FEEDER SERVICES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 May 1938, Page 8

FEEDER SERVICES

SUCCESSFUL CO-ORDINATION WITH RAILWAYS

EXPEDITIOUS HANDLING OF GOODS.

OBSERVATIONS ON TRANSPORT DEVELOPMENTS.

“This organisation has always acted as a feeder service to the railways, over a period of many years, notwithstanding that its members were losing a lot of traffic that went by road in opposition to the railways,” observed Mr G. L. Thomas, secretary of the Wairarapa Carriers’ Association, referring to recent developments in transport matters. “We would like to suggest,” he continued, “in view of the Railways Department acquiring road services, that freight be redirected on to the railways and delivered as in the past through the channels of the feeder services and local carriers.”

The public generally, Mr Thomas went on to state, having had experience of passenger services in which the service called for the passenger at his door, imagined that a system whereby goods so delivered was the more expeditious and less expensive method of transport, but if the owners of those goods could follow the distribution as between road delivery and railway they would find that the rail service was more expeditious on account of being able to handle a greater volume of goods in a given time. The point of fact remained that under road classification an individual lorry would perhaps transport three tons of merchandise per load and if that operator was successful in securing fifty tons of merchandise he would take necessarily a longer time to deliver those goods as against the train, which could probably handle a thousand tons as easily. Under a more recent system, the Railways Department had introduced an overnight train which assured delivery to stores or shops by 8 o’clock in the morning. Mr Thomas said he considered that if the matter was gone into exhaustively, the public could be apprised of the true position and that ultimately, the despatch and tonnage rates should show an improvement and obviate the duplication of road and rail services where those had existed in the past. Some years ago, Mr Thomas proceeded a Railways Commercial Branch was' set up, with the idea that, by means of the co-ordination of feeder services and the activities of commercial agents and stationmasters in making a systematic canvass of the farmers served by feeder services, increased traffic would accrue to the Railways Department—traffic that had hitherto been secured by competitive road services. The result of the canvass was eminently successful, as was borne out by the large increase in traffic handled by the Railways Department from then onwards and the result achieved meant a saving in indirect taxation which might have been passed on to the primary producer. From the above it could readily be seen what could be achieved by co-ordination of road and rail services under proper working conditions, said Mr Thomas, who added that these improvements had been maintained without the Government acquiring the services and without interference with the local licensed area operator. Under the present conditions it was possible for the Railways Department, together with the feeder services, to deliver goods in the morning to merchants and others as expeditiously as they had been handled by the opposition road services.