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THE 1BLEM WAIT TIME

31st March 1961, Page 52
31st March 1961
Page 52
Page 53
Page 54
Page 52, 31st March 1961 — THE 1BLEM WAIT TIME
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

ALTHOUGH a good deal has been written on the subject of delays encountered by commercial goods vehicles, it is by no means certain that trade and industry as a whole appreciate the importance of ensuring that lorries are not held up, but are turned round as quickly as possible when collecting or delivering.

It is understandable that the haulier sees the importance -et once. He is performing a service, not making an article. Not only is time money to him, but failure to be on time when his vehicles are held up unnecessarily may lead to the loss of another customer. His predicament is very much the same as that of a manufacturer whose products are rejected after inspection when they come off the production line.

Overlooking the Problem

The trader who operates vehicles is more likely to see the point. This is demonstrated all too often when he gives preference to his own vehicles regardless of arrival times.

A manufacturer with no knowledge of transport would tend to overlook this problem. Having a complete knowledge of his machines' output per day, he should be able to estimate very closely his transport requirements some reasonable time ahead.

This is simple, because the machines are in his own factory and under his direct supervision. The haulier can only estimate what is likely to happen to his own machines, or, in other words, the vehicles in his fleet. He knows how long it should take for a particular journey, but can do no more than guess at the delays his driver may be meeting.

, These delays are of vital and immediate consequence to the haulier. They are ultimately

of equal importance to trade and industry, although their full effects may not be felt until some time has passed. When vehicles are standing still a good many of their costs continue to mount. They musi be met in the end by the customer. He may find that hi haulier is no longer willing to work for him at the saint rates as before.

A limited attempt to estimate the cost involved in waitini time was made by the Road Haulage Association in 1957 The inquiry showed that the average vehicle was idle fo nearly half the 54 hours a week when it was supposed to b working. The evidence is that the proportion of waitinl time has gone up rather than down since 1957.

Delays to his vehicles are therefore a serious item in th, haulier's budget. Some idea of the cost involved may b obtained from the figure of approximately 12s. an hou which represents the standing charges alone of a norma 7-ton vehicle.

In some cases the incidence of waiting is so marked that it can hardly be overlooked even by the most casual observer. For example, loading facilities at many collieries in the Midlands are so inadequate that a vehicle that should be able to make three trips a day usually has to be content with one, and may be held up for as long as five hours before it is loaded. At Smithfield market, another notorious spot, meat hauliers have had to increase their

charges to cover the cost of delays to their vehicles.

The difficulty is not confined to certain types of operation or to certain kinds of traffic. There are many reasons for delays, some outside the control either of the haulier or of his customer; some due to what may be called natural causes and others to the human element.

The most frequent complaints come from operators using docks and ports. For the most part these were designed and built in the heyday of the railways, and have still not been modified in accordance with the now established predominance of road transport. To the credit of some of the dock authorities it should be said that they are making some effort towards modernization and in particular towards regulating the flow of traffic.

If the arrival and departure of lorries could be spread more evenly, at least some of the dock congestion would be avoided. The customer can help materially on this point. particularly by avoiding where possible the practice leaving the dispatch of a consignment until a day or so before a ship is due to sail.

A comparatively new cause for delays to goods vehicles is the application by local authorities of bans on loading and unloading in certain busy streets at -certain times of the day. The attitude of the haulier and of his customer to the bans is mixed. With an inadequate road system such as we have at the present time it must occasionally—but only very occasionally---be accepted that a busy street must be kept clear at all costs. On the other hand to ban traffic is often an easy and tempting way out of a difficulty that could better be solved by other means.

United Against Bans Hauliers and traders through the associations representing them are co-operating in opposing unnecessary bans. Where they are imposed, as unfortunately often happens in spite of protests, they are bound to cause delays especially where a vehicle arrives at the premises of a customer while a ban is in operation and has to wait for some hours before making delivery.

The very fact that loading bans cause such trouble. delay and ultimately expense to trade and industry is the very best reason for saying that in many cases they are a Mistake.

They cost the community far more than they can possibly save by keeping the roads open for traffic that may often not be of particular importance.

As with dock delays it is difficult to blame the customer for a loading ban that he may have moved heaven and earth to resist. Here also, however, there is something that the customer can do to help his hauliers and himself. For example, if his premises are in a street where a ban is in operation, he should make every endeavour to warn hauliers before their vehicles call, of the times when collection or delivery is not permitted.

There is a good deal that traders can do at their own premises to assist the quick turn-round of vehicles. It is surprising how often facilities for loading or unloading vehicles are lamentably inadequate or literally do not exist. Elaborate mechanical handling equipment may not always justify the fairly heavy expenditure involved, but very often it would cost little to have at least the minimum equipment necessary to get a load on or off a vehicle quickly and without undue effort.

Admittedly space is precious, particularly in the centre of a large town. Even allowing for this there are some premises that could well be enlarged or adapted so as to take rather more vehicles than can now be accommodated.

The transport department of a business is like any other department. It cannot work properly with inadequate tools and staff, and with insufficient room. Because for long periods of the day a vehicle yard or loading bay is not being fully used, the temptation is to assume that here is the much-needed space available for storage and expansion.

Costs Transferred

The idea seems to work at first, in spite of certain rather disturbing difficulties. There is congestion at busy times and the. long line of vehicles waiting outside the yard brings a crop of complaints from other road users and from the police. The trader accepts these minor difficulties because he is saving on rent, rates and other costs. He is slow to realize that the hauliers are the chief sufferers and that the costs are being transferred to them.

Sooner or later the costs must come back to him in higher transport charges. To set the matter right he may be put to considerably more expense than if he had paid proper attention to the transport problem from the beginning.

Traffic staff can do much to avoid unnecessary delays. Even the customer with a small business should have one or more members of his staff with the specific duty of arranging for the loading and unloading of vehicles. If employees have to be taken from other work for this purpose it may not be easy to spare them at the time when the vehicle arrives, and it is kept waiting until somebody is ready to deal with it.

Closer co-operation between customer and haulier would often help to cut down waiting time. Very often a trader knows that a vehicle is going to call at his premises, but may make no arrangements to receive it until it actually arrives. If goods to be collected were assembled in advance the vehicle would be able to pick them up at once and be on its way immediately.

A fair amount of give and take is required if the maxi-16

mum efficiency is to be achieved. The trader and the haulier are well aware that, because of traffic congestion and such things as loading and unloading bans, it is becoming increasingly difficult to estimate precisely when a vehicle that has been ordered will arrive. This is surely an excellent reason why the goods to be collected should be assembled and the employee ready to receive delivery.

The situation is not helped by the progressive introduction of a shorter working week, desirable though this may be in itself. As far as collection or delivery is concerned the haulier is finding that with many of his customers the entire week-end is eliminated from perhaps 3 p.m. or 4 p.m. on Friday afternoon until whenever the premises open on Monday morning. The vehicle that arrives with a load too late on Friday may, therefore, have to stand idle for the best part of three days.

It is, no doubt, up to the haulier to arrange for the arrival of his vehicle within the times when the premises of the consignee are open. Because of the many other causes of delay it may not always be possible to do this, so that the provision of facilities outside the normal working hours would be extremely helpful, even if they were available only in times of emergency.

Mutual Aid

In certain circumstances customers can also co-operate, with each other. An interesting proposal has been put forward by express carriers. A number of small consignments will often be handed over for delivery to several customers in the same block of buildings. In such cases it would speed up delivery and possibly reduce the risk of theft from the vehicle if the various tenants could arrange a common dispatch and delivery point.

Although this article has been written from the point of view of the haulier, it is not the intention to suggest that he is always blameless and that the customer is invariably the guilty party. The hope is that customers and hauliers will get together more closely than in the past to deal with the problem of waiting time, remembering that the haulier is the immediate sufferer from unnecessary delays, but that the 'cost must sooner or later fall on the trade and industry of the country.

Tags

Organisations: Road Haulage Association

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