Action on Staggering
Page 27
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POSITIVE action is now being taken I towards the staggering of working hours, in many parts of the country, to reduce peak electricity loads. This programme will require careful co-ordination with those schemes already under consideration, or actually in force, for easing peak loads on transport.
During a conference held at Dewsbury on August 13 to discuss staggering in relation to electricity supply, the benefit which such staggering could give in reducing passenger-transport peaks was urged by Mr. D. E. Bell, general manager of the Yorkshire Woollen Dis trict Transport Co., Ltd. His company's hti services could not, he said,
deal with the number of workpeople travelling between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
A scheme for staggering has been .completed by Sheffield Corporation's passenger transport committee, after consultation with employers and representatives of trade unions, It is being held in abeyance, however, pending the result of conferences on electricity-load staggering.
A goods-transport point was raised in a letter from Mr. L. Ballan, district goods manager, L.N.E.R., Hull, at a conference at Hull on August 14 to discuss electricity-load staggering. He urged that when working hours . were staggered, the flow of goods for transport from factories should still be kept steady.
The Government, be remarked, had appealed for special measures to be taken to ensure that transport could function on at least six days per week in serving industry and commerce. Therefore, if hours of work were varied or works closed down for an additional 'day per week, provision should be made for handling all traffic in accordance with the normal working arrangements on ordinary working days. At tt meeting of the Joint Consultative Committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. Isaacs, Minister of Labour, last week, both sides urged that the problems associated with the staggering of working hours should be settled . quickly, to enable transport undertakings to adapt their schedules to changed
hours of work. •