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SEA CHANGE
Page 116
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by JANUS
SO much discussion on transport subjects has been taking place between experts on both sides of the Atlantic during recent years that it is surprising there has not been news much earlier of plans to start a ferry service similar to the one now operating regularly between Tilbury and Antwerp and Tilbury and Rotterdam. The roll-onroll-off principle is something for which Americans have not only provided the name but also some practical examples, including what has betn done to meet the transport requirements of their armed forces,
Military operations are no doubt a law unto themselves. What has interested goods vehicle users in Great Britain far more is to hear that a U.S. shipping company, Atlantic Express Lines of America, Inc., has proposals for a service from Delaware River and Chesapeake Bay to so far unspecified ports in Britain as well as on the Continent. The very vagueness of the news induces operators to wonder whether the plan can bring them any advantage by making it possible to offer an extra service to their customers.
OTHER ideas have been canvassed recently. United States Lines have consulted 'British operators about the possibility of using a special type of container. Mounted on bogies, it would in effect become a trailer, needing only a prime-mover to take it from port to destination. The containers and the bogies would remain the property of the shipping line, who". for this and other reasons would play the leading 'part in arranging the complete operation from American to British doors.
This kind of experiment may be only the beginning pf an important development. What will be interesting is to discover whether the progress made following the opening of new routes from Britain to the Continent can be duplicated when similar techniques are made available for traffic to and from the U.S. What British operators are already looking for, as a result Of their experience in Europe, is an arrangement that will enable them to offer to carry goods from door to door in their on vehicles or trailers, and to bring other traffic back.
AT first it was more usual for the complete vehicle to undertake the journey. This was a question of necessity for many of the small operators who were blazing the trial. They had no way of delivering the goods except from within their own resources. The journey was at least an experience, and if they were sensible it was a profitable experience, for the customer could afford to pay well for the rapid delivery and for what he saved on packing costs. The ferry service was invaluable for certain special consignments, but for many other purposes there was no point in using it.
The tendency has been towards the use of trailers on the Channel ferry crossing. This presupposes that arrangements have been made to cope with the traffic when it reaches the other side. Any operator who sends one of his trailers abroad wants to know continually what is happening to it, and will also want to use it for return loads if possible. Once the trailer becomes the established unit, it is inevitable that hauliers offering a service to the Continent will have to find Continental operators prepared to pick up the trailer and complete the second part of the journey.
Sonic operators would claim that this has been their B38 policy with Continental traffic ever since the opening of the Tilbury ferry offered a-, regular opportunity for sending across a complete vehicle arid load. Previously there was at least one railway-owned ferry service where this was possible, but for various reasons operators found it not easy to make use of the service, and there were difficulties arising from the fact that the Continental end of the cross-Channel route lay in France. The Tilbury ferry avoided these problems, but still presented operators with a new situation.
The pioneers may well have earned that title. They found that much more paper-work than usual was involved when traffic went abroad, and that it was necessary to know a good deal more about foreign transport regulations than the fact that traffic should keep to the right instead of the left. There were licensing difficulties for hauliers, although the C licence holder, or "trader on own account," was less concerned. Drivers inevitably came up against all the usual problems of language, food, accommodation, exchange rates and so. on.
Many vehicles still go over complete. Some examples were provided by the convoys of vehicle.s sent by Continental Ferry Trailers, Ltd., and other operators to the State Fair in Moscow. There may have been special reasons for this, including perhaps the wishes of the customers and of the Russian authorities, the problem of finding Continental operators willing to provide _enough vehicles for the 2,000-mile journey from Rotterdam to Moscow, the wish to make national propaganda out of an, important event, and the feeling of the operators themselves that such a valuable consignment ought not to be entrusted to anybody else at any stage of a journey. of such magnitude.
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ALL the same, the pattern for the future, especially where there is regular traffie, seems to be to set up a network of working arrangements with suitable foreign operators and to use the loaded trailer as the connecting link. The pioneers have Mitigated many of the early troubles but-have not coMpletely dispelled them. There are still difficulties. arising from varying licensing systems and varying regulations for the .construction and use of vehicles. To send a complete vehicle means that the services of a prime. mover and of at least one man arelost, perhaps for several days. They are earning no money on the lengthy crnssing and indeed add to the cost.
These problems would arise if there were an Atlantic ferry service and many of them would be accentuated. For considerations of cost alone it seems out of the question that complete vehicles would ever be sent across. There might still be circumstances in which the use of trailers would be worth while. For certain loads the minimum of packing would be needed and there would be no need to dismantle them. These considerations might well justify the extra cost to the customer of having a trailer at his disposal for a long sea journey..
Enterprising hauliers may well be hoping that this is the case. They will wish to apply across the hemisphere the lessons they have learned across the Channel. They will no doubt have to take a closer look at what is happening in America. find operators who will tale the trailers on to their. destination, and even look into the possibility of return loads.. The connections thus built up in America as well as in Europe should become more significant with the increase of international trade.