AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

AGRIMOTOR NOTES.

14th September 1920
Page 24
Page 25
Page 24, 14th September 1920 — AGRIMOTOR NOTES.
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

How the Fruit, Flower, and Vegetable Trade has Benefited by the Adoption of Road Transport.

THE TRANSPORT problem in the fruit, flower, and vegetable trade seems to become more," acute, every season. There is hardly another trade or industry where rapid and efficient, transport is so absolutely necessary for the successful working of the business as it is in this trade.

It is a matter which, in all its aspects, needs tackling most seriously. I know that some. people have been inclined to depend upon the Ministry of Transport for solving some of the difficulties in this respect, but experience teaches that a broken reed has been relied upon because nothing practicable has been, done.

During the present season thousanddeof ,pounds , worth of valuable goods have perished _between the grower's establishment and the market, owing to the great amount of -time takensup in transit on the a30

railway. Peas tons of them, have been placed on rail in a somewhat damp condition, and upon arrival at the market have been found to have fermented and become almost unmarketable at a gift price. To my mind, the only way of immediately solving the problem will be found in private enterprise. There are a number of phases to, the problem. There is, for instance, the caseof the grower. He must needs get his goods away from the farm or market garden immediately the crops are ripe. There are also the many intricate problems relating to the interchange of goods between the growers and the wholesalers and retailers and delivery to the consumer. The Fruit. Grower, a very rive organ of the fruiterer, genet, and market gardener, has some very striking facts to put forward with regard to the position, and coming from a source not interested in the

motor trade, one is bound. to admit that it carries a great deal of weight. •

In the course of a recent article, The Fruit Grower points out that efficiency in production has largely outstripped efficiency in distribution, yet. distribution is as vital an economic factor as production. An old saying illustrates the position: "God made apples, but He did not put them into people's mouths." It is an old story, older than the needs which sent the sons of Jacob down for corn to Egypt. The solution of the problem of distribution is a. much more serious task than it used to be, owing to the concentration under modern civilization ideas of consumers in large centres, and the inability of the railway services to cope with the demands made upon them . as carriers and distributors of the country's produce and merchandise.

Nor is there much hope of a return to those "railway facilities" which were such a boon to the British. public and British trade in the days before the war. With the position as we find it now, and having to pay still heavier freight and passenger rates without any expectation of anything approaching an efficient service in return, the tendency will be more than ever towards a greater use of the roads ; indeed, the opinion is expressed that this country has in the recent Past relied too exclusively on the railway. Fallowing the railway strike of last year when merchants and traders all over the country were greatly impressed by the conspicuous success achieved in the organization of a system of road traffic, and particularly in the distribution of foodstuffs, many persons went so far as to assume that the commercial motor vehicle .would presently supersede the railway for the purpose of general goods traffic. This is an exaggerated view of the prospects, and no well-informed advocate of road motor transport would go so far as to advance such a claim.

As regards goods-carrying services, the great future of the motor vehicle is fairly well defined. Where distances are relatively moderate, say, up to 50 or even 100 miles, and prompt delivery is of importance and value, it must of necessity be preferred to the railway. The great advantage of the motor vehicle over any inflexible system such as a rail or tramway is that it can work exactly and directly between any two given points, providing that there is a road between them, and it is not, confined to any particular route.

For this reason, and not as a mere feeder of the railway (although valuable in. this regard), the Genii Menial motor vehicle must he used on an ever* increasing scale by enterprising retailers for the collection of goods and their house-to-house deliverft over considerable areas, and, even more so, by wholesalers and merchants for point-to-point transport of loads varying from one to five tons. This form of quick and convenient transport is to be, particularly recommended whenever the goods carried are of such a nature as to suffer seriously from handling or delay.

Already, owing to the highly 'perishable character of the produce handled in the fruit, vegetable and flower growing and distributing industry, there has been a remarkable increase in the use of road transport vehicles, particularly those equipped with the internal-combustion engine. The misadventures, rnis-deliveries, damage. in handling, pilfering in transit, unsuitable trucking, and other anomalies of rail transit have brought about in this special industry probably a more thorough adoption of road motor transport for the marketing and distribution of the goods handled in these trades than in any other industry in this country. This is principally due to the fact that there is a minimum of handling, the goods are 'delivered direct from the sources of origin to the wholesale distributing centre, and at times which can be relied upon ; and the fact that the, goods arrive' in a morecondition, speaking generally, than thosecarried in other ways, has resulted in almost surprisingly higher prices being -realized for the produce than has -otherwise been possible.

In this way the fruitand vegetable industry is striving to approach the ideal, when efficiency of distribution _shall equal efficiency of production, and are helping to solve one of the many economic paradoxes —namely, the co-existence of glut and scarcity in the

same place. AGRIMOT.

Tags

Organisations: Ministry of Transport

comments powered by Disqus