Passing Comments
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From Commission to THE initials of the British
Corpse in Five A Transport Commission are Years . capable of a number of inter
pretations. Mr. John NI. Birch, chairman of the Passenger Vehicle Operators Association, thinks that the name should be altered each year, without changing the initials, to make at appropriate to the Commission's condition. He recently suggested the following variations: 1948, British Transport Commission; 1949, British Transport Confusion; 1950, British Transport Convulsion, 1951, British Transport Collapse; 1952. British Transport Corpse.
Grouping Brings B' grouping, free-enterprise Hauliers an Important hauliers in the East Contract Midlands were able to under take a haulage contract which, probably, none of them could have handled individually. The work involved the transport of clay over two leads, one of 21 miles and the other of 3/ miles, to the banks of the River Trent at Nottingham. A flood bank was to be constructed on each side of the river, one extending for five or six miles and the other for about 1/ miles. The work was extremely arduous and 67 vehicles were engaged on the job at one time In an average day, 217 loads, amounting to 976 cubic yds. of clay, were carried over, the 2/-mile lead, and 118 loads (531 cubic yds I over the 31-mile route. The group which undertook this work was Rod Hauliers (East Midlands), Ltd., which has six offices at Nottingham, A28
Derby and elsewhere. The group has already been extremely successful, and from May to August this year its turnover was 125,000. In the first. three months' trading its profit was sufficient to have justified a dividend of 17/ per cent.
New Name for the A LWAYS ready with the "apt phrase that enlivens any debate, Mr. Peter Thorneycroft, M.P., has coined an analogy for the Road Passenger Executive. "
It is rather like the Holy Roman Empire," he said. "It is neither holy, Roman, nor an empire. It does not deal with roads, it do'es not carry passengers, and it has no executive functions whatsoever. The position of chairman is the most astonishing sinecure that we have ever had." As others have done before him. Mr. Thorneycroft suggested that the Executive had no job to do and should be disbanded.
Road Passenger Executive .
Hauliers Rally to the SINCE the Transport Act
R.H.A. in the East was passed in 1947, Midlands Jeremiahs have been fore casting the early collapse of the Road Haulage Association. Nevertheless, it continues to thrive. In the East Midlands Area, for instance, 518 new members have been enrolled since September, 1948, and income lost through the acquisition of hauliers' businesses by the Road Haulage Executive has been counterbalanced by the subscriptions of new members. It is estimated that, apart from coal merchants, about 80 per cent. of the hauliers in the East Midlands belong to the RI-LA.
Statistics Can be Made to Prove Almost Any thing
STATISTICAL research
attracts those with logical minds, those who have a bent for gathering facts and figures, collating them, cross-referencing them, presenting them in tabular, graphic or diagrammatic form and finally pigeon-holing them. "Figures," once said an American Senator, "can be•made to prove anything." (Sweeping, paradoxical generalizations are always attributed to American Senators.) Glancing through
Offences Relating to Motor Vehicles," published lor the Home Office, we note that in 1949 25,601 people were found guilty of exceeding the 30 m.p.h. and 20-m.p.h. limits on goods vehicles. These persons formed the largest single category of offenders. Next to them came people found guilty of speeding in restricted areas-23,714 of them. A total of 31 persons was found guilty of exceeding the 30-m.p.h. limit on passenger vehicles. We draw no conclusions from these figures. We have some sympathy with the observation: "If all the statisticians in the world were laid head to foot around the Equator—it would be a good thing." Examples of Pilfering THE conductress of a bus in by Some Bus EmI Wales was recently fined
ployees 10 guineas for thefts from her
money bag, and the driver of the vehicle mulcted to a similar extent for receiving. The most interesting point, however, is that the prosecution referred to the offences as being part of a systemized racket in the area concerned. This was worked by running a bus slowly for a time so that the queues would be long, and then speeding up so as to pick up full loads. It was said that in the resulting congestion, some of the passengers would pay their fares, but not receive tickets. We believe that bus crews are no less honest than other people. hut there are obvious temptations not only in Wales but elsewhere. One of our friends has assured us that on at least one popular short-distance service in London, where it is quite a custom for passengers to pay as they leave and for the conductor to throw out a shower of tickets, he has counted these "throw-outs" and they have not amounted to nearly the number of people who have paid.