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Loaded scheme could gave owners £1000m
Page 22
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PLAN claimed to be able to save lorry owners E1,000m a year as been launched by a firm which aims to fill empty vehicles ?turning to base.
About one third of all Dmmercial-vehicle travel is rnpty and this costs the inustry £2,000m a year says the lmpany, Transport Informaon Computing Ltd of rreenwich. The new system Juld save half this sum and so gnificantly improve the prouctivity of goods vehicles, at fuel and running costs, and D some way to reducing lorry uisance.
The cost of joining is E100 a ear for the first vehicle, £75 each for the next four, and £50 for each subsequent vehicle — up to a maximum of £2,500.
The scheme, which is to become nationwide next spring, is based on a computer system.
"An owner of a lorry taking a load from London to Manchester and requiring a return load contact us," explains Val Reader, the firm's systems consultant.
"The file is scanned for a load from an appropriate pick-up point scheduled for a suitable destination and of the right type for the lorry.
"If the load exists contact is established between consignor and consignee. If there is no suitable load then the lorry can be filed for reference by contractors in search of a lorry.
"However, once the system has become established we would expect to be able to satisfy most itiquiries immediately. This will be done by pinpointing the nearest available load to the drop-off site. It may not always be in the same town or city, but will almost certainly be within an economical distance."
Mr Reader noted that the system was to be restricted solely to lorry owner, not consignors, and initially it was assumed that most subscribers would simply be looking for loads. However, very quickly they expected contractors to start switching loads — for example, contractor A with a load for area X might prefer to offer that load to a contractor from area X who was already fixed to bring a load to contractor A's district.
Once the annual subscription had been paid, the only additional charges were 50p for each phone inquiry while subscribers with visual display units would pay 20p for each inquiry. Leaving a load or lorry on the file would cost £ I. a day.