ROAD TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 15, 19 January 1939, Page 11

ROAD TRANSPORT

EMERGENCY PLANS

RATIONING OF FUEIi

PEACE-TIME PROGRAMME

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, January IT. Plans for the organisation of roa<T ; transport in a national emergency were made public to-day, when ,a communication was addressed by the \ Minister of Transport (Dr. E. L. Burgin) to owners of commercial vehicles. The plans do not apply, to vehicles engaged on passenger services. The proposed organisation, which is intended for wartime, but requires _ to be brought into existence in a * shadow form in peace-time, starts from the assumption that, in a na- ■, tional emergency, the rationing of ; petrol and fuel oil would be inevitable. » Dr. Burgin emphasises that the demands of the defence services for./_ petrol and oil would be prodigious ■ under war conditions. The road transport of Britain depends on imported - fuel and, great as are the national resources for storage and maintenance,;. it would be essential to rationalise, for the purpose of the Economic use . of fuel, the\ operation of road trans-. ; port with its 1,500,000 vehicles belong r \ ing to 200,000 separate owners. . .- The scheme now announced pro- ■ vides for the preliminary peace-time, ; organisation of industry into road transport groups comprising from- 25 : to 100 • vehicles' each and registered , with the Ministry of Transport. In the ; meantime steps are being taken to , ensure a sufficient supply of trained .. drivers. , , ' T>r." Burgin, in a statement to-aay ; referred to the co-operation he had - received in the September crisis from the operators of commercial road vehicles-. . • ;