FARM TRANSPORT PROBLEMS

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28701, 26 September 1958, Page 14 (Supplement)

FARM TRANSPORT PROBLEMS

By

J. C. ADAMS,

Transport Officer, Federated Farmers of New Zealand.

FOR a country as dependent as New Zealand on international trade, transport—road, rail and sea—is the lifeblood of the economy. Without it, our export industries would shrivel and die.

Because New Zealand so largely relies for its- wealth on animal husbandry and cropping—work which cannot bp confined to “clock” hours —there is an overriding need for flexibility in the facilities servicing the farmer, and particularly in the case of transport. Flexibility This flexibility is not being aided by the rigid application of the 30-mile rail restriction and the insistence on rail carriage for much freight which could be more economically carted on the road. The retention of the 30-mile limit for so many years in the face of progressive development in speed and payload capacity of road vehicles is plainly a refusal to face the economic facts of life. It is not being helped by the system of licensing of road transport operators which requires any new applicant to appear before an authority to disclose his plans, ambitions and financial position, and” to be pilloried by a wellentrenched opposition. Similarly, flexibility is npt increased by area restrictions or by limits on the commodities which may be carted under the licence, nor by restrictions on back-loading.

What is of even more direct interest, the limitations now being placed on farmers carrying their own produce in their own trucks (in excess of 6J tons loaded) are likely to decrease rather than increase flexibility. The existence of a supply of farmers’ trucks capable of being swung into use has a two-fold effect. It has a modifying influence on the continuous pressure for higher cartage rates by licensed operators in such inflationary periods as we have experienced in the last 15 years. It permits a useful addition to the fleets of trucks available in peak times. There are some hundreds of farmers’ heavy trucks licensed under the terms of the Trans-

port Amendment Act, 1955, are eligible to carry the owner’s produce in competition with the rail only until December 1, 1958.

At that date these “automatic" licences will expire, and will be renewable only on proving necessity and desirability in’the public interest. Experience in the .past has shown that the “public interest” does not sufficiently take cognisance of the greater ease in handling of goods by road, and the savings thereby in time and money.

The provisions of sections 102 and 153 of the Act laying down the factors to be taken into account by licensing authorities do not include consideration of economies in the prirriary industries, and the encouragement of expanded production. Recently, a Taranaki dairy factory has been refused the right to cart its produce to cool store because of opposition by the Railways Department, although the proposal would lead to a small reduction in costs, at a time when every attempts to reduce costs in the dairy industry is imperative.

Matter Of Concern .This is a matter of concern to the farming community, which has, in recent years, been exhorted by successive governments, to reduce its proauction costs.

Of particular interest this year in the South Island is the impac\ which restrictions on farmers' trucks might have on the harvesting of a greatly augmented wheat acreage. Increased production will lead to enough storage problems without adding to them by restricting facilities for moving the crop. The hazards of weather demand the greatest availability of tramport at peak times, and this is not -always forthcoming from licensed operators. Above all, farmers feel that as they are called on to compete with primary producers in Great Britain and the United States,

they should have the same rights as their counterparts in these countries, and should be permitted to carry their own produce on the roads without restriction.