ALLEGED WASTAGE OF PETROL

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 239, 4 July 1940, Page 8

ALLEGED WASTAGE OF PETROL

Post Office Motor Lorries

An example of how a Government department could practice economy was cited yesterday by a Wellington business man, Mr. William Bacon, when referring to what he thought was needless waste of petrol in having a large Post and Telegraph truck collecting mails from tramcars in Lambton Quay, where he has his place of business. The authorities had repeatedly requested motorists to conserve petrol, said Mr. Bacon, but over a period of several- months he had studied the methods adopted by the Post and Telegraph Department when collecting mails from the tram stop near Kelburn Avenue in Lambton Quay. At 1 p.m. and 4.45 p.m., and occasionally at noon and ’even earlier in the day, he had repeatedly seen a liveton lorry, usually with a crew of three men, wait for trams from Seatoun, ana possibly Miramar and Island Bay. On countless occasions, said Mr. Bacon, he had stood and watched the use to which this lorry was put.

The lorry collected one mailbag from re'tram, occasionally more. But the bags usually appeared to be so light that he doubted whether they contained more than a dozen letters. The truck waited for another tram and with its light load of one or two bags, occasionally four, travelled to the Post Office, said .Mr. Bacon. The postal staff did not carry these few bags to the mailroom, but backed the lorry down an alleyway, a procedure which used more petrol. ~ "One night recently I took the 1 rouble to waste time and specially check up and make sure of what I am talking about,” said Mr. Bacon. “I saw the lorry make four trips to the Post Office and back. On the first trip it had one small bag, on the second a bag and a half, on the third two bags .and on the fourth two bags and a half. I did not wait to see if the lorry made further trips.” Mr. Bacon suggested that a boy with a hand-barrow fitted with pneumatic tyres-could easily do the work now being performed by a petrol-driven lorry. The distance from the 'trainstop in Lambton Quay to tlie Post Office was less than 200 yards. He understood that it was the usual thing to have three men on the lorry. One was the driver, another checked the mailbags and the third loaded them on to the vehicle. Petrol could be* conserved, he held, if the department collected these mails with a hand-barrow, as was done in Sydney and other places overseas, and also by contractors. “Imagine any private business running its affairs in this way,” Mr. Bacon added. “It is obvious that this sort of thing must be going on throughout the department. 1 have stood near the trainstop in question and watched operations, so that 1 know what I am talking about. Sometimes they switch off the engine and sometimes they don’t bother. The whole thing is absolutely beyond words. On occasions the mailbag collected from the tram seems to have so little in it that it. could be hung on your maitch-chain,” eaid M. r _-_Daeoii-