B Licence for £12,000 Heavy Haulage Outfit Refused
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Art Waits for B.R.S.
DELAY in the transport by British Road Services of a collection of pictures from Wakefield caused a day's postponement of the opening of a British Arts Council exhibition at Nottingham. When the pictures began their journey frcm Wakefielo, two days late, they were taken to Leeds by van and then transported to Bradford in another vehicle. fotianshipinent to a longdistance lorry due to leave for the south on the following day, a Friday. As this vehicle was already loaded when the pictures reached Bradford, they were held over to await a lorry leaving on the following Monday — the day the Nottingham exhibition was due to open.
T.G.W.11.-R.H.E. AGREEMENT
AN interim agreement, covering administrative, clerical and supervisory grades earning up to £630 a year has been reached between the Transport and General Workers' Union and the Road Haulage Executive. A London allowance of £25 a year for men and 10s. a week for women is included in the terms. THE Yorkshire Licensing Authority has refused an application by Sir Lindsay Parkinson and Co.. Ltd., public works contractor, for a B licence to enable a £12,000 low-loading vehicle— now operated under a C licence—to carry other public works contractors'
plant. The application, heard recently in Leeds, was opposed by the Railway Executive and the Road Haulage Executive, It was admitted that the company wished to reduce empty mileage covered by the vehicle and to cut overhead costs by obtaining remunerative work.
The applicant sought a B licence for a tractor and a trailer to carry abnormal indivisible loads to and from any part of England, Scotland and Wales. In submitting the application, Mr. Duran said that the company did not wish to enter the haulage industry: it merely wished to have its heavy transport facilities available for use by other public works contractors.
Mr. Dobson, Parkinson's plant manager, said that his company owned 50 excavators of all types, employed on opencast coal mining sites in southern Scotland, north-eastern England and South Wales. In the past, stated Mr. Dobson, he had experienced delays in obtaining low-loading vehicles from the objectors. He considered that his own company could use the outfit for the equivalent of eight months of the year.
This would represent some zo road movements.
Mr. A. W. Balne, for the 'objectors, dealt in detail with the time taken to obtain Ministry of Transport approval of routes, and to notify the police and issue indemnities to local authorities.
He suggested that the &mime!! Pioneer tractor unit used by the applicant could pull a load of only 80 tons. He thought that if the applicant
wished to carry loads of up to 100 tons, there would be occasions when additional tractor units would be required. He said that there was an occasion at Gateshead. in April. when the vehicle was unable to continue until two more tractor units—one from British Road Services — had been supplied.
Figures of business which the Parkinson company had done with Pickfords were put in, and Mr. Balne suggested that in addition to Pickford's loss of the applicant's traffic, now carried under a C licence, granting of the application would mean that Messrs. Wynn Bros.. of South Wales, would be deprived of traffic amounting to £2.000 per annum. and that Messrs. Young's, of Glasgow, would lose business.
Low-loaders Hard to Find
Most of the witnesses called for the applicant spoke of difficulties in obtaining low-loading vehicles. but-stated that their requirements had been met, mostly by Messrs. Wynn Bros.
Witness for the objectors. Mr. Partington. area manager of the Special Traffics (Pickfords) Division of the R.H.E., suggested that few movements of abnormal loads.could he carried out in fewer. than 10 days, Particularly over long distances. . Because of recent incidents in which heavy vehicles carry:. ing abnormal loads had damaged or destroyed. road bridges,. the Ministry of Transport was making much more careful examination of applications for routes, and it was not possible to offer a service under at least 10 days.
Mr. Balne said that the applicant was a newcomer to the haulage industry and had not satisfied any part of the requirements laid down in the Enston •case. All the heavy haulage concerns in the country had already lost the traffic of . the applicant company. Wimpey's and McAlpine's, and yet Parkinson's wished to filch some of what was left in order to reduce its own overheads,
New Scammell Sixwheel-drive Chassis PAA NEW six-wheeled cross-country chassis, driven on all wheels and based on the former Pioneer model, is now being produced by ScaMmell Lorries. Ltd., Watford. One of these vehicles will be shown at Earls Court next month.
Renamed the Explorer, it will be powered by the Meadows 10.35-litre petrol engine and will have a frontwheel-drive arrangement similar to that of the Mountaineer four-wheeled model which was described in "The Commercial Motor" on December 30, 1949. The Explorer rear-suspension system enables the wheels to move independently of each other in a vertical direction when negotiating rough ground. It is possible for one rear wheel to be as much as 2 ft. above its fellow on the same side.
Austin Makes New Ambulance
PAA NEW ambulance, based on the A125 Sheerline chassis, will be among the Austin exhibits at Earls Court next month.Apart from an increase in tyre size to 7.50 by 16 ins., the chassis 'specification is generally similar to that Of the 11-ft-wheelbase car. It has independent 'front suspension by coil springs and -wishbones, and a hypoid final-drive to the rear ale.
The ambulance body is conventionally constructed .and.. a selection of equipment is available :to.. suit individual requirements.. Provision can be made for one to four stretcher cases or 12 sitting patients, or a combination of stretcher and sitting cases.
INQUIRY INTO SOUTH WALES FARES DISPUTE • •
ON Wednesday, the first sitting took place in Cardiff, of 'the committee appointed last week by the Ministry of Labour to inquire into the dispute which has arisen between the National Coal Board and the National Union of Mine Workers as a result of the permission, granted to Rhondda Transport Co., Ltd., last May, to dispense with concession fares for miners.
A complete stoppage of work by 100,000 miners in the area has been threatened for next Monday, and the committee is inquiring into the causes of the differences which have occurred. The chairman is Professor A. N. Shimmin.
RUSH TO VISIT FORD WORKS WITHIN 48 hours of the Road VV Haulage Association's informing members of a projected visit to the Ford works at Dagenham on August 31, the ceiling figure of 350 guests had been extended to 500 and even that figure had been surpassed. Further applications cannot be accepted, but the R.H.A. Metropolitan and South Eastern Area secretary says that a second trip may be arranged later, and members and their wives who have been unable to join this month's party will then be given the first opportunity of making reservations.