Motor Road Transport For Commercial Purposes
(Liquid Fuel, Steam, Electricity)

CLEARING HOUSES 201 in all small towns and villages simply to deal with this one phase of motor road transport would be prohibitive at the present time. ,A Definite Scheme. The Industrial Vehicle. Section of the Automobile Association formed a scheme in the summer of 1920, whereby use was made of its existing organ- ization of recognized agents and repairers to form an exchange system. The Association appointed between 500 and 600 agents throughout the country to keep registers showing on the one hånd the goods, produce, machinery, etc., requiring transportation in their own area, and on the other hand a record of the motor transport running from their own locality to other districts. Arrangements were made whereby existing recognised clearing houses should act on behalf of the Automobile Association and its agents, thus linking up large centres where facilities already existed with the outlying and intermediate points which otherwise could not have hoped either to have had their quota of road transport or to have contributed their proportion to the traffic requiring intermediate or return loads. (See Appendix II.) In addition to the existing individual organizations referred to above, close touch is kept with the Associa- tion of Road Transport Clearing Houses, which Association embraces all recognized clearing houses of any importance. A national network of exchanges which will serve the whole kingdom is urgently required, for there is little doubt that mechanical road transport must be rendered more efficient than it is to-day—the cost per ton-mile must be reduced. One of the obvious ways of achieving success is to keep the 13a—(1889)