Hauliers' interests in air cargo
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DOAD hauliers who inevitably will be INinvolved in collecting and delivering the vastly increased tonnages that will be sent by air in the future will await with interest the outcome of the inquiry into the proposed development of Stansted as a third London airport. A great many interests are violently opposed to Stansted, and many objectors are honestly motivated by amenity considerations.
Alternative sites at Sheppey and Cliffe have been mooted, and there is no reason to doubt that local residents in these areas would express their opposition in a highly vocal manner.
So far, goods transport considerations appear to have been largely ignored; all the stress has been on the speed of transit of passengers from the airport site to central London.
The East Midland airport at Castle Donington has even been suggested as an alternative to Stansted, and supporters claim that the good motorway access should not preclude the idea because of the distance from the metropolis. Castle Donington airport authorities have told the RHA they would be prepared to provide facilities for the inland clearance of containerized goods.
Sir Giles Guthrie, chairman of BOAC, told the UK Air Cargo Club recently that Heathrow would be able to handle 150,000 tons of freight per year in each direction by 1975, with a peak capacity of 300 tons per hour. With this sort of potential (300 tons represents 20 15-ton loads) many hauliers and coach operators will hope that the Government will make plans in good time for at least four London airports at all points of the compass.
The forecast in "Look to the Skies" (COMMERCIAL MOTOR, December 17) that before long "nothing that can be moved by road will be too large or bulky to move by air" was strikingly confirmed by Sir Giles at the Air Cargo Club meeting. ". . . . We are no longer talking about loading or unloading aeroplanes", he said. "We are talking about handling bulk materials on the scale of a fair-sized factory".