The Economical Employment of Road Transport.
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AMIDST THE CHORUS of praise of motor transport with which the daily Press has recently been filled, there has been just one discordant note. Doubts are expressed, and in some cases are reasonable, as to the comparative cost of road and rail haulage.
In this connection the influence of the present high fuel costs tends to be exaggerated. After all, a reduction of a shilling a gallon in the cost of fuel would not make a difference of more than about a half-penny per ton-mile in the cost of conveying goods in a threeto four-ton lorry.
It appears that the Ministry of Food, daring the strike, charged traders making use of their transport at the rate of 6d, per ton per mile. This is by no means unreasonable, and only careful and good organization would make it possible for a service to be commercially prosperous at this rate.
When it comes to dealing with congestion at docks and railway goods depots, a great deal of valuable time probably has to be wasted before the vehicle can be provided With its load. This, of course, has the effect of increasing the cost of haulage. We may admit freely enough that, in respect of long journeys, the cost of conveying a ton by goods train is appreciably lower than the cost of conveying the same load by motor lorry. We must, however, bear in mind the point that, when lorries are intelligently employed, the total ton-mileage of work to be done is much reduced.
We all know that, when we stay in a seaside town, we generally find that the fishmonger gets his supplies from London. In plenty of cases the fish was caught somewhere along the neighbouring coast and has been carried the whole way to London and then the whole way back again. If motor services were established for local distribution, a great deal of this sort of thing would be eliminated.
It is cheaper to pay 6d. a mile for the conveyance of a load over a distance of, say, 20 miles direct to its destination than to pay RI. a mile for the indirect delivery of that load involving its carriage over perhaps 150 miles of railway line.
Again, there are plenty of cases in which the value of the load tends to depreciate with the length of the journey. Either the suPplies go bad, or else they are apt to get crushed or bruised and their value reduced in. the. process.The saving thus possible by employing direct haulage by motor vehicle must be set against the higher cost of transport per ton-mile of work performed.
Similarly, when one considers the case of the congestion of the docks, the extra cost of working is a small matter when. compared with the immense loss at present involved through the enforced delay of ships which are unable to discharge their cargoes because there is nowhere to deposit them.
The Call for Freight Exchanges.
THE EYES of the public, of producers, of merchants and traders have been opened to the importance of the road arteries of the 'country. Many of them had looked on the roads (perhaps, through too close an acquaintance with them) in a wrong light, much as the unobservant father entirely misses the charms of his own children.
This new appreciation of the value of the roads must now be exploited to the full by the trade organizations, in order to secure early constructive work upon. the many improvements required everywhere.
Efforts must also be made to secure the establishment of freight exchanges such as, during the war, were successfully conducted in Birmingham, Manchester and elsewhere under the different chambers of commerce. Empty running has always been the bugbear, not alone of road vehicles, but of all kinds of conveyances : the commercial motor vehicle, in fact, shows up better than most in this respect, as it does not nearly approvh the railway wagon for idle time and waste mileage.
We have given, on occasion, particulars of the successful organizations for Meeting the demand for return freights and, only recently, dealt with the cperations of Mr. Nathan Fine's bureau established by the Manchester Ckamber of Commerce, and now run as a private concern. Much of the success (we might net go far wrong if we were to say "all of the success") of such organizations is due to individual energy, initiative and enterprise. The work for the vehicles must be sought in every direction, because the temptation to the owner of the vehicle, or its charterer, is to accept the empty running as a necessary evil (the cost of which he may be able to "pass on," in which case he can afford to be complacent about the matter) and to regard it as more important to get the vehicle back quickly, ready for the next outward load, than to cover wholly or partiallythe cost of the return journey. No hard and . fast rules can be laid down in this respect, because frequently, the arguments advanced in favour of this attitude are quite sound. For all that, much remains B23 to be done to counter empty 'running, and our own observation has always shown that, when success is earned, it can immediately be traced to one individual who searches out the business, and skilfully interweaves the journeys.
So much for the necessary effort to secure greater efficiency and economy of running of motor lorries. The relieving of the railways of short distance goods traffic would naturally follow, to the advantage of the longer hauls, which would then be handled with less delay at both ends of the journey.
The difficulties in bringing owners and users of motor lorries into rapid touch with each other, of preventing friction in their relations, and of establishing scales of haulage rates which shall be fair to the traffic and to the service and generally standardized, at. least, so far as each district is concerned, should be ta,ckled by organizations to be set up in every important centre, the work of the whole of these organizations being co-ordinated by the daily circulation of a freight list, giving the freights wanted and offering. This would bring the Birmingham and 'London districts (for example) into close touch, and avoid much of the empty running that has occurred between the two cities.
Here is work for a great organizer : here, in fact, is real work for the Ministry of Ways and Communications, and it should be at once taken in hand.
Traffic Congestion.
ONE OF the greatest problems with which we are faced is that of reducing the appalling traffic congestion which exists in and about the busiest parts of London. There is an old saying "All roads lead to London," and this is truer to-day than it ever was in the past. From all parts of the country, transport of all descriptions has London as its centre and, naturally, the neaier it gets to that centre the greater is the congestion. . . That the question/is one of the greatest importance is admitted by the best-known authorities on traffic problems, and that it has not yet reached the climax is also admitted.
Many suggestions have been made to deal with this matter, particularly as regards the city, where fast traffic is slowed down to a most inefficient speed. The -only practical method of dealing with the difficulty is to speed up the traffic and, in order to do this, horsed transport should be altogether eliminated from those streets where the greatest congestion occurs. A modification of this would be to forbid the use of these streets to all slow-moving traffic during specified hours, confining it to other routes during the passenger and fast goods traffic rush periods of the morning and evening. Every encouragement, toe, should be given in the matter of the provision of loading docks and bays in congested streets for the delivery of goods so that the circulation area shall not be restricted, and it might also be possible to distribute the traffic so that in the badly congested portions, all the vehicles will travel in the same direction. This latter method was the one successfully adopted in France to cope with the congestion of traffic caused by the vast quantities of war material and food which were required by our Armies. The speed of fast traffic should certainly not drop below an average of 12 m_p.h. B24 Considerable traffic blocks sometimes occur at tram terminal points.. Trains which arrive in the wrong order at these points are sorted out and held up until the numbers are transposed into the correct order, only to be mixed again at the next branch line. D. the trams were unloaded, loaded and despatched as quickly as possible it would be quite as easy to regulate them outside the congested areas. Passengers should also be allowed to ascend and descend at both ends of the tram. The acceleration of egress and ingress, in the case of buses, has already been taken in hand in designing the new vehicles.
We know that some of the schemes were suggested long ago, but the point is that none of them eas as yet been adopted or even experimented with.
During a recent enquiry it was stated that the indirect losses due to inefficiency of London's passenger transport amount to something like 250,000,000 per annum. The recent strike gave us a. good idea of what, the traffic conditions in London will be like in the near future if strong measures are not taken at once to deal with the matter, ancl if these conditions are allowed to develop, the indirect losses will be incalculable. The gradual replacement of the B-type bus by the K-type will tend to assist in the speeding up of bus traffic. On the other hand, the probable increase in the number of buses may more than compensate for this, and matters will then be as bad as or worse than before, unless action be taken quickly.
The Scooter as a Business Factor.
AT FIRST SIGHT the motor scooter does not, perhaps, strike one as being of much interest from the point of view of the basiness and commercial community. There are, however, certain. possibilities in connection with it. One of the ,main inherent' disadvantages of the telegraph system is, of course, the delay which must necessarily occur between the reception of a message at the post office and its ultimate delivery. In the matter of speed, the ecooter will not perhaps possess much advantage over the ordinary bicycle, but the hat weather of the summer reminded us that the same argument may be applied here as is often applied to the business of, let us say, a brewer or mineral water manufacturer. In such businesses the rush synchronizes exactly with the arrival of a spell of hot weather. Just at the time when horses-are unable to sustain a long daily mileage, the demand for transport is at its•highest. This is an argument that has rightly influenced the purchase of large numbers of motor vans and lorries. What applies to horseflesh applies equally to the human being. . It is questionable whether the constant use of a, bicycle is good for a growing boy. It is certain that, when the weather is exceptionally hot, the human bey will be inclined to take things exceptionally easy. These delays in the telegraph system and in the delivery of express messages are certain to occur just at the time when the business man, himself affected by, the heat, is particularly anxious that his business should go smoothly and without worry. Give theaboy a mechaniealconveyance and the result will be that in_hot weatherahe will be inclined to travel at a higher rather than at a lower speed. Rapid movement through the air, unaccompanied by physical exertion, has a pleasantly cooling effect. A well-designed scooter should be exceptionally easy to guide in traffic without accident and without danger to others. It should be better under control than a bicycle. Thus, there is at least some sort of a case for anticipating that before next summer it may become a factor in the conduct of business, if not actually in the transport of goods.