A MATTER OF POLICY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2488, 15 June 1915, Page 7

A MATTER OF POLICY

— o— .CITY-COUNCIL AS FREIGHT CARRIERS. The-City Council's policy regarding its entry into the caixying business through the tramways freight car has not yet been, clearly defined. At the present time the officers whose duty it is to foster business for the goods car are working very energetically and'have'succeeded in securing orders for the carriage of considerable quantities of goods in- bulk, such as flour, potatoes, grain, eto. ; which can be transported very expeditiously over long distances by means of the freight car. This -work has,. it seems, been handicapped somewhat for the want of a high-powered motor-van to act as a feeder. The present one only carries half a ton, which is woefully inadequate where bulk goods have to be removed from the wharf, railway stations, or stores to the electric freight car. • The Mayor (Mr. J. P. Luke) was asked yesterday morning if the council intended to go into the carrying business in a thorough way. Mr. Luke stated in reply that the original idea of the freight car was to do light delivery work and hardly to become common carriers in a general way. It was a matter of policy as to whether the business should be restricted or otherwise, and would be discussed by the Tramways Committee at next Monday's meeting. According to articles in English and [American tramway journals, those services restrioted to the, carriage of light parcels, travellers' trunks, etc., have never succeeded, whilst those who have gone into the business of general carrying have generally succeeded. In some cities in America there are huge goods depots, fed by an army of motor-vans that are capable of handling almost anything. In some places the milk is brought into the cities from suburban farms by tram, whilst in many others, notably in Bradford and Birmingham in England, the tracks run into the . depot sheds, and the cars are loaded ■under cover, and the goods can be run alongside the railway trucks for the transference of goods to a distance. _ There is no lack of business in Wellington—the trouble at present is that all the business offering cannot be accepted because of the inability of the tramways department to handle the goods between the warehouses and the depots. That the service is of value is proved by the fact that it is utilised by some of the carrying firms of the City in cases where a single case or a small lot of parcels has to be forwarded over a long distance. In such cases it might not pay a firm to send a lorry out for so long with goods that do not represent a payable load, so recourse is made to the tramways system.