P.L.A. Urges Early Delivery
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. FROM OUR INDUSTRIAL CORRESPONDENT
PIA PUBLICITY campaign aimed at explaining the need to send cargoes to the docks early is to be launched very shortly by the Port of London Authority. All the preparations for the campaign have already been made, the first meeting of the working party on export traffic problems were told when they met at the P.L.A. headquarters last Friday.
The working party, set up last month following discussions at a meeting of exporters and transporters, met under the chairmanship of Mr. Dudley Perkins, general manager of the Port of London Authority. Road haulage interests were represented by Mr. J. P. Wells, of Wells and Son (London) Ltd., representing the Road Haulage Association Ltd.; Mr. G. A. Harris, area secretary, Metropolitan and South Eastern area. Road Haulage Association Ltd.; and Mr. R. C. Stockman, paints division, Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd„ who represented the Traders Road Transport Association.
Other bodies represented at the meeting were: British Shippers' Council; Federation of British Industries; National Association of British Manufacturers; Association of British Chambers of Commerce; London Chamber of Commerce; London General Shipowners' Society; British Railways Board; Institute of Shipping and Forwarding Agents, and the Ministry of Transport.
Their task was to consider, together with senior officers of the P.L.A., ways and means of alleviating congestion at the docks and speeding up the movement of cargo. A statement issued after the meeting said they had agreed that the labour situation was basic to the problem, but that progress in that direction must await the publication of the report of the Devlin Committee and the Governments consequent action.
There were, however, other fundamental causes of congestion, the most important being the tendency of exporters to send their Cargoes to the docks at the last possible opportunity. Immediate studies would be made into a system whereby the exporters of certain types of cargo would be required to. send consignments to the docks on pre-determined days so as to spread more evenly the daily arrival load.
Further consideration would be given to the establishment of a reception/ consolidation depot outside the docks where goods could be off-loaded and transport freed immediately.
The statement concluded; "The frank discussion of the many problems by those involved and, in some cases, with conflicting interests, augurs well for the speedy tackling of some of the major problems concerning the docks at the present time."