WASTE OF PETROL

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23700, 5 July 1940, Page 6

WASTE OF PETROL

COLLECTING MAILS DISTANCE OF 200 YARDS HEAVY TRUCK FOR SMALL BAGS [BT TELEGBAPII —OWN CORRESPONDENT] "WELLINGTON, Thursday An example of how a Government department could practise economy was cited yesterday by a "Wellington business man, r. 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. Mr. Bacon said ho had repeatedly seen a five-ton lorry, usually with a crew of three men, wait for trams from Seatoun, and possibly Miramar and Island Bay. On countless occasions he had stood and watched the use to which this lorry was put. The lorry collected one mailbag from a 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 hags, occasionally four, travelled to the post office. 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 saw the lorry mako four trips to the post office and back," said Mr. Bacou. "On the first trip it had one small bag, on the second a bag and a-half, on tho 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 tramstop in Lambton Quay to the post office was less than 200 yards.