in Almost Perfect Transport Market
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by A Special Correspondent
0 NE would have thought, from some of the newspaper comments and the saloon bar conversations at the time the Cabinet was making up its mind about the Common Market, that Britain and the continent of Europe were utter strangers. Temperamentally we have always been, and might still be, a fraction isolationist. Commercially, the barriers of language and the Channel have been penetrated in many fields. In some aspects of transport such barriers have been almost completely broken down. And in one company at least a "common market" has been virtually perfected.
This is Eurofreight, Ltd., the British headquarters of which is at 1-3 Cornwall Road, London, S.E.1—within a stone's throw of Waterloo Station. Eurofreight offers "a fast, all-inclusive,, door-to-door freight service to and from the Continent for small and medium weight consignments." Its "trade mark" is a derivation of the Common Market symbol—an E surrounded by stars.
Its service is theoretically one of the most complex in international goods transport: it works because of its comparative functional simplicity.
The man who created Eurofreight and who is behind it today is Mr. John Ambler. With his many other interests he was not strictly a road transport specialist. He was a man with an idea which he had to sell to transport specialists, both here and on the Continent. The success with which he has done so establishes him, in my estimation, as one of the most enterprising and vivid personalities in British transport today.
Perhaps his most valuable asset during the birth of Eurofreight was the breadth of his contacts and connections—its establishment needed more than those, however. Knowledge of the Continent, knowledge of and kinship with Continentals, and a large measure of international salesmanship were the essentials in turning a first-rate idea into a working proposition.
Mr. Ambler's knowledge of the Continent and of international transport will be a quality much in demand if current negotiations bring Britain into the Common Market.
The company Mr. Ambler has created operates two services—Trukair and Truksea. Apart from the fact that the Channel is crossed by different means, which affects the speed and the rates, the services in functional and organizational terms are identical.
The company claims this for its services:— " FAST: Eurofreight's service eliminates unnecessary delays at depots, ports and Customs. For instance, via Trukair, goods can normally be in the hands of the consignee about 2-4 days after a single telephone call is made, depending on the distance involved. Two or three days longer by Truksea.
"ECONOMICAL: Rates include all transportation charges from door-to-door-collection, road transport, handling and port charges, crossChannel transport and delivery. They are the most economical rates available for such a fast service.
"DIRECT: Goods are collected from any main industrial centre in Britain. They are carried by overnight truck services to the London depot, thence by short sea or air routes to the Continent. Then Eurofreight speeds the goods through Customs and delivers them direct to the consignee. All these operations are under Eurofreight control.
"DEPENDABLE: The often complicated procedure of shipping to the Continent is reduced to a single contract, and a standard door-to-door rate. The resources of the carrying organizations participating are unified to simplify and speed deliveries. It is a trouble-free operation, with control of goods in transit in the hands of one company. Our through-documents enable a careful check to be kept on all consignments right up to the destination."
There is no over-statement or exaggeration in these claims,
yet they do infer not only a really major European network but a degree of organization which some people whose experience qualifies them to comment would say is impossible in terms of inter-Continental transport. The service having been offered, however, it must be provided. It would need only one man in Merthyr Tydfil to be told that he couldn't send his Eurofreight goods door-to-door to Utrecht or wherever, and the service will have failed.
How does it work on this highly ambitious scale? Eurofreight's collection service in Britain is handled through an extensive tie-up with express carriers, in particular the Atlas Express Co.., Ltd., to whom Mr. Ambler first sold the idea of his common 'transport market, and whose managing director, Mr. R. H. Farmer,
is chairman of Eurofreight.
Atlas Express depots handle Eurofreight consignments in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Bradford, Cardiff, Coalville, Dun stable, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford and Wakefield. Eurofreight run their own depot at Southend Airport. Consignments in Brighton are handled by Stapleton Brothers; in Bristol and Exeter by A. Packham and Co.; in Dundee by Richie's Express; in Falmouth by Falmouth Transport Co.; in Maidstone by S. E. Thomas and Son; in Newcastle by John Forman; in Norwich by P. F. Fitztnaurice Export Carriers; in Southampton by Curtiss and Sons; in South Benfleet by Essex Carriers; and in Yarmouth by F. C. Farrow Transport.
Collections for both Trulcsea and Trukair are made in the course of normal daily rounds by these 12 companies, and are trunked overnight either direct to the Port of London or Southend Airport if the consignments are large, or to the main transhipment depot for small consignments, Atlas Express's headquarters at Canon Beck Road, Bermondsey. '
From the Atlas Express London depot a shuttle service, is run, flexible
according to the weight of.traffic, to Southend Airport in the case of Trukair and to the Holland Steamship Company's wharf at Chamber's Wharf in the case of Truksea. As indicated, where a load justifies direct trunking from collection point to embarkation point, this is done.
The integration of 12 companies working out of 27 depots throughout Britain gives a complete United Kingdom cover, and, of course, its efficient functioning owes much to the existing collaboration between the express carriers in the group. in this respect there is little unusual or remarkable about the service.
It is on the Continent where most of the spade-work has been necessary. Working methods, labour problems.. schedules and so on, vary considerably from country to country, even though the establishment of the " Six " has immensely simplified and streamlined European transport. Above all, the Continental haulier or goods carrier has a different outlook on both life in general and in the transport job in particular, than many of his British counterparts.
It is not, difficult to estimate the number of problems to be surmounted, or the degree of salesmanship necessary, a2,7 to establish a similar set-up on the Continent among carriers as functions here. Yet this has been achieved, not in one country but at the present time in eight.
Eurofreight can in full confidence offer a door-to-door service from anywhere on the British mainland to anywhere in Belgium, France, Luxembourg, Austria, West Germany, Holland, Denmark and Sweden. Additionally, through routes are operated to Basle. Milan and Oslo, and it would seem only a question of time-and not much of that-before the comprehensive service can be offered in Switzerland, Italy and Norway, where at present door-todoor arrangements can be made, but are not under Eurofreight's direct control.
In each of the Continental countries operating a doorto-door service at present, a major carrier has been appointed a member of the Eurofreight network.
In Austria Kirchner and Co., of Vienna, handle Truksea. In Belgium F. Halbart and Cie are the Trukair agents. In Denmark, Halle and Boserup, of Odense, handle traffic west of the Great Belt, and Continental Autospedition A.S., of Copenhagen, handle that to the east. Nellen and Quack Transportgesellschaft, of Munchengladbach, are both air and sea agents in West Germany. Swedish Trukair traffic is handled by Auto-Transit AB. In the Netherlands, Rotterdam Air N.V., at Rotterdam, and Reederij Van Swieten N.V., of Amsterdam, handle air and sea consignMents.
The key to success in an operation of this type, quite obviously, is the enterprise and enthusiasm with which the Continental carriers will enter into an agreement and carry through their end of the job. In this respect Eurofreight have had their problems. But they have been surmounted by what is after all a common-sense arrangement.
This guarantees that every member of the network is an equal member of it. Every carrier involved in the operation, in each country, can accept and handle traffic on the basis of a master plan which clearly defines his part in the network, and his recompense. The establishment and agreement of this master plan represents a tremendous amount of work. The Administration Guide printed in each necessary language, which is the key to the whole operation, runs to more than 50 pages.
In the course of preparing this article, I was given the opportunity to follow a Trukair consignment originating in the East Midlands through the network to its destination in Holland.
This particular consignment was collected by Atlas Express from a Leicester consignor during a Wednesday afternoon. It was brought by the night truck to Candn Beck Road, transhipped to the Trukair Southend shuttle service and caught the 11.30 a.m. Channel Air Bridge flight to Rotterdam. From here it was cleared by Rotterdam Air and passed to Van Swieten, who trunked it to Amsterdam for local delivery on Friday morning.
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At no stage of this very much routine operation did there arise any of the snags sometimes associated with exporting to the Continent. Everyone down the line took the smooth flow of the job very much as a matter of course.'
It is, of course, a fact that Holland presents fewer difficulties than any other Continental country, perhaps due mainly to almost every Dutchman's ability to converse fluently with and generally put himself in harmony with almost any Englishman. Nevertheless, if the system operates only half as well in other countries, or on link-ups involving more transhipments and longer road journeys, it still works efficiently.
Obviously the harmonious collaboration of
all parties involved in Eurofreight depends on costing work to everyone's satisfaction. At the present moment there is a variance between the volume of exports and imports on the Trukair service which, naturally, affects both air and road components. To correct this there is a difference in rates for export and import traffic, although Britain's entry into the Common Market should help to even out the volume of traffic. A comparison of the rates can be Seen printed alongside.
(Continued on page 347)
The rates given are basic doorto-door charges from and to the U.K. They include all transport, handling, port charges and so on, and can be split into " F.O.B." and " C.I.F. point of entry." Only small standardized extra charges are made for customs and export and import documentation, and transhipment formalities under bond. A surcharge is made on Trukair for consignments over 200 Cu. ft. per ton. Insurance cover is arranged at exceptionally low rates-2s. per 100 Trukair; 4s. per £100 Truksea.
The service requires of the consignor normally only sufficient packaging for domestic deliveries by road. Apart from any necessary statutory forms, the only documentation normally necessary are invoices in triplicate and a packing list if more than one package is being consigned.
There are numerous commodity reductions on Trukair services to Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. There are also reductions when a consignment is collected from or delivered to an advertised Eurofreight depot.
Undoubtedly the most complex aspect of this "common transport market," and the most interesting to British road transport men, is the integration of carrying companies both here and on the Continent, making possible a door-todoor service the like of which had probably never even been dreamt of 15 years ago.
Yet the master link—the clasp in the chain—is the bridge acro3s the water.
John Ambler's success in establishing the Trukair side of Eurofreight owes a great deal, as he freely admits, to the wholehearted co-operation of the Channel Air Bridge.
Now a subsidiary of British United Airways, Channel Air Bridge came into being in 1954 as a division of Air Charter, Ltd., flying a few cars and passengers and a little freight between Southend and Calais. A Southend-Ostend service was started in 1955, followed by SouthendRotterdam in 1956. Today the company operates over 100 flights daily to the Continent in peak periods, moving 25,000 vehicles and 100,000 passengers annually. Southvi Airport now ranks second only to London in terms of corn nercial freight.
Further rapid expansion is anticipated when the new B.U.A. ALT-98 (christened the " Carvair ") comes into operation in the near future. A version of the Douglas DC-4 modified to carry freight, the Carvair will eventually replace the Bristol Superfreighters which the company have utilized exclusively until now.
Of somewhat revolutionary but attractive appearance (for a freighter). the Carvair will have a hold length of 81 feet and a capacity of 4,500 Cu. ft., as against the 42-ft. hold and 2,580-cu.-ft. capacity of the Superfreighter. A movable bulkhead will enable the new aircraft to be used to carry five cars and 20 passengers; or as a passengerfreighter, carrying 32 passengers with a 60 ft. freight compartment; or as a pure freighter carrying more than eight tons of goods.
With the operation of this aircraft, Channel Air Bridge plan to open services to Paris, Tours, Lyons, Dijon, Dusseldorf. Bremen and Strasbourg.
Hand-in-Hand From the outset Channel Air Bridge has worked handin-hand with Eurofreight in providing the vital link between the growing road networks on either side of the water. Teething troubles were shared. Fcr.nal agreements between the two companies were kept to a minimum and the degree of co-ordination and co-operation between respective personnel at the airports makes it apparent that virtually none were necessary. The air and road transport operators look upon each other as equal partners working for mutual benefit.
With the advent of the larger and more economical freighter, and the likelihood of Britain's entry into the Common Market there would seem to be really no limit to the growth of traffic on the Eurofreight system. The benefits to British manufacturers in competition with those on the mainland in maintaining delivery schedules could be immense.
There is, I feel sure, a lesson here for a lot of British haulage contractors. The application of road-air work is, of course, particularly to the smalls and parcels field because the size of the load is a pertinent factor in the rates charged. But there is no doubt that a demand does exist for this type of service—a demand which can only extend.