A New Use for Road Guides.
Page 19
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A Suggestion of Increased Facilities for Commercial-vehicle Owners.
By an Occasional Contributor.
I have been watching, with more than ordinary interest, the praiseworthy efforts of the Commercial Motor Users Association to assist in the satisfactory organization of lonodistanee haulage traffic. Effective competition with railways on the parts of motor -Q of considerable capacity has laeen. increasing to a noteworthy extent ever since the business world
first began to suffer uneaSirLess bec7 •of labour troubles at the dock side and on the railways. The railway strikes of the-last year or two have, in particular, given remarkable impetus to the development of long-distance haulage by motors on common reads, and there remains but little doubt that. having tasted the sweets of freedom from railroad-delivery limitations, consignors ofilgoods will more and more, as time goes on, with decreasing hesitation decide to carry their goods from door to door themselves or through the agency of established haulage contractors. Mileage restrictions are, for such organization, solely questions of facilities en route, and I maintain that, since this end-to-end traffic) is admittedly and before long to become so important a. matter, the C.M.U.A. is doing most valuable relative service with the establishment of its night-shelter scheme. The incidental establishment of steam-coal depots, of which I have just read in the " C.M.," is an obviously desirable branch of such an. organization. Now, as one who has already had much to do with the making of arrangements in advance for long-distaore road-haulage contracts and who has some knowledge of its particular difficulties, I have a suggoition to make. I want to turn this road-guide organization, to the services of which C.M.U.A. Members now have a right, to more practical use.
I, for one, am not hopeful that the immaculatelyoniformed patrols will ever be of much practical use to the unavoidably-begrimed steam-wagon driver or even to the man in charge of a six-ton load of soap. There is it distinct insinuation of the gentleman's uniformed servant about these saluting sentinels, wide}, will, I feel confident, militate e'against useful co-operation between them and eornmercialonotor drivers on the road. The scout, seasoned to endless cap touching for the benefit of the pleasure-seeking motorist, be he the owner of a rolling Royce or a fuosy cyclecar, can hardly be expected to view with enthusiasm the giving or breakdown service to the driver of a.wagon—loaded with sheepskins, shall we say. As to. mere route direction help would undeuhtedly be forthcoming. My wish is to suggest an entirely new direction in which the road-guide organization can be made of useto the commercial-motor users or the_ trunk roads. I would let them yield service to the motor wagon en route similar to that of which charge is taken by Lloyd's signalling stations all round the coast. If a wagon leaves headquarters at present for a 200 or 300-mile run into the country, for all practical purposes its owner quite loses touch with it until its return, subject; of course -to aspossible telegram of advice—more often than P.rolitAten, upon arrival at the destination. At any given time in the interval it is, as arule, quite impossible to communicate with the driver, maybe for a whole day on end. It is to remedy that state of affairs that the scout organization may, I submit, beusefully employed—to avoid anxiety as to progress on the road, due_ arrival as pre-orranged, or effect for altered orders.
The scheme then is to afford to wagon-owners facilities by which they can, at their own cost; communicate by means of the road guides with their own wagons en route. It should be possible forany owner, desiring, we will assume, to alter his driver's route instructions, to communicate such a message as the following to be acted upon—the out-of-pocket expense being chargeable to him—" My Leyland covered wagon, lettered Dunville, registered No. L.P.4034, should be now between Shrewsbury and Chester, will youinstruct road men to stop him and deliver following message— Do not call Eaton Hall, proceed to 'Wrexham. direct, colleet furniture, P
call .O. full future instructions.' " Or alternatively an order may brocanoelled after a wagon, for instance, has left London, we will say for Kilmarnock, and it may be desirable to turn the man back as soon as possible. The many other advantages of such a scheme will need no further suggestion to those who know anything of long-distance haulage. The driver himself should be einpowered to send important messages at his owner's cost per the wayside guides.
A simple _method Might well be adopted' whereby a wagon 'driver should display, in an agreed position an easily-recognized disc. upon seeing which aroad: guide would report to the owner the passing of the machine " all well." The disc might be displayed two or three times a day during a long journey of several hundreds of miles.
That further developments on these lines may well be suggested I have no doubt. I commend the scheme to the consideration of the responsible authorities.