THE MANY-SIDED ASPECT OF DOCK TRANSPORT.
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How 40,000,000 People are Fed Through Our Ports.
IN HIS SPEECH at Liverpool a few
days ago, on the great London. and North-western motorway, Lord Montagu, in a statement of the amazing progress of road transport, incidentally referred to the peculiar conditions that prevailed at Liverpool, where the employment of horse-drawn lorries on dockside transport is almost as general as it was a few years ago. The self-propelled vehicle certainly figures prominently in the realm of dock
side s transport, but, owing to the coitli
/less of purely local work within a three or four-mile radius, congested dock sheds and a comparatively slow dock road traffic, many firms who are also motor owners continue to find useful service for the horse-drawn vehicle._ . Par all that, a tour of the docks in any of the great ports yields interesting bird's-eye views of the manifold activities
and services of motor fleets. There is hardly a Inarnifacturing industry in the country that can he entirely independent of shipping services---for inward or outward freight—and the whole gamut of the world's production, therefore, is reflected in the commercial road transport of deck-side. With this brief introduction, it may not be out of place to touch upon some of the difficulties that are encountered in the quick despatch of loads. When a huge cargo-carrying steamer is berthed in dock and is ready for unloading, a small army of men is called into service. As the cargo is raised from the holds of the steamer it is checked and trucked (in nearly every case by hand) to the dock sheds for load;ng direct on to either waiting motor lorries, horse vehicles or railway trucks. When a steamer is unloading, there is usually a
big congestion of, cargo and a concourse of vehicles waiting for their' particular loads. That there is a huge loeS of time in waiting for the right consignments cannot be denied. Consequently, it is obvious that, when loads are being awaited for transport to local warehouses within the three or four-mile radius, it --is hardly economical to -keep thousandfound lorries, thus idle.
The Increased Capacity of the
Motor.
A short time ago, the writer asked a Liverpool motor and horse owner what was the ratio of service of the two types of transport. He said that the motor vehicle would do three loads a day and have on the average an hour to spare at the end of the day compared with the horse lorry's two. Traffic delays accounted for the small load factor. As a rule only two holds of a steamer are worked at the same tide, andthis necessarily means that the loading up of the waiting vehicles is regulated by the de-' spiatch with which their particular consignments come uverside.
The transport of cargoes from the ship side is not exclusively by manual labour.• .Electric trucks are used for meat carrying, by the White Star Line and other companies for miscellaneous purposes, and by the Elder Dempster Co. for moving huge barrels of palm oil, logs of tim
ber and general produce. This latter company has its own electric charging plant at the docks: Meat transport at Liverpool involves the employment of very big miscellaneous fleets of motor vehicles—one company alone,. Messrs. Garlick, Burrell and Edwards, having over 100 units, Owing to the close contiguity of the cold stores, horse transport is fairly generously used, but not au much as one might think, owing to the arrangements which some coMpanies are able to make for direct tiansit from the ship-side to inland towns.
Obviously, a big use is made of insulated lift vans the vehicles with fixed insulated Van bodies being in a minority. Frequently, horse lorries carrying lift vans are in attendance on a meat steamer, and so soon as they are loaded up immediately travel to the cold stores, where the body is transferred to a motor lorry, which proceeds on its journey, while the horse vehicle returns with an empty van to the docks for another load. Apart from this, however, there is systematic loading of petrol vehicles with insulated bodies at the shipside, whence they immediately depart to Manchester or farther iuland With their supplies. The large number of shops in all parts of the country now distributing imported meat makes night and early morning travelling a necessity, so that fresh supplies, might be on sale in the shops early in the morning.
Having now dealt with meat, one might well see how cotton—another important commodity—is handled. Much of this traffic is warehoused and consigned ex warehouse to the cotton spinner. Most of these estaldishments are located in very narrow streets, which necessarily involve traffic delays. It is a common sight to observe horse-drawn lorries conveying loads of 8 to 10 tons from the ship to the warehouse. To the mid-Lancashire cotton spinners there is a huge road traffic in cotton. Both steam and petrol Yehidles figure in this service, and competition for loads is sometimes very keen. Exploiting the return load is a frequent occurrence, and Manchester haulage contractors who have brought outward traffic to Liverpool are bold bidders for loads.
The provision trade motor fleets deal with some very heavy loads, boxes of bacon, cases of canned goods, cheese, sugar and so on. Some of the fleets engaged in this trade are amongst the finest in the port, and are well known throughout North Wales and Lancashire generally.. Special reference to the vehicles employed by the sugar refiners is war. ranted. Messrs. Fairrie, Tate and Lyle, and Macfie's each have well proportioned fleets of steam and petrol vehicles, Messrs. Tate and Lyle also employing a 5-ton electric vehicle for the transport of sugar from the docks to the refineries. Messrs. Fairrie make an extensive use of trailers with .their steam wagons, even on the purely local work of keeping the refineries well supplied with the bagged sugar from the docks. The sugar trade has also a big outward freight via the docks for shipment abroad, or, via barges, inland.
Grain and cereals are not dealt with in precisely the same fashion_ Some of the milling firms have their establishments on the dockside, and by the employment of suction plant the bulk grain is socked up through a pipe from the hold of the steamer and travels direct into the works. Bagged produce involves more labour, and is often transported by steam wagons and trailers. The milling firms also use high-sided petrol lorries for the conveyance of grain in bulk.
Every class of traffic has its own peculiarities, and fleets having been built up according to the specific requirements of the different users, the functions of dockside transport are being increasingly recognized as an essential department of
production. The growth of privately owned fleets has resulted in efficient transport service, but unfortunately less work for the general haulage. contractor.
Tractor trailers have made their debut in Liverpool dock traffic, but they are at present very few in number.
As might be expected, the ship-repairing firms, Messrs. Harland and Wolff, Gray
eon's, and Caramel, Lairds, have sub stantial fleets of vehicles for carrying tools, plant and repairing materials tc ships undergoing overhaul while in dock. Welding vans are in daily Attendance on steamers. Messrs. Harland and Wolff have several of these vehicles of Tilling Stevens manufacture.