More Road Transport for Parcel Post
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FROM OUR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT
MHE Post Office is now looking deter' mincdly to road transport to get its ailing parcels' service " out of the red ". The department's annual report for 1962-3, issued on Tuesday, has made it clear that the experiment in East Anglia, begun last month (The Commercial Motor, June 21). is being pursued with the idea that it must succeed.
On the basis of this experiment, the long-term plan will be to move Post Office parcel mail quickly between major railheads in bulk, and then to take it to destinations by P.O. vans. This will mean an increase in the size of Post Office fleets, Happily—apart from the use of its own road transport—this fits in with Dr. Beeching's own plans for reshaping the railways.
Before the switch takes place, however, the Post Office is putting pressure on the railways in a determined bid to " tighten up " the existing arrangements for handling parcels in transit, which at present go all the way by rail in small consignments.
The Post Office need is urgent, because last year more than £9 million was lost on parcels, a figure which almost wiped out the £10 million profit made by letter post. Increased charges imposed this year may help out, but bigger, better and 'faster business is what the department really wants.
The effect of the Beeching,Plan on the letter post is also causing furrowed brows. The report foresees problems in critical timings caused by the curtailment of passenger services. But again the Post Office is quite firm about the remedy. It says: "It should be possible generally to maintain the present standards of the letter post by using road services of one kind or another.