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IN YOUR OPINION

20th November 1964
Page 76
Page 76, 20th November 1964 — IN YOUR OPINION
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Useful Roller Bodies

IWAS interested in the roll-on/roll-off body which

• appeared in The Commercial Motor on November 13. The idea is not new--I believe that a version of it was built some years ago. Van bodies are built at present with rollers to take pallet loads.

A type of roll-onkoll-off body could be fitted to most flat-top bodies, with rails bolted to the top of the frames. Semi-trailers could be built in the same way. This type of roller body could be used by large firms having fleets of standard vehicles. It could be especially useful for pallet-bodied containers for foodstuffs or boxed items (also loaded containers of materials in large works).

Perhaps York or Crane Fruehauf or Dyson would be interested in such a development, which would save thousands of man-hours in loading/unloading every week. The B.R.S. van fleet, on contract food or bulk load, would surely be a good customer for this idea. Different types of body could be used, including flats and coil carriers, van bodies and special containers, iron ore or sand/gravel bodies, oil and fuel tankers or bulk cement.

I believe that the New York Central Railway uses roller bodies with its Flexi-van road/rail containers (with specialbuilt rail vehicles having a turntable in the middle for transferpurposes). These containers can carry 50 tons in pallet loads.

With so many man-hours wasted every week with ordinary loading methods, hauliers could try roller bodies for their haulage requirements in the container traffic.

Crewe, Cheshire. J. W. MoRRts.

Need for Transport Engineers

I AGREE with Mr. A. S. Bryant (The Commercial Motor, November 13) in emphasizing the need for qualified engineers for road transport. The professional transport engineer has many duties, among them the following:—

He must be able to explain to the boss in non-technical terniS the technical trouble with his fleet; he must keep costs down—and fully explain the reasons when costs are high; he muse be able to talk comprehensively to the rep " who calls on him; he must be able to handle people (which is an art in itself), including workshop mechanics and managers; he must meet the right people, go to the right meetings and read the right literature.

In addition he must diagnose and remedy mechanical faults and try hard not to lose his temper when things go wrong, which is not infrequently.. Indeed, the path of the road transport engineer is paved with troubles. These he must overcome for the reward of a very meagre salary. It is not surprising that the supply for this type of worker does not meet the demand.

After all a doctor is a necessary evil "—because if people didn't become ill he wouldn't be neededyet the community does not object to paying him a decent salary for a decent day's work. In my view a vehicle is very much like a human being in steel it becomes ill and requires the attention of a different type of doctora fully-qualified engineer. Unfortunately, the engineer is not regarded in the same way and until the prevailing attitude changes the supply of good class engineers will continue to be short.

Stockton, Co. Durham. • T. K. DonsoN, Econofreight Transport Ltd.

Opening at the End

IN your item headed "Comments, Please:" (October 23 I issue) you state in the fourth paragraph that the draft British Standard for freight containers'" encourages a trend away from end loading towards side loading in freight containers ".

My reading of the Standard does not confirm this view, as it states in Section 7: "each container shall be provided with an opening at least at one end ".

London, W.1, G. F. ANGUS,

Distribution Manager, The Distillers Co. Ltd..


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