THE MERRY CHRISTMAS THROB.
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How Road Transport Contributes to the Yuletide Spirit.
T MAY not be inappropriate to refer 1 at the eve of another Christmas to the manner in which the motor delivery van brings the Yuletide spirit into thousands of homes in all parts of the country.
At the time of writing, the shops and city emporiums are scintillating with a spirit of cheer and goodwill; orders are coming in and the goods are going out in a seemingly interminable stream. As fast as the motors deliver them fresh loads are gathered, and this process will be continued until the last thing on . Saturday night. It is interesting, by the way, in a tour of " down town" shops, as we provincials say, to note the large number of firms that stress their motor delivery services. Customers are appealed. tci simply to place their orders and foot the bill, the firm does thereat— delivering the parcels anywhere within a radius of twenty or so miles the same day.
The horse delivery van is now amongst the limbo of forgotten things, and in these days of hustle and quick turnover, cempaned with the facilities offered by the motor vehicle, would be a hindrance, rather than a help, in dealing with Christmas shopping. Motor deliveries are essential to every big city house nowadays, and have undoubtedly done muds to extend their sphere of influence from being purely local distributing agencies to area depots.
The lure of the shops has always had a fascination for the country as well as the town dweller, but in the days of horse transport the Christmas shopper could not always depend upon deliveries being promptly made. The motor has altered all this, and now one finds that the shopping by 'phone and by post habit has so "taken on " in suburban and country districts—so unfailing are the distributing services—that many firms operate big fleets of motors all the year round, to cover huge areas.
It may Seem incredible, but one important firm in a northern city informed the writer that their first Christmas orders for groceries, etc., came in by post more than a month ago, arid, as they increased, a special staff was employed to deal with them. This week the packing department—which is worked by shifts —will be in operation 24 hours a day, working continuously making up parcels, all of which will be delivered from early morning until late at. night by a fleet of a dozen or 80 two ton vans.
To describe how the system works in detail would involve the narration of much matter somewhat extraneous to the system of motor delivery, but the first tiling that is done after a scrutiny of the orders, is a classification of them into rounds which are scattered over the 20-mile area. In order to secure the maximum service from the motors this Christmas the firm we have in mind will, instead of using their motors for purely local deliveries, have in commission a number of horse vehicles, and these will enable the mechanically propelled units to be concentrated on the outer residential districts, from which the bulk of the orders come, So soon as the motors load up in the early morning—and the drives has a list of the addresses for which he has parcel; which are carefully and systematically packed in the van—they scatter north, south, east and west, delivering parcels of good cheer with a seemingly indiscriminate zest. The round completed, the motor returns to its depot for the second load, the third, fourth and so on, until a. late hour. On the Christmas E.Ve a careful watch is kept on the incoming orders .for delivery and the outgoing parcels, and so soon as it is discovered that. the transport department has as much to do as will keep it occupied up to a certain, but not unreasonably late, hour, a halt is called, and from that moment no more orders are accepted for delivery, unless it is known that on specified routes room can be found in the vans, We gleaned that in the administration of this system primary importance is attached to two departments—the incoming order department., where a soil' dent staff is concentrated for the prompt scrutiny and sorting of orders, and the delivery department. The staff of, the packing department 'is adjusted to meet, the needs of the other two.
The one ton van, a favourite vehicle. for all-the-year-round service,. only reveals its limitations in carrying space.
at the Christmas season. It must be remembered that many of the loads arc bulky but light. In view of the increasing attention which has been given' during the year to the employment of trailers, we are somewhat surprised that van trailer attachments are so rare. The us of motors with trailer attachments is recognized as the mast economical form of motor -transport, and low body trailers, mounted„.on, pneumatics, we
think, would be a very useful appendage for the city emporium vans. As it is, even he most advanced types of delivery van have nothing more than a rack at the top for the bulky articles. After the slump in road freight this List few months, it is quite refreshing again to see the streets alive with throngs of fully loaded petrol and steam wagons and trailers conveying produce from the warehouses to the retail. establishments.