ROAD TRANSPORT SPEEDS THE FARMER'S GOODS

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29021, 9 October 1959, Page 8 (Supplement)

ROAD TRANSPORT SPEEDS THE FARMER'S GOODS

In the course of a year the * farmer uses their services in ma'ny ways. A new driveway needs shingling, wool bales have to be got to the broker’s stores, before the catalogue closes, a load of lime has to be spread on the paddocks, lambs are drafted and are sent to the freezing works, stores and timber have to be brought in from the rail; these and a hundred other things send the farmer to the telephone to call his local firm. The transport firms represent to the farmer a valuable labour pool, as well as the actual moving ,of the goods. Most farmers own their own trucks but frequently time is the essential factor in farming operations. A farmer with 2000 bales of hay out in the open and uncertain weather does not

ROAD transport forms an inseparable part of our primary industry. Wherever there are farms accessible by roads here is a transport operator. The full value of Mie service they provide is hard to estimate. From raihead to farm, farm to market, city to farm and farm to farm the loaded trucks roar along the highway canring everything from a bag needle to a haystack.

trust to luck and do the job himself with as little help as jossibleaHe calls in the transport firm and the hay is under shelter in a fraction of the tine he and his men would hav> taken. Delivery— At Le annual ewe fairs the road ttansport operators fill the parting areas with their largest >hicles. As soon as a line of shiep is knocked down to the puivhaser, his local firm is commissoned to take them home if are to go by road. Generally tb farmer tells the driver whert to unload and frequently th» sheep are grazing on his Pbperty by the time he retuhs home that evening. Road transpot l i s restricted to a definite ara w ith a 50-

mile radius of operations. For greater distances, except when special licences are granted, cartage must be by rail. However, within the 50 -mile radius there is plenty of work offering for the big trucks and many of the firms have contracting and earthmoving equipment as a sideline for the winter off-season.