AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Carriage of Dangerous Goods on Railways.

19th December 1918
Page 9
Page 9, 19th December 1918 — Carriage of Dangerous Goods on Railways.
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?

IN VIEW of the activities for many years of the general body of railway companies against that portion of our trade devoted to the manufacture of goods -which are classified—sometimes erroneously —by the railway companies as "dangerous," there never was a period in the history of heavy motors so prolific of possibilities as the present time.

Briefly put, the railway companies are out to kill the chemical trade by paralysing charges and restrictions, or even to drive it again to Germany, despite all that has happened. The Board of Trade is useless to the traders for redressing their grievances of this description. These words may seem harsh, but to those who know they are comparatively mild.

The Railway Executivetand Board of Trade.

The railways, during the warl have done some wonderful work, and it is not the intention herd to deny them their rneed of praise for that. .The result is natural: the Railway Executive Committee will not now need to go cap in hand to the Board of Trade to ask permission to do this, that, or the other. As a, reward for their services, the Board of Trade will not act as an arbitrator between the railways and the traders (its true functions), but will grant almost any facilities the railways ask for. When it is known that carriage charges have been recently increased on some chemicals by over 50 per cent., and that most of them are already double and treble the amounts charged in France and Germany, it must be obvious that the chemical trade is in sore need of help if it is euccessfully to compete with German producers. Appeal to the patriotism of those responsible for this position is useless; the trade must "find a, way or make it."

The Motor's Opportunity.

We must look ahead. We are now able to resume our civil life and normal business activities, and we must be up and doing to secure the needed transport reform. The opportunity is ripe for the transfer from rails to road of a vast volume of traffic.

Trader-owners of commercial vehicles should see to the placing of orders for fleet increases to the full extent permitted by their capital. carriers should act in the same manner after they have sounded all the chemical traders within a radius of 50 miles. A little consideration will show the enormous possibilities now open to the road carrier in this direction alone.

Taking the chemicals now carried in railway land wagons only, it is safe to say .that there is a possibility of the transference from rails to road of over 10 million tons per annum. Incidentally, another trade would be helped in such a campaign, because this transference would mean the making of a very large number of motor tanks, of 4 to 5 tons capacity, for the carriage of liquids from point to point: this, again, would help another trade through the -consequent "scrapping" of a large number of railway tank wagons.

There is nothing of the Utopian order in all this : it is simply a matter of creating business opportunities by a business nation. It is, in fact, but a reversion to the old order of carrying, with improved methods of transport.

Railway Charges for Services Not Rendered.

Finally, to show that this comparatively new problem for road carriage of chemicals has a more than reasonable measure of success attached to it, the readers of THE COMMERCIAL Mormaimay be advised of a recent article in a chemical journal which showed that in a rate per ton of 13s. 4d. charged for the carriage of 'inflammable liquids in tank wagons between two points on the railway, no less than 67 per cent, of the rate was charged by the railway company for services actually not rendered by them. In addition to this,4the railway companies not only absolve themselves from all liability for any loss or damage to the products they carry, but they are in the happy position, legally, of being able to refuse to accept any dangerous goods for carriage on rails.

The only answer to such autocratic methods in these days is to relieve them, as much as possible, of such responsibility and automatically to draw as much of the traffic astis possible on to the roads.

The opportunities for motor carriers and traderowners are here, and they are comparatively simple! Carriers are very much to blame, as business men, if they fail to grasp those opportunities. It cannot be too strongly urge&that, in the opinion of those who have closely studied the question, the policy of waiting for second-hand vehicles released from the Services is a mistaken one. Efficiency, above all things, will be necessary in machines and men, and to ensure the former the placing of orders for new vehicles will be found, in the long run, to be by far the safest policy.


comments powered by Disqus