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Traffic Reform: Dock Delays.

28th January 1909
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Page 1, 28th January 1909 — Traffic Reform: Dock Delays.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The necessity for a reform of traffic conditions in relation to the overtaking of tramcars formed the subject of our leading article last week, but there are many other directions in which corresponding reforms are no less essential to the proper utilisation of commercial .motors, There is probably no greater stumbling-block than is provided in the existingpractices at the quays, sheds, and loading berths of the great dock companies and undertakings of the country. It is, however, quite fatuous to suggest that there can be any sudden undoing of the custom of " taking turn ": the only hope lies in the discovery of some practical alternative which shall not arouse the enmity of teamsmen. it is clearly useless to ask that a commercial motor shall be allowed to take precedence in a line of carts merely by reason of its greater speed on the road, or its greater value per hour. Known and settled conditions in commercial haulage and shipping circles force one to dismiss the idea as ludicrous, no matter how strongly theoretical abstractions may appear to lie on the side of such a course. The question, therefore,

arises : how can the hours of delay which now do so much to hinder the wider use of self-propelled vans and wagons in dockside work be reduced?

Members of dock and harbour boards, port commissioners, directors of steamship companies, master stevedores, and virtually every responsible man who is in touch with the problem of the rapid handling of cargo should be ready to welcome departures which will ameliorate or remedy the obtaining congestion. We believe they are. '[hey do not gain from the fact that horse-drawn vehicles take up their positions, in order to secure an early place outside the shed gates, several hours in advance of the time at which they can be admitted, and that motor wagons have to do the same. On the other hand, having regard to physical limitations, considerations of space, and a desire to avoid undue capital expenditure in respect of approaches, matters threaten to remain in slatu quo, and it is against this state of comparative apathy that we wish to enter a protest, because it is quite clear that something can be done, and that some changes will have to be introduced in the near future. As well might railway companies in this twentieth century seek to continue the practice of the earlier railway days, and maintain "mixed" trains, or the alternation of passenger and mineral trains on the same length of metals. Those wasteful methods of conducting railway affairs did hold sway for several decades, but they would now be regarded as providing the high road to bankruptcy. Corresponding alterations of system are urgently invited at the present time by the new factors which heavy motor traffic has introduced, and it is becoming increasingly apparent that some concerted steps must be taken to make representations to the dock authorities of the country. We should think that the Manchester Ship Canal Company might very well give a lead in this matter, because its management has, generally speak

ing, shown itself more favourable to motor-wagon people than has any other railway or dock concern.

The writer, in another placeā€”at the Executive Committee of the C.M.U.A., has already proposed that several propositions be officially put forward for consideration in the quarters indicated above. The first of these, as an expedient, is that any motor-wagon owner should offer to pay a reasonable fee, say, is. per load, in order to have his vehicle loaded or unloaded immediately it is tendered to the master porter, but this plan, we regret to have to admit, whilst it might furnish an official answer to the unavoidable and forceful objections of waiting teamsmen, could not be of any avail where it rested within the power of the latter-named class to obstruct the approaches : it might very well, however, serve in a number of cases, and for a few years to come. No full solution of this branch of traffic reform can be experienced, we fear, until this matter of freer means of ingress and egress is taken in hand : where horses and carts now line up in irregular fashion, sometimes three or four abreast, they might readily be marshalled into a semblance of symmetry ; where the area at the disposal of the dock authorities permits, particular routes upon the dock roads or quays might be set aside for the passage of self-propelled vehicles only. Briefly, in conclusion, if every supporter of this journal would make overtures on the basis of one or other of the foregoing proposals, it goes without saying that, if material improvement did not take place immediately, the justice of their claims would be ventilated, and that alone would be a step in the right direction. Taking the working value of a five-ton wagon at 6s. per hour, it is worth paying several times is, a day for the right of the turn : if horse owners care to pay, let them do so by all means, but the motor owner, by reason of the greater saving effected, can afford it much better, and still be the gainer.


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