B.R.S. Take the Lead
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AN industry as varied and variable in its conditions as road haulage requires the utmost efficiency in its system of communications. In long-distance haulage the teleprinter offers outstanding advantages. It enables the movements of vehicles to be tracked quickly and accurately, loads to be traced and other vital information to be exchanged between depots, and between depots and customers, with a minimum of physical effort and in the shortest possible time.
. The latest development is the press-button tape transfer system, which employs punched paper tape. Duplex machines enable messages to be transmitted simultaneously in both directions through the same channel. If the line is engaged, the apparatus automatically stores the message until the channel is free and then transmits it. This system enables the maximum economic use to be made of a communication network. Great credit is due to British Road Services for being the first undertaking in Britain to introduce pressbutton tape transfer. The system has been in service for about two months and is stated already to be showing economies of 0,000 a year, apart from speeding up the handling of messages. It is believed to be the most modern in Europe and other organizations are expected to follow suit.
But even this great advance is recognized by B.R.S. as only transient. They are already looking to the day— perhaps five years hence—when the new system will be replaced by fully electronic communication. By this method teleprinter signals would be passed through a magnetic drum and could be erased at will, so that the drum could be used indefinitely.
These are unmistakable signs of a forward-looking policy that free-enterprise hauliers will ignore at their peril. Despite its high efficiency, such an expensive method of communication could not be adopted by individual hauliers, although it might be employed by a co-operative group. It is a matter that might engage the attention of the long-distance hauliers' functional group of the Road Haulage Association.