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Goods Haulage on Common Roads.

27th February 1913
Page 23
Page 23, 27th February 1913 — Goods Haulage on Common Roads.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

4., NTIL transport had provided a ready means alike of collecting

raw materials and of distributing food supplies arid manufac

tured articles, industries of the type familiar to us to-day were pract eally impossible." So writes Mr. E. A. Pratt in his recentlypublished " History of Inland Transport in England. '' In other words it is to efficiency of goods-transport methods that modern nations owe so much of their mercantile success.

It may be conceded that the first attempts to interchange agricultural and manufactured products between communities was by boat on more or less navigable rivers and along coastal territory. Columns of head carriers, lines of armed pack trains served, and still serve in many parts of the world, for the removal of goods in civilized England until well into the sixteenth century. Then, about 1560,, the " long wain," a roomy vehicle carrying 20 passengers and much merchandise, came into use between towns and villages. From that era, until the establishment of the railway, all interurban goods haulage was effected by road or by water_ The existence of Great Britain's wonderful system of roads and the arrival of the self-propelled lorry are rapidly bringing us back in remarkable manner to the use of the common road for goods haulage.

The motor goods wagon was first designed to challenge the horse, for short deliveries. After a brief but decisive struggle, it has been proved capable of doing more work more effectively, for the same expenditure, than even the one-horse van. Later, the monopoly of the railway for haulage over long distances has been disputed, and it. has already been decided that, in avoidanc.e of terminal delays, of transhipment of packages, and of risk of excessive damage, the motor wagon can more than hold its own. Interurban motor services are certain in the near future to be found making use of all those highways of which the original tracks served our forefathers' purposes quite well until the advent of the railway.

The latest phase of the motor-vehicle incursion, and not the least interesting, is heralded by the arrival of the parcelear—and so good-bye to thousands of erratic and overloaded delivery-cycle messengers and. to many more light-horsed vans. .

We deal in the following pages with many of the cost an i convenienco aspects of these three branches of ultra-modern goods-haulage methods, and we endeavour to show, from experience gained in and around many great centres of population, the advantages, financially and commercially, which the motor goods lorry, the motorvan and the parcelcar can definitely offer to the manufacturer and to the tradesman all over the world. TUE EDITOR.

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