Joint Campaign on Turnround Launched
Page 7
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
BRITISH ROAD SERVICES and the Road Haulage Association are cooperating for the next 12 months in a campaign using the slogan "Turn That Lorry Round" and a specially designed symbol. Details of the campaign were given in a joint statement issued on Monday by Mr. T. G. Gibb, chairman of the board of B.R.S., and Mr. D. 0. Good, chairman of the R.H.A., at a Press conference in which they both took part.
The campaign aims to bring the need for quicker vehicle turnround to the attention of trade, industry and local authorities in general, and their architects and planners in particular. Advisory pamphlets, each dealing with one particular aspect of vehicle turnround, will be issued during the year to transport users, associations and official bodies; the first pamphlet will give professional advice on the layout and equipment of loading bays and reception areas.
A small B.R,S,-R.H.A. liaison committee under the chairmanship of Mr. J. P. Wells, an R.H.A. member, has been discussing the joint basis of the campaign and its operation.
The joint statement issued on Monday draws attention to the tremendous losses caused by vehicle delay at terminal points (estimated at £10m. in the West Midland area alone, and possibly ten times as great for the whole country) and cites some of the principal causes of delay. Inadequate loading and unloading facilities, lack of mechanical handling equipment, insufficient room for vehicles, loading and unloading bans, reluctance of some five-day-week concerns to accept loads near the end of the week, and factory layouts which neglect transport requirements, are among the examples given. There is even a danger, thedtatement points out, that an efficiency and economy drive in an industrial organization can lead to a reduction in the facilities for reception and handling of goods. The turnround campaign virtually coincides with National Productivity Year which is being launched next month, and it is stressed that the vehicle turnround campaign's attempt to increase productivity will have that effect on every trade and industry and not merely oa transport; if successful it will lead to economies to offset road transport's continuously rising costs and, by encouraging the provision of better facilities for vehicles, could help to solve the acute problem of providing vehicle space in the many densely populated communities.
Both B.R.S. management staffs and R.H.A. members arc being encouraged to join local N.P.Y. committees so that the haulage viewpoint shall be widely represented; some hauliers have already been appointed to such committee& That the productivity campaign has wide support is emphasized by the fact that the joint B,R,SeR.H.A. statement on Monday was accompanied by a message from Mr. Frank Cousins, secretary of the
Transport and General Workers Union, stating that he was happy to be associated with National Productivity Year and stressing that he was sure that all road transport workers would make a special effort during N.P.Y. to ensure a high degree of service. "The task of serving industry by providing an efficient distribution service has always. been regarded by our members as a duty to be undertaken with pride, often under very difficult conditions."
Mr. Cousins said the continuous drive for higher production from the manufacturing industries brought a great challenge to transport; transport workers had always served the community well and he was sure that this would be continued.