DoE statistics show continuing boost to
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road transport by our industrial correspondent
• Larger and larger lorries carrying an increasing amount of freight for customers over ever shorter distances. . . This picture of British road haulage emerges from a detailed examination of the industry issued this week by the Department of the Environment. (In the appended official tables the DoE has rounded up totals).
The information is based on the first two and a half years of the continuing survey of the transport of goods by road started by the Department in 1970. It uses samples drawn from the 540,000-strong register of goods vehicles on operators' licences, with an estimate of the work carried out. by the vehicles not falling within the licensing regulations, mostly those under 3-1tons gross weight.
The survey shows that 1735m tons of goods were carried by road in 1971 — 85 per cent of the tonnage carried by all forms of inland transport — while the tonmileage, about 50.4 thousand million, was just under 63 per cent of the overall total. The Department has revealed that the ton miles performed by road transport doubled between 1958, when it was 25.2 thousand million, and 1971.
A sharp drop in tons and ton-miles occurred in the first quarter of 1972, thought to have been caused by the miners'. strike and its effect on industry, but nevertheless, during the first half of the year, 868m tons were carried, by road and ton-miles reached 25.5 thousand million.
Vehicles over 8 tons unladen weight are carrying more tonnage over shorter distances, says the Department. Their average length of haul fell . from 50 miles in 1967-68 to 41 miles in 1971, while the tonnage they carried rose from 210m to 480m over the same period.
The proportion of ton-miles performed for hire and reward rose from just over 50 per cent in 1962 to nearly 60 per cent in 1972 while the tonnage figures show a similar picture — just over 40 per cent carried by the public haulage sector in 1962 and just over 50 per cent last ye In 1967/68 own-account vehick 5 tons unladen weight performed 8000m ton-miles. By 1971 the had risen to 12,000m. The ton-mil formed by vehicles under 5 tons 1 weight fell from 1 lm to under 9] the same period.
The same trend emerges in the sector, with larger vehicles notch 24,000m ton-miles in 1971, as opp 19,000m in 1967/68 and the vehicles under 6000m compare( 9000m.
In its analysis of the type of carried, the Department shows ti largest percentage (in terms of t( 30, was taken up by crude materia as minerals, sand, gravel and ores cement and building materials car with 18 per cent followed by food ding fresh fruit and vegetables, drii tobacco) at 14 per cent. These figi