A LTHOUGH I live in Switzerland I am able to obtain
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a copy of your journal each week and find it most interesting.
wish to put forward an idea on which I would like your opinion. In England, I own a Ford 5-tonner,which is, unfortunately, having to stand idle for the simple reason that I could not obtain the licence to operate it.
I was offered plenty of work, but that appeared to be no justification, with the result that I have had to come to work in Switzerland, where private enterprise is given all the help possible.
The scheme I have in mind is to bring my vehicle out here and operate from, say, the Channel ports into France, Switzerland or even Italy, conveying the goods which are being exported to these places from Britain.
At the moment I have only the one vehicle, but should the prospects be good, I would be quite prepared to invest in, say, two 12-tonners with trailers. It would then mean that the British exporters would have a roadtransport unit at their disposal, and I think this would result in a saving of that money which is so badly needed in England now.
The goods that I have in mind to transport would be such as are unlikely to be affected by weather, and would include those of a reasonably fragile nature.
Not long ago I saw a car which had come from England, and Which had been almost two months on the way. If Britain is to expedite her export, then the trade routes must be speeded up, otherwise much material will
be left in bottlenecks. N. R. ROY. Basel-land, Switzerland.
[Your letter strikes us as being very interesting and your suggestion quite a good one. It might be worth your while taking the matter up with the transport authorities in the countries through which you would pass, as that appears to us'to be the main problem. There would also be the difficulty of passing the frontiers with whatever goods you carried. If You give us permission to publish the details Of your scheme, we might get some transport firth over here to' workin conjunction with you. I am thinking of such a concern as Pickfords, for eVen two 12-tonners would do little more than scratch the surface of a shipload of export goods.—ED.)
IT was with great pleasure that I received your letter
this morning, and I am glad that you think my idea might be workable. As you suggest, two vehicles, even 12-tonners, would not be of much value in dealing with the quantity of goods that are shipped from Calais; but why should there not be a hundred of these?
The main point, of course, is to obtain 'them, and perhaps this could be done by working in conjunction with a transport conarn, as you suggest.
This brings me to one main point, however. If all the vehicles came from Britain, then we should find that
the road and rail authorities over here might be agoinst the project, but if, say, 40 came from Britain and 30 each from Switzerland and France, then the affair would become an international one. By working transport in this way, the concern would be used by the other two Governments, which would mean that the vehicles would be busily engaged and would run little empty mileage.
The journeys would, in some cases, be long, and two drivers would have to be carried on each vehicle. From Calais to Rome a 12-tormer and trailer would take about four days, but that would be the longest route. Personally, I think that the routes should be restricted to two days.
As to bringing in other concerns, 1 have mentioned this project to a Swiss one of good reputation, and it is most interested, particularly as Switzerland imports the bulk of its materials from Britain and America.
I would like to mention that 1 have passed quite a number of frontiers on my travels, often in transport vehicles, and I have found that, provided all the papers be in order, there is little or no trouble; for example, a van loaded, locked and certified as carrying only the goods referred to in the papers, will be passed without any difficulty. N. R. ROY, Basel-land, Switzerland.
THE EFFECTS OF SPEED ON COSTS.
WITH regard to the article by S.T.R., " Effects of " Speed on Costs," in your issue dated December 12, I would like to raise one or two points.
Apart from the snags referred to by the operator in that article, it would be very interesting to know in which class of country he is travelling to enable the vehicle to average 17 m.p.h., whilst never exceeding 20 m.p.h. over such a distance.
Personally. I much doubt if this can be done, and would appreciate the views of other readers on the
matter. C TtIORNTON. Cheltenham.
NEW EQUIPMENT TOO ADVANCED FOR AUTHORITIES
WE were most interested in your article concerning " the highway earth-boring equipment for setting telegraph poles, published in your issue dated December 12, We have had two of these units and operated them for various purposes for some years.. Amongst the classes of work which they have done have been post holes for the aeroplane defence works during 1940-2, prospecting for the Bassett-edge for ,outcrop coal mining, and trial holes for various housing sites.
The units have not been in great demand, and we are afraid that we have quite failed to educate the Post Office and the electricity authorities as to their usefulness..
It would appear that, so far as this country is concerned, they are " before their time."
W. OLIVER, Managing Director. (For Earth and General Contracts, Ltd.) Whittle Springs.