one form of transport necessarily offers better value than the other, but each has points of superiority under certain conditions. ACcording to these, neither the horse can take the place of the motor, nor the motor take the place of the horse. Both have a clearly defined sphere of working, and not even a subsidy would induce Liverpool hauliers—and bear in mind most of, o2,8 them employ horses as well as motors—to dispense with their horses. Congestion would not be abolished by the abolition of the horse, neither would terminal delays at the docks, factories and warehouses be eliminated. Go along the line of docks at Liverpool any day of the week and inspect the method of working at any of the 6-7-storey warehouses.
"There may be four or five loading bays for the entire warehouse which will have storage space for thousands of tons. Only a very limited number of vehicles can load or unload at the same time, whether horsed or motor, and the cheapest waiting unit is the horsed vehicle. If motors were employed the loss for waiting time would be at least four times as great. These delays are quite unavoidable and every vehicle must take its turn, both at the dockside for loads and at the warehouses either to unload or to pick up freight.
"It is a mistake to think that for local heavy traffic, the only thing that matters is speed. Very .often hirers themselves stipulate that deliveries should be continuous and regular, rather than hustled to the point. of causing inconvenience.
"Another factor relevant to the question of how the horsed vehicle may be eliminated is that of lorry capacities. It should be remembered that Liverpool has the largest horsedrawn lorries in the country and the average dimensions of the most popular types of lorry are 17 ft. to 18 ft. in length and 7 ft: 6 ins, in breadth. Thus, although the motor may gain in speed, the horse-drawn vehicle, working the shorter distance and carrying a heavier or at least the same tonnage as the motor, may, when the final costs are made up, be found to have actually done the work cheaper than the self-propelled vehicle. Facts are stubborn things, and when we talk of doing away with the horse we should be appreciative of all that it means. I am certain that the leading business men of Liverpool would be very much against abolishing the horse if it meant enhancing the cost of transport.
"The Liverpool dock road, which carries the heaviest traffic in the port, has a carriageway for four lines of vehicles, the space next to the pavements being for horse-drawn lorries and that in the centre for motor traffic. About 80 per cent. of the local heavy transport in Liverpool is by horsed vehicles, and to talk about compensating owners for putting their horses out of commission—well, it is somewhat Utopian, isn't it?"
Mr. R. W. G. Barnett (an expresident of the C.M.U.A.), of the Liverpool Cartage Co., which, iii addition to a fleet of motors, also maintains a stable of 150 horses, remarked that if the Road Fund had any money to spare, instead of devoting it to the paying off of horses, it should use it for relieving users of the burden of taxation.
"Heavy taxation," he said. "has had the effect of encouraging users to add to their stables and not to reduce the number of their horses. For distances up to three miles the horsed vehicle can, in Liverpool, work much cheaper than the motor lorry. When full cargoes are unshipped at the quay-skies and consignments can be run continuously from the dock-sheds to the warehouse or factory, where there are good facilities for the expeditious handling of the goods, then no doubt the motor will show to advantage. For instance, take bulk grain. One Liverpool concern employs tipping wagons with high sides for dealing with this class of load. These heavy motors • can be loaded up from a chute in three •minutes, and at the other end can dispose of the load in a similar time. Although the journeys are short, horses could not compete on a job like that.
" You see, so much depends upon loading and unloading facilities, which must, in the final analysis, register an effect in costings. Delays at the warehouses are unavoidable, and even if motors were wholly employed the element of delay would not be decreased a second. Motors have to Wait and take their turn with horse-drawn vehicles, and it is a case of first come first served in the matter of the allocation of berths: " We want no compensation for altering a system which, in this pOrt. has worked extremely .well. We want to do the job we have to do as cheaply and as well as we can. What I do think is iniquitous is the new taxation . for goods vehicles, and instead of compensating horse owners, my company amongst them, it would be more to the point were motor taxation reduced.
"The conditions in London have very little application to the provinees, and certainly not to Liverpool. Team-drawn light carts, which are familiar in the Metropolis, are a comparative rarity in the Mersey port, where the ascendancy of the. 0-7-ton lorry and team in charge of one man is very manifest.
'All heavy motors in Liverpool mu3t, in the first place, be staffed by the driver and his mate, and if a trailer be drawn, then a third man must be employed. Thus we have a £1,000 motor turnout staffed by three men suggested for work which can be efficiently done by a twohorsed wagon, costing all told £.250, and in charge of one Man only. This fact should be carefully conidered in relation to unavoidable terminal delays, not brought about by the congestion caused by the horse so much as by the difficulties of working mixed traffic. I am now talking of journeys up to a distance of two or three miles, within which the competitive usefulness of the horsed vehicle is most pronounced. For longer distances there can be no gainsaying the fact that the heavy lorry is an invaluable unit.
"The Commercial Motor asserts that to move a quantity of goods from one point to another, within a specified time, requires something like five times as many horsed vehicles as motor vehicles.. That is not true of Liverpool, and would not be admitted by even the most eitreme anti-horse man in this part of the country. On short journeys, working the whole day, the motor might make one or two additional journeys, but when the work is as miscellaneous as it is at Liverpool docks there is no advantage economically to be claimed for the motor.
"We have clients . who ask for their, first delivery from the docks to be made as early as possible in the morning. After that • they askthat their warehouses, etc., be fed regularly, rather than speedily, so as to avoid any congestion at the point of clearance. Hence we very often turn a motor out first thing in the morning to take the initial load and after that the job is carried out by horsed lorries, the motor then tackling another job. It is unfair to attribute all the congestion of the roads to the horsed vehicle.
"One of the busiest motor roads in the North of England is that which connects Preston with Blackpool—a 20-mile stretch. On any fine Sunday, fast light pleasure motors by the thousand use this road, but the congestion is so great that I doubt if the average speed of any of them for the journey much exceeds 6 m.p.h. The chief constable of Preston has publicly stated that something like 15,000 vehicles pass through Preston northward per day. This is motor traffic, not horsed traffic."
Mr. W. Edwards, president of the Liverpool Cart and Motor Owners' Association, who, incidentally, is principal of a firm which operates well over 100 motor vehicles and a big stable of horses, says that our recent article strikes ,him as concentrating attention on the old evil of road control. He told us he had travelled in a private car for miles behind one of his own firm's goods lorries not equipped with a driving mirror, simply because there was no opportunity of getting past.
"From the economic standpoint, the line where the advantages of mechanical transport begins to fall when comparisons are made with horsed transport, is when the journeys are merely local. The shorter the distance the greater the advantage for the horsed vehicle. To replace horsed traffic by motors on these very short journeys would mean the raising of rates. The two outstanding advantages of motor vehicles are 41) speed, and (2) facilities for climbing steep gradients. In local transport at Liverpool there are only limited distances to traverse and there are no serious gradients in the busy traffic area. Hence the reason for the extensive use of horses.
"It is no exaggeration to say that Liverpool has the heaviest transport in the world, and to adopt the proposals suggested by The Commercial „Motor would, I am afraid, not tend to increase the trade of the port. The article in question overlooks the cost of standing time at the unloading points. It' is a much greater expense to keep a motor lorry idle than a horsed lorry idle, no matter what the cause. Another point, many of the large owners , of mechanical transport vehicles in Liverpool are equally large owners of horsed vehicles. That fact is worth remembering. In this port there are at least 5,000 heavy draught horses and the number is increasing. The suggestion is made that compensation should be given to horse owners, but nothing is mentioned of compensation for the alteration and conver
sion of existing premises. , Mr. Edwards holds that there is a future for electric traction.