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"ransport chiefs count outeing costs...
Page 25
Page 26
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LA Civic Trust says forget them
' seminar reported by CM staff EN representatives from Department of the ironment, local governt, trade associations, hers, own-account -ators and trade unions ented papers at a DoE mar in London this c, the main theme was :ost of imposing controls lorries by routeing. er the Heavy CommerVehicles (Controls and alations) Act 1973, local orities are bound to are plans for the control ..avy goods vehicles and plans should be pleted by January 1,
Civic Trust view
hen Mr Nigel Haigh, of Civic Trust, presented )aper on Tuesday, he ized surveys which prod what he described as ive feedback exercises h resulted in new roads t built or existing roads g widened, thus -ating more traffic.
y catering for future s," said Mr Haigh, "we to ensure that prems are fulfilled. We a negative feedback Haigh told the lar that the Civic Trust not happy with the )sals in the DoE thation paper on lorry s — they almost nded the positive feedeffect.
a Trust believed that tm should he to deterthe optimum volume of ; traffic which Britain d impose on itself, into account the protection of the environment, and then to stabilize the goods traffic at that level.
The Civic Trust had taken the view that an.increase in fuel tax; restrictions on vehicle sizes; further limitations on drivers' hours; more stringent safety regulations; and a cutback on road building should be added to proposed road restrictions. Mr Haigh acknowledged that these measures would have the effect of increasing the Cost of road transport compared with other costs but said that the effect on the housewife need not be drastic.
“In other words, the process of comparatively ever cheaper freight transport which we have witnessed over many years needs to come to an end, and in fact be, reversed. This has already begun to happen, and the message for the Department of the Environment is that this is something to be welcomed."
An own-account view
Mr R. Beckham, president of the Freight Transport Association and chief executive of Tibbett and Britten Ltd, took the view that cost was not the only criterion. "Distribution is a demand satisfying function," he said.
"Encouraged by a determined and vocal minority, more and more people accept the lorry as a legitimate target upon which to vent all their pent up feelings, about what they are told is some sort of ogre barring the way to a life of untold quality". But buses taxis and milk floats were the worst offenders on pedestrian inconvenience; blindspots; and high levels of noise, fumes and general unpleasantness.
He agreed that substantial quantities of freight should go by rail, but said that the effect of the maximum possible transfer would not be noticeable on the streets.
Mr Beckham warned that indiscriminate use of the 1973 Act by local authorities would result in the decay of town-centre commercial life and substantial increases in the price of goods and services. Nor was the substitution of smaller vehicles for large ones the answer since ton/ miles would increase and more vehicles would be in use. This would result in greater fuel consumption, exhaust emission and noise.
Mr Beckham said that vehicles with a carrying capacity of 9 tons were normally ideally suited for grocery deliveries to High Street shops. Deliveries were made at an average of 2 tons per hour. In a 10-hour shift a driver drove approximately 100 miles in 5 hours and spent half an hour each day at the depot. This left him 41A hours to discharge his 9ton load. It therefore followed that the capacity of a larger vehicle could not be fully justified and would not justify its cost, and a smaller vehicle would prevent the driver working for his maximum permitted period.
The place of larger vehicles was in trunking operation and that of the 'smaller vehicles in local .delivery.
He also showed comparative trunking costs for 20 tons of product over WO miles and returning empty: using four different weights of vehicles.
Not only was there a dramatic increase in costs between a 20-ton artic and a 4-ton rigid, but there was also a substantial increase in the cost of fuel consumption.
Mr Beckham then corn
Continued from page 23 pared trunking costs for 20ton loads over 10 miles.
Once again the cost per ton and the fuel consumption rose dramatically. These examples clearly showed the advantages of larger vehicles being even greater when used over the shorter distance. Mr Beckham pointed out that rather than use smaller vehicles, if vehicles with a carrying capacity of 25 or 30 tons were to be permitted, operating .cost advantages would become pronounced. It was therefore his view that smaller vehicles were no solution, on the grounds that they added to road cost and congestion.
He also took the view that transshipment terminals would not solve the problem since they would insert an additional link in the chain between the production point and the customer, thus adding to the delay and cost and at the same time adding to the number of vehicles required for the eventual delivery.
Mr Beckham said most manufacturing companies were already operating their own transshipment depots but that instead of using smaller vehicles for urban deliveries, they were using larger vehicles. He illustrated the cost influence ratio between delivery time and running time in the operation of delivery vehicles and said that it pointed towards the use of larger vehicles at all mileages.
In addition to the cost factors Mr Beckham listed other disadvantages in the operation of transfer terminals. Among these were their inability to cope with peak periods before bank holidays; the fact that industrial action could paralyse the flow of goods to a large town; that their introduction required both land and finance and that the towns they were serving required a high quality of ring road.
A recent survey of traffic entering a large town in the south of England had indicated that 42 per cent of all the goods entering the town, because of their weight, were unsuitable for transhipment.
The BRS view
Mr P. A. Thompson, coordinator British Road Services Group, opened his paper on the theme that distribution activities have to be organised to satisfy consumer demand, and said; "Delays, queues and shortages are unacceptable. Controls that involve the exclusion of lorries place at risk both the efficient running of industry and the supply of consumer goods to the shops."
Although Mr Thompson agreed that designated routes would impose new demands on drivers and traffic staffs and add to distribution costs, he said that if a sensible network were found, the extra costs involved should be small and the environmental benefits to the areas from which the lorries were diverted would be considerable "But it is totally unreasonableto force vehicles to double or triple their mileage because no suitable direct route is thought to exist".
Mr Thompson said traffic orders had to be delayed until road building or road
improvements created suitable routes. The DoE consultation paper made good sense, but there were some glaring omissions. He cited the proposed lorry route for a 32-tormer with a 40ft platform travelling from King's Lynn to North London. Instead of using A10 as at present, it would need to use A47 A I 1 M11 and the effect would be to increase its mileage from 95 to 167 miles; to increase costs from £25 to £44 and fuel consumption from 13 gallons to 24 gallons.
Mr Thompson suggested that to improve traffic flows in urban areas, consideration might be given to the provision of lorry lanes.
He was concerned with the definition of access to restricted roads. A vehicle which had left an unrestricted road to obtain access should be allowed to use the most convenient route to return to the restricted road, even if this was not the shortest route.
He also suggested that a vehicle making a number of calls in a restricted road area, should be allowed to move between calls by the most convenient route, without returning to an unrestricted road after each call. The advice that the DoE might give in this matter was very important. The 1973 Act allowed access to an area to be restricted in three ways: by size of vehicle; during specified hours; or for permit holders only.
One of the cost factors omitted by other speakers, but introduced by Mr Thompson, was the cost of making an existing fleet obsolete and purchasing a new fleet of smaller vehicles in orders to cope with restrictions. Restrictions on access times could have the most severe effect on costs. But supposing a 32-tonner missed the access time to a large town through delay it would incur a cost of £3.50 per hour for every hour it sat during the restricted period.
If all the towns over a region employed similar time restrictions, the effect of delivery time for a vehicle would be reduced fron hours to 4 hours and tra port costs increased by per cent to 80 per cent.
A major problem in lc routeing. according to Thompson, would measuring costs a benefits, many of which ‘4 not quantifiable. Regi tion and enforcement; use of permits; and the in ference with backload which could result ft controls, would all add s stantially to someone's co Mr Thompson conclu. his paper on an optimi note. "It is currently fashion to be gloomy ab the effect that lorries h upon all our lives. Pro tions of an ever increw number of heavy vehicles used as a justification tc even gloomier about future. But there are t reasons to be optimistic. motorways and by-pa: are built, the number towns and villages suffer from through-traff steadily reduced.
New concepts
Research is taking plat make heavy vehicles s and quieter. New conct such as the double-hot vehicles, are being exam for their potential. La and the importance of factor should not be un estimated in an area w organization is important, there are incr ing contacts between transport industry central and local gov ment which should lea' joint solutions to probl which we all recog exist." .
Other speakers from DoE, the GLC and 131 County and Herts Co' Council spoke of the e. and cost of routeing signposting and tl speakers in the n followed the theme of t who had gone before whatever plan was fir adopted would add to tr port costs. Industry, c merce and the commt would need to decide much it was prepared to for an improved and tected environment.