Fruit, Potato and Sugar-beet Crops in Danger
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Dithering by the Railway Companies and Procrastination by the Ministry of Transport are Causing Hauliers to Neglect Their Vehicles Which Will Thus be Unavailable for the Transport of These Essential Foodstuffs—By S.T.R.
THE fruit crops, the potato crops and the sugar-beet crops of Cambridgeshire and Norfolk are in jeopardy. It is probable that there will be a serious shortage of the vehicles necessary for the transport of these essential foodstuffs when they are harvested and ready to be conveyed to markets and factories.
The Ministry of Transport will not give hauliers any guarantee that th.ly will be granted fuel for the work and they are allowing their vehicles to go to rack and ruin because, without some guarantee of work for them, they cannot afford the cost of the annual overhaul and preparation to deal with this seasonal traffic.
Briefly, the situation is this. The railway companies are dithering, trying to make up their minds what they will be able to do, and taking an unconscionable time in deciding.. They hope they may be able to take all the traffic. but cannot promise to do so. They may he able to return empties quickly —a vital factor in view of the shortage of wood and because picking of the fruit cannot proceed without baskets and boxes—and they may not.
Strawberry Crop for Road Motors?
It is being tentatively suggested that road transport may be called upon to deal with the strawberry crops, the less easily damageable fruits being left to the railways. Or again, that the railways may be asked to deal with traffic for distant markets and road transport given the job of carting fruit to local canning factories. There are Practical objections to both these prospective courses, as I shall show.
The Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Food, it is stated, have come to some sort of agreement on the subject. and it is believed that, as part of that agreement, petrol is to be made available as and where it is eventually shown to be absolutely necessary. The persons chiefly concerned, however, the haulage contractors, are being given no satisfactory guarantee, with the result as briefly set out above.
In three weeks from now the softfruit crop will be ready for picking and, unless something be done now, there will be no road vehicles to convey it to its various destinations.
Hauliers, without definite prospects of work, are not preparing their vehicles, or keeping drivers in employment. At this time of the year, it is usual for them to have all their vehicles put into first-class condition, first for this crop, then for the potatoes, and afterwards for the sugar beet. They are not, at present, doing that. Instead, owners of fleets are using up their vehicles one after another. So soon as one goes out of commission, because of some minor defect, it is pushed to the back of the premises and another brought out to take its place. This, it should be explained, is possible because the staple business of hauliers in this area is that of hauling agricultural products, such as those enumerated above. The work is seasonal and the full strength of the fleets is not utilized until the middle of June. Only a few vehicles are in regular use at this time of the year. To-day, garages are Steadily filling with decrepit vehicles and it will very soon be the case that, with the best will in the world, it will be impossible to get them into condition in time for the soft-fruit harvest.
One prominent haulier iu Wisbech, who, in normal circumstances, would now be spending upwards of £500 on repairs and overhauls, is not laying out one-tenth of that sum. He has, it is true, two spare engines on order, but they have been on order for over two months and there does not appear to he any prospect of early delivery.
Where Railways Fail
In view of past experience, the fact that, even in peace time, the railways have been unable to carry more than 50 per cent, of the fruit crop, that the railways can offer much less in the way of transport facilities now than in peace time. and because it is anticipated that the fruit crop this year will be a record one, it would seem reasonable that hauliers should, at once, be.informed that they will be given as much petrol for this work as they have had in previous years.
The opinion of Mr. Norman Bush, a prominent haulier in Wisbech, is of interest in this connection. His view is that of most of the more militant of his fellows. He says: " Bump all the traflic on to the railways and show them up. They have not the staff to deal with it and they have not the rolling stock, certainly not the closed vans which are essential for the traffic." He anticipates that tle need for the help of road transporf will, this year, be greater than ever before.
An executive official of an important canning factory throws doubt on the value of the suggestion that there will be any saving of petrol effected by putting local traffic only into the hands of road transport_ The latter will inevitably be needed for long-distance traffic. Even in normal times it is impossible to plan production on the basis of deliveries so made. The factory's through-put may at any time be exceeded.
The problem that then arises, for immediate decision, is what to do with the surplus. As the result of telephonic discussion with various factories all over the country it may be decided to send the surplus so far away as Evesham or Paddock Wood. Only transport by road can•be used, for time is the essence of the work. The fruit must be despatched on the instant and delivered direct.
Besides the consideration of vehicles available, it may be stated that the driver position also is becoming serious. It is likely to become more so, if some steps be not taken to encourage operators to keep their vehicles in commission and their men in employment. A shortage of drivers will accentuate the difficulty of dealing with the sugar-beet crop, concerning which even Ministry of Transport officials are already having serious misgivings.
Better Prices from Fruit Sy Road The question of the intrinsic value of the fruit as it reaches the market is surely something which cannot be left out of consideration. Its selling price is a reasonable guide to that. I am told that strawberries sent by road fetch as much as id. or even id. per lb. more than those .sent by rail, because they are in much better condition.
On the subject of the division of function—the prospective despatch of fruit over long distances by rail, in preference to road—it is clear that the authorities who have devised that scheme are out of touch with realities, It is widely recognized that, at least so far as soft fruit is concerned, it is th6 long-distance traffic which must go by road, even if the short-distance traffic be sent otherwise.
It is in the point-to-point delivery, and in the facilities for the collection of the freshly picked fruit, as and when it is available, regardless of the time of day, that road transport is so valuable. Business in soft fruits has been built up, in many large towns, solely on the basis of the help which road transport alone can give.
It is important that, in considering this vital problem, the national aspect should not be overlooked.
But let us suppose, as daily grows more probable, that there suddenly arises an urgent need of road transport for emergency use. What is going to be our position if, as the result of this negligent attitude towards this particular aspect of the preservation of a road-transport system, it be found that only a minority of suitable vehicles is fit for service. /1 that 'occurs the Ministry of Transport Will have to face some severe criticism, and will have considerable difficulty in meeting it.