Railways Not as Keen as Road—Traders
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ALTHOUGH the railways are showing a more commercial outlook, they are not yet as competitive on rates as road transport. This was stated on Wednesday by the. Association of British Chambers of Commerce, who put a number •of questions to 700 companies to ascertain whether, from the users' standpoint, the merchandise charges scheme of British Railways was operating smoothly after its first year's operation, and whether the• railways had been able to attract new traffic-.
There was some evidence of more competitive rates being offered particularly in those classesof traffic that the railways wished to attract. There had been a marked change in the railways' selling technique, but they still had far to go in the field of quoting competitively and in giving service. There was no ready spat quotation of rates to customers without .reference to headquarters, and this had led to 'delays and loss of traffic,
Road Favoured
The evidence indicated that there was no alteration in the allocation of traffic as between road and rail. The trend was still in favour of road transport because of the better service and less handling, even when the cost of haulage was equal or lower by rail.
Many companies commented that they used the railways little and were not interested in the new charges scheme. Traffic continued to be gained by road transport because of speedy delivery, fewer breakages and lower rates. Smalls were being lost by the railways because of high rates and increased demurrage charges.
DRIVERS OFFERED 7s. 6d.
QN Monday the London Transport
• Executive offered 700 Green: Line drivers an increase of 7s. 6d. a week, and other grades of worker 5s,, on condition that the Transport and General Workers' Union. would co-operate in reducing working expenditure.
The comment made by Mr. H. Nicholas, assistant general secretary of the Union, was: "We want more."
TWO MILLIONTH VEHICLE
THE 2,000,000th vehicle built for export since the war by the British Motor Corporation was shipped on Tuesday. It was one of the new 7-ton trucks, and left Birmingham bound for Malaya.