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L U L L

VIL ELL

Li /IL 11

LORD PALMERSTON descriL Hong Kong to the House Lords in 1840 as "a ban island with barely a house it". The island was rejected unsuitable for use as a tradi station.

Two years later that decisi was reversed, but no one th could have foreseen that Ho Kong would become one of i major trading and industi centres not only in the Far E. but also in the world. And c element in this growth has be the build-up of an efficif transport system.

The rapid development this British Crown Colony af the Second World War chang it from an entrepot to industrialized and tradi Icentre.

It is almost impossible visualize the associated pr( lems. This dot on the map F only 600 miles of roads, which 225 are in the island a the rest in the Kowloon pen sular, including the leased Ni Territories.

The combined area is or 404 square miles of which or 12 per cent is the built-up ar where there is a concentrati of 4,5 million population.

The traffic congestion both passenger and goo vehicle traffic was near brer ing point five years ago. Ni relief has come from rnassi government road-buildi investment of £20 milli spread over four years, improve the existing ro network and build flyovers a elevated roadways.

The Government has al

introduced experimen. computerized traffic manac ment, starting with the m( congested main road in Ko loon.

In 1973, a decision w reached by the Hong Ko Government to build the Tut

! Mass Transit Railway, by vate consortiums with an vestment of more than £500 Ilion. The construction of the fR has caused more traffic versions and congestions, but pefully this may be relieved the 1980s when the MTR is rtially completed.

To put a brake to the traffic aos in Hong Kong the wernment has introduced rious schemes including traordinarily high road tax for Ivate cars with a maximum of 100 per year licensing fees for rs with large capacity Igines, and £12 annual driv) licence fee.

The growth in ownership of ivate cars in Hong Kong has ien static — at least temporily — but this does not affect any great extent the new car arket. The old cars of only a w years "vintage– are lipped out to other developing iuntries in East Asia.

However, since both the dustries and trade are fast !veloping in Hong Kong, the .owth of goods vehicle market not by any means checked by

e apparently adverse circumance.

The Government statistics lye a vivid picture of this rowth. In 1974, the total umber of registered goods ?hides was 28,794, but in ecember 1976 the number as up to 37,108 not including rown vehicles and those of 1M Forces. This represents an !crease of almost 30 per cent iithin two years.

Hong Kong is a mirror of the ritish goods vehicle market in is area and the penetration of le market by Chrysler in this fly island has been successful espite stiff competition, mainly lom the Japanese. An account f one of the major fleet perators in Hong Kong is ?presentative of Chrysler's success.

This operator is Gain & Co Ltd, a successful locally owned Hong Kong-based company which started operations 19 years ago with a capital of £50,000. The company specializes in construction and engineering contracts mostly in site formation work.

It is currently working on 72 sites, from small residential high-rise blocks of flats up to 25 storeys situated along the winding side streets of Hong Kong and Kowloon to really large estates. It is also involved in MTR contracts.

The total contract value is in the region of £20 million. Apart from earth excavating and moving equipment, the company has a fleet of 161 heavy-duty tippers — a great advance on its original five used and battered ones.

In 1970 just after the expansion and the incorporation of the company, 16 Dodge 500-Series trucks were ordered. The managing director, Mr Kwok Hung Lo (now chairman of the company) was so impressed by the performance and reliability of the Dodges that he later ordered 36 additional 100 series RG16 Dodge Commandos.

His original 16 Dodge models are still running and earning income for the company, though naturally they have been through major overhauls.

Mr Lo, the chairman, started at the bottom and has experience and expertise in haulage.

He says that each of his trucks runs more than 100 miles a day mostly on short shuttles of not more than 4 miles both on and off the road, day in and day out, without interruption.

The RG16 Commando's fuel consumption of 8mpy is satisfactory as the conditions of congested roads and off-road operations of his fleet place arduous demands both on the lorry itself and its operator.

As Mr Lo runs a large fleet of tippers for construction work, his company keeps on-site maintenance teams for routine checks and service. On the average, the down time is less than 7 per cent in the year, including holidays and weekends, and this downtime includes routine maintenance and complete overhauls. The average speed of his fleet, including off-road on-site operations, is 25mph.

Mr Lo takes good care of his company's drivers and each one of them is assigned to man a single designated truck. Mr Lo considers that by assigning each driver to one particular truck, the driver takes good care of "his" personal truck thus eliminating the element of driver abuse and the consequent downtime.

Only last month, Mr Lo ordered another eight RG16 from National Motors, local Dodge dealers. These new trucks are to be used at a new construction site and as soon as the tipper bodies are ready they will be delivered.

National Motors have a long history of Chrysler representation in the Far East. Their predecessor was the agent for Dodge trucks in China during the Second World War. The Dodge trucks used at the famous _Burma Road, the only supply link with the outside world of free China, were the trucks which had built the proven image of reliability.

At present, National Motors in Hong Kong have their own assembly plant, three spare parts depots and four showroom and service centres. Although Hong Kong is small by any international standard, speed in delivery of both new cars and trucks as well as spare parts is essential to a successful dealer's operation.

After-sales service has to be in high gear to satisfy customers' demands and it is the ingredient to meet the stiff competition head-on. For this operation, a mini-computer is employed for inventory control of spare parts in order to maintain constant availability. Any spare part which cannot be supplied from stock will be airfreighted to Hong Kong at the dealer's expense.

This Hong Kong Dodge dealer has recently sold 55 RG11 and RG13 Dodge Commandos to the New Lantao Bus Company (HK) Ltd for conversion to single-decker buses for use in the Lantao Island, a one-hour ferry ride away from Hong Kong.

The new buses will be used to cope with -the holiday recreational traffic on the island and 155 trucks for conversion, are projected in the immediate future as groups of more than 2,000 holiday-makers arrive at the Lantao Island on the hour and by the hour, during public holidays and weekends.

The road leading from the beach to the peak of the island is winding and steep, and some sections are single-lane. The traffic condition on the island puts tremendous strain on the converted buses and operators, and the decision to buy Dodge 100 Series trucks for use on the island has been made after a long-term study of the performance and reliability of Chrysler products.

National Motors also supply Dodge 500-Series tractive units of 28-ton-gcw to the Hong Kong International Terminus for container transport.