BREAD DELIVERY

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 76, 26 September 1942, Page 8

BREAD DELIVERY

ZONING SCHEME

OPERATION EXPLAINED

"It is unfortunate but unavoidable that some consumers are unable to obtain the makes and types of bread to which they have been accustomed," said the North Island Transport Zoning Officer, Mr. H. M. Christie, when explaining the application of the zoning scheme in the Wellington area. "It must be realised, however, that the shortage of tyres and petrol has to be met if the country's war effort is to be maintained, and that the inconvenience caused by delivery zoning under the regulations has been kept absolutely to a minimum." "An idea seems to be prevalent that the scheme will work to the detriment of the smaller bakeries. This is not so," Mr. Christie said. "Under the scheme each baker is baking the amount of bread allotted him as his quota, but delivers it only to wholesale purchasers, that is, shop retailers, institutions, hotels, restaurants, and others, as near as possible to his bakery. In the past each of the bakers may have delivered to private purchasers as well as shops, well away from the bakery, while other bakers have been delivering close to his bakery. Thus a baker in Karori may have been delivering in Kelburn, while bakers from other districts have been delivering in Karori. Now, the Karori man is supplying consumers as near to his bakery as it is practicable to arrange. He no longer delivers in Kelburn and that much extra mileage is saved. "The zoning has gone further than that, however, in saving van mileage. Instead of four or five of the larger, bakers sending vans into one district to complete the unfulfilled requirements left after the local baker's output under quota has been taken up, only one bakery sends its vans into a district. This, particularly, has saved mileage.

"In the city itself matters have been so arranged," Mr. Christie continued, 'that deliveries in each street have, so far as possible while conforming with output quotas, been allotted to one baker, again with the elimination of the parallel running of vans.

HUTT VALLEY DELIVERIES

"One point which may have seemed inexplicable to some is the continued appearance of bread vans from Wellington in the Hutt Valley. The reason for this is that the output of the local bakeries falls short of Hutt Valley needs by 38 per cent., and the only way it can be taken up is from city bakeries, unless business is taken away from the city bakeries and given to Hutt Valley bakeries. Even so, it has been possible to reduce the number of city bakeries delivering in the Hutt Valley by one, and the number of vans sent by the others has also been reduced.

"In the past, as many as eight different .bakers have delivered to single shops. This has now been eliminated, and no shop, institution, hotel, or other purchaser receives bread from more than one baker. Another point worth mentioning is that one bakery in Wellington has been supplying approximately one-third of all the oread consumed in Wellington and its surrounding districts. It is inevitable, as. a consequence of this, that deliveries from this bakery, if its quota is to be maintained, must still,, go to outlying districts to ; meet requirements unfilled by the local bakeries. "There are 1800 wholesale purchasers to whom delivery has to be made in the district. Some only take 18 loaves a day; others as many as 1500. The absolute apportionment of shops to the nearest bakeries has had to be relaxed in some cases for this reason, otherwise the quotas of the various bakeries could not have been filled reasonably closely. This accounts for an odd shop in what appears to be a local bakery's delivery area being supplied from another, probably larger, bakery.

FAIR TO ALL BAKERS

"Thus, in brief, the system is that the smaller bakeries are now supplying, so far as their output quotas permit, the consumers nearest to them, and such requirements as remain unfulfilled in their districts" are being supplied from the nearest bakery with a surplus. The system is as fair as possible to bakers,, both large and small, in that each is still baking to his fixed quota. The difference is that it may go to consumers who have hitherto received the products of other bakeries.

"There are some cases where small bakers do not bake some particular type of bread, such as wholemeal, and those who have been in the habit of buying their bread from a shop now supplied by him have to go further away to get their wholemeal bread. This is unfortunate, but the number of such bakers is very small, and the difficulty only arises in isolated cases.

"A return of the rrileage saved by the operation of the scheme is in preparation and the gain it will show will be very appreciable," said Mr. Christie.