Demurrage promotes quick turnround
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• "The rates charged by contractors moving finished products from Continental factories are very competitive in comparison with ours in the UK and practically all the benefit comes from the quick turnround at both ends of the journey. On arriving at the factory or discharge point the driver clocks in, and half an hour is allowed for loading or unloading the 24 pallets. There is no sheeting of the load; therefore, no damage is caused by the driver's boots or by ropes on the unprotected top edges of loads. A demurrage charge is levied if the vehicle is delayed over the permitted half-hour and it pays transjiort managers to take pride in keeping within this limit. It might be the thin end of the wedge but there are already warnings in the UK of companies being asked to pay demurrage charges on road vehicles which have been kept in the queue for too long."
These comments were made by Laurence J. Cotton, transport advisory department of Unilever Ltd and one-time technical editor of Commercial Motor, at the end of a recent talk to the Institute of Road Transport Engineers, the subject of which
was metrication in road transport. Mr Cotton reviewed the programme of metrication as it currently applies to the timber, aluminium, paint, agricultural, oil and motor industries and outlined the related problems of vehicle operators and of a workshop and handling staff. In conclusion, he said that metrication was not difficult and that it offered many advantages. It would be necessary to make an ally of change and to take maximum advantage of it.