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Buses carrying both passengers and cargo start operating in Gunma

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Yamato Transport has partnered with a bus company to undertake a new service in which passengers and baggage are carried simultaneously in one vehicle. The service started in Gunma Prefecture on Tuesday, the first such endeavor in the Kanto region.

Kan-etsu Transportation, which operates local buses in Gunma, collaborated with Yamato Transport to test the “mixed cargo” service on local buses that run between Numata and Katashina.

Buses depart JR Numata Station and stop by one of Yamato’s distribution centers to pick up cargo. The buses then move to a bus stop about 20 kilometers away where a driver of the shipping company transfers the cargo onto a Yamato truck to deliver it to its final destination.

According to the bus company, local buses run on routes with few passengers, so this new endeavor seeks to cover their budgetary deficit, and the shipping company benefits as well as the time spent on distribution, delivery and driving can be reduced.

The Kanto District Transport Bureau says that a similar service has been done with highway buses connecting Ibaraki and Tokyo, and limousine buses that run between Narita Airport and Tokyo, but this is the first time for local buses in the Kanto area to try “mixed cargo.”

© Japan Today

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Sound good in theory, I hope it works in practice, it make financial sense especially if the bus is going that way on a regular basis, running HGV's and busses is not cheap, most HGV's and busses have about a 16 ltr engine, there average MPG is about 8MPG or for a smaller engine's maybe 11 MPG. the bus company will have to change its insurance policy as goods insurance will be different as its a "goods in transit policy"

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