The Young Idea
Page 59
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
INSTEAD of being-in the woodshed, perhaps the nasty thing that blasted our infancy came from 6. furniture van. This Seems to be the theory behind. a bOok issued by a concern of transport operators in the -U.S.A.,. North American Van Lines,. Inc. "Psychologists believe," " say
North American," that children may feel their whole world
is .about to be destroyed when moving from one home to another." As it is calculated that 35m.Americans move each year, many of them very young children, there are presumably grounds. forfearing the incidence on a national scale of what might be. called pantechnicophobia. Characteristically, North American regard it as their duty
to tackle the traumatic experience at its source. The company ," and its public relations department" decided that, if "moving were properly and carefully explained to children,'" it would ease the doubts and tensions they feel when watching their favourite toy disappear inside a huge and mysterious van." Hence the production of the book, "Moving Day," which tells how Jimmy and Susie Davis moved with their family to a new home in a different state. There are plenty of pictures, for the book is intended for children too young to go to school. "Ideally, it should be read, to them "before they are told that -they themselves will be moving." ..By . this means, they are insulated against fear when their own moving day arrives.
There is an ulterior Motive.The book is sold over the counter in the ordinary -way, and North American agents can have copies at a reduced rate to, use as a sales aid. It helps them in many ways, most of them obvious, if they give a copy to a prospective custorner at the same time as the estimate. There may also be long-term advantages to. the road transport industry as a whole. The children Of today are the customers of tomorrow.
American Enterprise
The book is a typical 'piece of American enterprise. Ironically, the company most likely to promote a similar idea in Britain is the nationalized Pickfords, who atone have the countrywide organization that would enable their vehicles to be used in the illustrations. North 'American arc far bigger than any independent British operator, and their ramifications cover most of the world.
This year the company celebrate their 25th birthday. The intention in 1033 was to form the American equivalent of a co-operative clearing house, and the company did not operate their own vehicles until 1940. They now have 1,700 vans, and to haul them there are 700 drivers who own their tractors and operate them under exclusive contract to North American. In -addition, there are 1,100, agents with their own removal businesses. The agents in Britain are Davies, Turner and Co., Ltd.
. With so many varied connections, North American are bound to initiate or come across many new ideas. The children's book was their own brain-child. An associated company, Kenwood Transfer, ,Inc., in the. state of Iowa, seem first to have provided a maid service to follow up a removal. The maid washes and puts away dishes, cutlery, linen and clothes, and generally clears up the inevitable dust and confusion that the removal van leaves behind. To provide this service, Kenwood merely found it necessary to hire the girls from a local employment agency.
Behind the scenes, North American train their men in a house near their headquarters in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The .house is completely furnished, and all.day long the trainees move the effects in and out Watched by instructors.
The idea of a school for furniture removers has of course, been adopted in Britain by the National Association
• of Furniture VV.arehonserrien and .Rennovers. It may well be that other development's in America.have been taken up, or even anticipated, here, and the Americans may have
many things to learn from British operators. North American, for example, always eager to welcome something because it is the first or the greatest, have paid tribute to the removal by Davies, Turner of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from Belgrave Square to the 'Palais de Chaillot in Paris. Nearly 100 tons, or 25,000 cu. ft. Of office equipment and files were flown across the Channel in what North American describe as "the largest air move in history."
Welcome Change
The interest shown by North American in what is happening in Britain, or Europe, or Japan, or many other countries; is partly due to the existence of agents there. It is in contrast, however, to the attitude of many British operators, who seem scarcely to recognize the existence of fellow-hauliers beyond the seas. A welcome change has been the establishment of contacts in Europe, as a result of the growth in international road transport, and of the decision by the Road Haulage Association to rejoin -the International Road Transport Union.
Even noW,'. discussions with •other countries on the subject of road transport. are conducted in an atmosphere that, to many operators, seems curiously unreal and abstract. This may be partly because negotiations that may ultimately be of great importance to hauliers are Conducted by international bodies. with a • comple-x organization on civil service lines. Their pronouncements are liberally sprinkled with initials, not always universally
understood, such as E.C.E., I.R.U., U.I.C. and even INTERERIGO. The various subjects are routed to cornmittees, sub-committees and groups, and the outsider wishing to follow up a particular point can easily lose either his way or his interest. ..
Stiff Text The language harrier is not .completely overcome by translation the text even of announcements issued to the Press has a stiffness alackit it that rapidly makes the reader tired. On the important subject of a draft convention for the transport of goods between countries by road with the minimum of interference from the customs, the United ;Nationshave said recently that " the final text which is in the course' of preparation, bearing in mind experience gained, provides a certain simplification of the necessary formalities."
There is no great language difficulty to hamper communication between British and American operators, who may feel for this reason that the have ,more in common with each other than with people they cannot readily understand. For this same reason, the differences in outlook betwe'en the Briton and the American may be overlooked. In particular at the present time, the American trucker takes no account of the possibilities of nationalization. He is, therefore, able to look forward with supreme confidence to a future in which everything is growing better and better.