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Night Owls

12th March 1965, Page 35
12th March 1965
Page 35
Page 35, 12th March 1965 — Night Owls
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

WILL retail distribution by road one day become substantially a night-time operation in big centres? As.such, the question is no new one; less well-informed. observers have been inclined for years to advance. night deliveries as a panacea to day-time congestion, entirely overlooking the many side effects. Notably in dry-cleaning and allied areas, this is already practised; but generally it is not regarded as of potentially universal application.

It is, therefore, worth more than a casual glance when someone as knowledgeable as the secretary of the National Conference of Road Transport Clearing Houses (Mr. Boyd Bowman) says—see page 35— that sooner or later there will have to be national acceptance of night collections and deliveries. Much more significant than the relationship of this to retail premises was Mr. Boyd Bowman's remarks relating this practice to manufacturing industries.

Here, indeed, is a genuine field for cultivation. Between manufacturers, customers and the docks, goods vehicle operators are being substantially and unrealistically squeezed. As Mr. Boyd Bowman remarks, it is no longer unusual for manufacturers to refuse to accept deliveries after 10.30 a.m. on Fridays until the following Monday. Commercial vehicles are, in fact, often forced to stand idle for the major part of each week.

Why do not the operator associations get together, follow Mr. Boyd Bowman's implied lead, and mount a concentrated attack on the manufacturers' associations? If they could be persuaded of the financial advantages (apart from the less tangible national social ones) of extending the goods vehicle's working week, a very real step forward will have been taken by the whole industry.

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