bird's eye view
Page 39
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by the Hawk • Lips are sealed
Tim Bolland, recently promoted assistant managing director of Freightliners Ltd, was disconcerted by a question from colleague John Darker at last week's ICHCA conference on International Cargo Handling in the 1970s. Mr Holland had referred in his paper to the need for financial viability for each section of the transport industry to be assured in advance of any changes brought about by industrial requirements. "There can be no good reason why transport should itself in any way have to subsidize the total distribution of any particular industry or product," he said.
Asked by JD how much money had been spent so far on the Freightliner network, how much more would be spent if all went well, and when did Freightliners Ltd expect to be operating in the black, Mr Bolland refused to answer. "That would be revealing confidential business details," he said. Hm
• Seaside attractions
That was a lively PRTA Conference at Scarborough last week—and RT1TB chairman Kenneth Turner must have carried some of the scars away from the borough with him.
LUT's Robert Bailey was in great form and high good humour in presenting his own paper, leavening the facts and figures with purpose-drawn cartoons and chuckling
asides. For example: "The title of my paper is neither the answer to a barmaid's question nor a maiden's prayer." (He called it -single or double?")!
• Over the hills
I am happy to tell international hauliers trunking vehicles to Italy and beyond, via Switzerland's St Gotthard Pass. that progress on the new St Gotthard road continues at a steady rate. Having donned yellow safety helmet and gumboots, colleague David Spain was recently shown work in progress at the rock face in one of the many tunnels under construction. Although work at the face consisted only of a few men using pickaxes and heavy electrical drills—seemingly antiquated compared with London's tunnelling for the Victoria Line—he was assured that the new four-lane motorway was pressing forward at the rate of one metre a day.
The present St Gotthard Pass is blocked by snow for about five months of the year, forcing vehicular traffic to travel by train through the 16km railway tunnel in order to cross the pass. Although the railway copes at present, with 200 trains a day ferrying through the tunnel, simple calculation has shown that by 1980 the number of vehicles would simply be too great to handle.
The first 4km of the new road, which alone will cost £12m, will be open from Amsteg by the end of 1971 and completed as far as Goschenen by 1976. From there the road will unfortunately be only two lanes, in a 16km tunnel through the St Gotthard mountain. The whole highway (the N2) should be finished by 1979, when work on a second, parallel, tunnel is due to start. So that eventually—by 1983/4 (shades of Orwell) the entire road will be four lanes wide.
When there are two lanes in each direction, one of these will be designed as a crawler lane for heavy commercials. And even though the twists and turns will have gone, the gradient will be steep: 1 in 20 for the most part, rising to 1 in 16 in places.
• Success story Donald Green, the EDP (electronic data processing) manager of BRS Parcels Ltd, is a keen radio -ham". His interest in radio and electronics provided a talking point with Eric Moffat, assistant managing director of BRS Parcels Ltd, when the two men met periodically at Bristol during management conferences—Donald was then area accountant.
This hobby of Donald Green led to his promotion to the new post of EDP manager at headquarters, I learned recently from Eric Moffat.
The internal recruitment of staff, whereever possible, capable of implementing the comprehensive computerized accounting routines—described in Management Matters April 17 and 24—certainly makes sense. Incidentally, Eric Moffat himself, who directed the computer project through a steering committee, deserves much of the credit for the successful outcome. He stresses the importance of top management involvement and praises the willing co-operation of managers, staff and trade union officials, and the skill of the computer development scheme. Quite a success story!
• Smooth reply
This year's AA agm was quick and uneventful—unlike some in recent years—but one awkward question was put by a member who asked what the AA was doing about all these lorries creeping up hills and delaying the motorist.
Came the swift reply: we presented the AA's Dewar Trophy last year to British Leyland for developing the gas turbine truck!
• Ecosserie
These Scots get everywhere—even quite wrongly into CM's Q and A page it seems. Reference recently to a French transport journal called Le Poids Lourd appeared as Le Poids Laird. Oops!