PETROL-RATIONING CHAOS
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A Second Pungent Article, Showing that Methods of So-called Control of Short-distance Haulage are Almost Ludicrous : An Example of How Not to Do It and One Showing How it Should be Done
By S.T.R.
HE methods which the Ministry of Transport is applying, to interfere with short-distance trans
port by road, are even less practicable than the schemes -for' the elimination of trunk services by road. Those / described in the previous article and showed them, to be absurd and—what is more important, having in mind all the circumstances—totally unnecessary.
In the provision which is being made for the organization of local traffic, those in authority seem, in a good many instances, entirely to have lost sight of the fact that there has been established, at considerable expense to the road-haulage industry, a grouping systern designed to provide, in each area, transport to meet essential needs. It also provides for The proper allocation of stipplies of petrol as well as vehicles, the former, of course, over and above the basic ration which, as I showed last week, is insufficient, in many cases, to move the vehicles from their garages to the source of employMent.
s Valuable Organization Overlooked •
:The •purpose ot these group organizations was to enable•war-time problems of transport to be dealt with in a rational manner, by a • personnel accustomed to deal with them in peace time and, therefore, presumably, well acquainted with the practical difficulties which arise.
The instructions which we are being given, in some areas at any rate, appear completely to ignore the exist.ence of this organization. The underlying principle seems to be the same in all cases, namely, that the use of road transport is indiscriminately to be discouraged. An arbitrary proportion of all traffic.is to be diverted to rail, without any regard for the suitability of that mode of transport or even as to whether it is practicable for the railways to deal with it at all.
The situation, in any but the present circumstances, would be ludicrous and could be described as a farce, for the railways, even if they wanted the traffic, are quite unable to deal with it. Theyhave had to ask to be relieved of it. Moreover, in some cases, the prescribed routine, where it is not altogether impracticable, is likely to involve, in the long run, more extravagant consumption of petrol than would be necessitated if the normal peace-time procedure were to be followed.
A typical example of the kind of thing that is going on arises in connection with the provision for the haulage of this year's crop of sugar beet to the factories. Sugar beet is an essential foodstuff. As I have pointed out elsewhere; it is so important that the industry of sugar manufacture from home-grown beet was actually established towards the close of the 1914-1918 war, because of the sugar shortage. It has since been continuously encouraged by the Government by the granting of subsidies, so that it should not languish.
• Furthermore, this industry could never have flourished in the way that it has, had it not been for .*20 the fact that road-transport facilities were available convey the beet from the fields to the factories.
More than 3,000,000 tons of sugar beet are annual conveyed to the factories by road. That is three-fourt of the crop, and it is a fact that there is no other W4 in which that traffic can be carried.
Incredible as it may seem, the order has gone fort in some sugar-beet-growing areas, that farmers nit consign not less than 50 per cent, of their crops 'I rail. This procedure is quite impossible, for the sinat reason that the railways cannot carry the traffic. Tb. could hardly do it in peace lime, let alone now. it' also extravagant in the use of petrol and road vehich As to the first of those reasons, let us make a rom estimate of the additional requirements in the way railway rolling stock which would be involved. normal circumstances, the 'railway carries approximate 1,000,000 tons of beet per annum. There is provisi made, in those times, for an allowance of two days which the railway wagons can be unloaded at the fa tories and "turned around."
• Rolling Stock that Would be Needed •
That allowance is more often than not exceeded. the assumption that it is not (and the railways ha. already stated that, in present circumstances, they me press for rigid adherence to that limit), the number wagons needed in normal times may be estimated approximately 4,000. Take the season as covering days, including Sundays, and that each wagon carri 7 tons of beet. That means that each wagon tarni 560 tons per season. Allow a little for .delay and part filled wagons, and that figure is reduced to 500 tons, that, reckoning one day only for unloading, 2,000 won be needed. Since two days are allowed, 4,000 wago are necessary. Therefore, if this scheme be persist, in, the railways would have to find an additional 4,01 wagons to deal with the extra traffic.
That would be in addition to the 6,000 which, as showed in the previous article, would be required. deal with the traffic which is normally carried by tl trunk road services. In other words, there would be need for 10,000 more railway wagons to meet these tv traffics alone. The railways cannot possibly release ro ing stock to anything like that extent.
As for the other aspect, the extravagance in the u of petrol and road vehicles, here a slight practical knol ledge of the subject of beet haulage, such as would ha: been forthcoming on request from any of the thousan, of hauliers interested, would have prevented this sc.hen from being mooted at all.
Most of the factories are now equipped to deal wi. from 75 to 80 per cent, of the beet coming in by roa If that percentage be exceeded to any material exter the excess will have to be removed from the railmq wagons within the factory yard and conveyed to ti
Ds or dumps to which it is normally led by road hides.
Only motor vehicles will be employable for that purse. A vast number will be needed, and, having in ad the conditions of working—very short hauls, with ig waits—the consumption of petrol will be considerly in excess of the normal.
rhe fact that the railways cannot allow the wagons stand in the factory yards emphasizes the need for s transference to be carried out as quickly as posde. It also increases the need for road vehicles in ge numbers, if it is to be done quickly enough.
• Features of a Practicable Scheme • So much for the ideas of those in authority. , Now me show what can be done if the job be tackled a proper and sensible manner. A practicable scheme s been evolved in connection with the haulage of et to the Allscott factory, near Wellington, Salop.
To whom the credit should go for the inception of is plan, I do not know. It must lie between the fac7y officials, the District Transport Officer, the railway itials and the local hauliers in their group organizains. I was honoured by being invited to take a share the application of the scheme after it had been olved.
In its essentials, the scheme is so simple and so fundamtal in principle as to be almost obvious. Perhaps at is why it has not appealed to a.uthority. It is .sed on the subdivision of function between road and il, in that for such traffic as this, and in current cirmstances, the longer hauls go by rail and the shorter r road.
A limit of 13-miles radius from the factory was estabhed, after careful examination of the statistics of of the crop, as being the line of demarcation tween road and rail. All beet grown within that radius to come to the factory by road; all without that radius 7 rail. Here is the joke, if I may refer to it as such. le original suggestion from the railway representative as that the radius should be 15 and not 13 miles, as doubted whether wagons could be spared to convey 1 the beet which Was being allocated to him!
The deciding factor, however, . was the percentage hich can be handled by the factory during daylight, ;aring in mind the black-out regulations, and, for that ason, Mr. Parkes, the factory chief official, was com;lled to ask the railway companies to help to the extent bringing in all beet outside the 13-miles radius.
The services of road hauliers will be required, of ■ urse, outside that limit Of distance, in Order to bring the beet from the fields to railhead. In that work, iwever, the farmers are asked to co-operate to the extent of bringing in their own beet, either to factory or railhead, whenever the distance from the field to either of those terminals is less than one measured mile.
Further, the whole area from which the beet is collected is being planned out and hauliers are being 'allocated each to the area within which they operate, so that no unnecessary dead mileage is involved. The haulage of the beet will, in effect, be controlled in almost precisely the manner which I have for years advocated, i.e., to the end that waste mileage, and, particularly, waiting time at the factory, shall be eliminated so far as possible.
A practical difficulty which would have arisen here, namely, the refusal of the farmer to hand over his beet to the appointed haulier, on the probable ground that some other haulier would do it for less, has been eliminated by stabilizing the rates for beet haulage to the factory.
Every farmer who has contracted to deliver beet to the factory, in this campaign, has been advised of the procedure decided upon• in respect of the method of haulage. In addition, he has been given a postcard which he must send to the District Transport Officer, asking that official to advise him what is the rate which applies in respect of the haulage of beet from his farm.
No haulier will dare to attempt to charge more than the agreed rate, and any haulier who seeks to gain any advantage over a competitor, by cutting the agreed rate, will not receive supplies of petrol for his vehicle.
• Plans for Payments to Hauliers • Finally, it is proposed (but not, at the time of writing, agreed) that the factory shall try to persuade all the farmers and hauliers to agree that the factory shall pay the haulier direct for his services, the amount to be deducted from the amount due from the factory to the farmer for his beet.
Actually, this is important for two principal reasons. In the first place, it eliminates the possibility of disputes with farmers who may object to paying the stabilized rate, for the simple reason that it may be a little 'higher than they have been accustomed to pay. In the second place, it ensures that the haulier will get his payment reasonably quickly, which, in present circumstances, is essential, because he has to pay cash for all his supplies.
Altogether, it is an excellent scheme, and one which might, with advantage, be applied to all beet-growing areas and to short-distance haulage generally, for the period of the war, if not thereafter. It is a shining example of what can be clone when the subject is dealt with by practical men, accustomed to the work, rather than by bureaucrats. S.T.R.