Comment from the T.R.T.A.
Page 71
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THE Rochdale Committee report is now under detailed study by the Traders Road Transport Association and the Association's national secretary, Mr. H. R. Featherstone, told The Commercial Motor that, in the light of further views from their members, they would be taking whatever action was necessary at the appropriate time.
"For the time being,he said, "a matter of immediate interest to us is that the majority of points in the evidence we submitted to the Committee have been accepted. We were primarily concerned, of course, with industrial and commercial concerns using, their own vehicles to deliver and collect their own goods, and in countering delays in loading and unloading at the docks. This meant that we had to look at the matter from the specialists' point of view, but obviously the road transport aspect is intertwined with many other issues and problems at the docks and we made this clear to the Committee.
• ." One of the most significant features of the eport is the authoritatiVe recognition of the major and still giowing 'role
of road transport in relation to the docks. It largely depends On. the impact made on the interests concerned as to how far this recognition will produce useful results but it is quite clear that matters cannot be the same again. The insistence upon the. need. for new planning and. a new pattern iS the result of this recognition.
Concentrated Deliveries
"There has been some comment on the Committee's statement that delays at the docks by road transport are especially due to the concentration of export deliveries at the end of the ship's loading period. In this connection the Committee reported their impression that such shortcomings reflected as much upon exporters as upon the port authorities. When the 17.R.T.A. collected information from members in preparing -evidence for the Committee, the general feeling was that. ideally, 'deliveries to the ships should be evenly spread. It was pointed out, how. ever, .that it was not always possible or desirable to do .so."