Year's Commercial Vehicle Exports Top £25,000,000 D URING the last three
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months of 1947, the British commercial-vehicle industry exported 37 per cent, of its production, states the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. Over the year, exports of delivery vans and utili
ties, trolleyb uses, motorbuses and coaches, industrial trucks, other descriptions, general-haulage tractors and trailds reached a value of f25.408,923. Units exported numbered 58,3Th.
December's exports in these categories numbered 4,822 units, valued at £2,342,512, compared with 5,134 and £2,143,544, respectively, in November.
Exports of used commercial vehicles last year totalled 5,951 units of a value of £2,634,640. December's contribution was 320 units (£117,858) In addition, manufacturers last year exported agricultural tractors and parts to the value of £5,170,486, of which £711,119 was brought in during December.
Exports of parts and accessories, including tyres, reached the creditable figure of £17,607,310. December's contribution was £1,538,220.
Argentina, a hard-currency country, bought a larger number of commercial vehicles than any other overseas country, 4,000 having been shipped there during the year.
The following table shows exports by individual classes:-' Where a charge is normally made for visas to the United Kingdom, bona-fide visitors to the B.I.F. may obtain the visa, without charge, on application to the nearest British Consular Officer.
Continuous services of coaches will be run free of charge between Earl's Court and Olympia to carry visitors.
MORE MEMBERS FOR THE FUND
LAST year the Birmingham and Midland centre of the Motor and Cycle Trades Benevolent Fund disbursed 1.1,150 in relief to necessitous cases. Membership increased by more than 60 per cent.
Mr. A. Paddon-Smith has been re-elected chairman, Mr. Gilbert Smith vice-chairman, and Mr. L. W Lambley honorary secretary and treasurer.
"OUR" BUSES EARN MORE
DURING the first foul weeks of nationalization, London Transport's revenue from its buses and coaches amounted to £2,281,000, against £1,841,000 in the corresponding period
of 1947. The trolleybuses and trams yielded a revenue of £835,000, against £692,000. Fares are now higher than during the comparable period of 1947. AUSTIN UNIT-REPLACEMENT SCHEME
ARECENT announcement by the Austin Motor Co., Ltd., is to the effect that it is now possible to make an immediate exchange of reconditioned service units for certain worn types.
They are briefly as follows:Commercial-vehicle engines, £25, plus 75 per cent., less 30 per cent., each, Worn engines must be sent minus electrical equipment, petrol pump, clutch housing, clutch, carburetter, induction and exhaust pipes, fan belt, fan and its setscrews. The distributor driving spindle must be removed and securely tied to the engine.
Differential carrier units (2-ton), price £22 10s., plus 75 per cent., less 15 per cent.
Truck gearboxes, £13 4s. 9d., plus 75 per cent., less 15 per cent. All gearboxes returned must have mechanical pump or power take-off removed.
Similar arrangements are being made in connection with the smaller engines and other units at appropriate prices.
R.H.A. TO WORK WITH B.T.C. DART of the machinery for joint I working established between the Road Haulage Association and the four main-line railway companies will be continued as between the R.H.A. and the British Transport Commission.
The B.T.C., for example, has indicated its desire to participate in the road-rail licensing scheme. Under this, applicants for A and B licences are afforded an opportunity of reaching an agreement whereby hauliers and the Commission will not lodge objections at the Traffic Court hearings.
LOSS FORECAST AT LUTON WORKMEN'S services in some cases Vlf have to be subsidized from revenue from normal passengei services, said the general manager of Luton Corporation's transport department, Mr. C. S. Wickens, reporting an estimated loss of £24,000 in the current year. His report recommends higher fares. •
-SCOTTISH BUS STRIKE ENDS ACONFERENCE of delegates of the Transport and General Workers' Union who met in Edinburgh on February 5, unanimously recommended that the 5,000 bus employees, including those in Lanarkshire, who had been on strike for the previous 11 days, should resume work on Sunday.
Employees of Greenock Motor Services Co. decided by a narrow majority to return to work on February 5.
Many drivers and conductresses at Aberdeen depot of W. Alexander and Sons, Ltd., staged their second one-day
token strike last Saturday. Services were back to normal on Sunday.
All services in th-s southern part of Scotland were also operating normally on Monday.
OBITUARY
MEWS was received at Liverpool last IN week-end of the death at Rio de Janeiro, on February 4, of MR. PETER STEVENSON, founder of Stevensons Transport, Ltd., Liverpool. This, business, founded in 1919, built up a fleet
of about 50 vehicles. In 1941 Mr. A30 Stevenson disposed of his interest and
retired. Aged 60, he was a former chairman of the North-Western Area of the former Associated Road Operators and served on the National Council.
A director of Spurting Motor Bodies, Ltd., and co-founder of the company with Mr. Spurting, MR. F. T. Loito died last Monday. He was also well known in the industry for his association with Messrs. Vigo Motors, London, W.10, the western depot of Spurlings.
NEWCASTLE TO SEEK HIGHER FARES
PLANS for increasing fares on Newcastle-on-Tyne's transport undertaking have been approved by the transport and electricity committee. It is proposed to add id. to all fares up to and including 2id., and to raise workmen's 8d. 12-journey tickets by 4d. and Is., Is. 6d. and 2s. tickets by 6d. Fares have not been altered for 27 years. If the undertaking continued to operate at present fares, it would be faced with a deficit of £53,244 for the current year and £228,467 for 1948-49.
SIMMS EQUIPMENT DISPLAYED
AN impressive catalogue of Simms lighting, starting, fuel-injection and ignition equipment has been issued by Simms Motor Units, Ltd., Oak Lane. Finehley, London, N.12. Each type of equipment is easily identified by means of a different background colour.
MINISTRY AGREES TO 21 PER CENT. INCREASE IN RATES INDER an agreement reached between the Road Haulage Association and the Ministry of Transport, rates in the schedule known as RH13/20 were increased by 21per cent. as from February 2.
The schedule was issued in April, 1947, and covers rates normally applicable to distances up to a radius of 25 miles. The increase applies only io columns 2, 3, 5, and 6 of the schedule. These columns list payments for a 44hour week (including miles up to 220) and rates per hour for hours up to 44 per week (including miles up to five) on weekly hire, and payment for a day of eight hours (including miles up to 40) and rates per hour for a 44-hour week (including miles up to five) on daily hire.
GLASGOW TRAFFIC SPEED-UP
EFFORITS are being made by Glasgow Corporation to speed up city traffic, after discussions with all the trade and motoring interests concerned. Proposals include the complete ban from 27 streets, during certain hours, of all vehicles delivering or loading goods. In 11 streets, horse-drawn or slow traffic will be similarly banned. There are to be 12 new parking sites, which will accommodate a further 572 vehicles.
B.T.C. REVIEWS TAXICAB STANDING RIGHTS
THEproblem of the use of station yards and approaches by taxicabs is at present under review by the British Transport Commission, the Minister of Transport, Mr. A. Barnes, stated last week.
He had been asked to review conditions associated with licensed taxicabs and drivers, and their rights to ply for hire, with particular regard to Doncaster station, where some drivers, many of them ex-Servicemen, are forbidden to stand on the official station taxi rank unless they pay an annual rental to the British Railways, although properly licensed by Doncaster Watch Committee. If they do not pay rent, they are regarded as trespassers.
CANADIAN FORDS HAVE BIGGER AND BETTER CABS
rAB width at the flow line has been increased by 7 ins, in a new series of Ford vehicles whi..h has just been introduced by the Fold Motor Co. of Canada, Ltd. The doors are wider and are set farther forward than in previous models to facilitate entry and exit.
Headroom and footroom have been increased, and a new three-way air-controlled system of cab ventilation has been provided.
The cab is insulated against vibration by the use of rubber pads and rubberinsulated bolts at the front corners, and by links in torsion-type rubber bushings at each rear corner.
The new vehicles range in pay-load capacity from 10 cwt. to 3 tons.
5 PER CENT. OF FUEL SAVED Q INCE October 1, 1947, the net saving in petrol issued to A, B and C licensees was about 5 per cent., or approximately 100,000 tons a year, said the Minister of Transport in the .House of Commons last week.
In answer to another question, the Minister said that in the 12-weekly rationing period ended December 23, 1947, coupons were issued to coach and bus operators for about 16,000,000 gallons of petrol and 33,000,000 gallons of oil fuel, compared with 17,500,000 gallons and 29,300,000 gallons respectively a year earlier.
RAW DEAL FOR SCOTLAND
THE mileage of Scottish trunk roads which it was intended to improve was negligible, compared with other parts of the country, when the important role which Scotland played in the national economy was considered, said Mr. Michael Clark Hall, of the British Road Federation, at a conference in Edinburgh, last week.
He said that the entire absence of any provision for the construction of motorways was a most serious matter, and there was an immediate need for reconsideration by the Government of the scheme as it stood.
He added that he was recommending that the Federation should institute a detailed survey into the highway needs of Scotland.
Q DISTRIBUTOR FOR WEST
DISTRIBUTION of Q electric vehicles in Devon, Cornwall, Gloucester, Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire is now being handled by the Victoria Motor Co. (Bristol), Ltd., Temple Gate, Bristol, 1. Mr. J. G. Glanvill is sales director. Agents are being appointed in several large towns in the area.
500 LEYLAND "EIGHT-FOOTERS"
THE 500 8-ft.-wide buses ordered by the London Transport Executive are to be built by Leyland Motors, Ltd. They will have the maker's metalframed bodies.
Leyland Motors, Ltd., is also building 1,000 double-decker chassis of normal width and 100 single-decker chassis for London. INSULATED CAB OFFERED ON BIG EXPORT LEYLANDS
ANEW double-skinned cab, with Isotlex insulating material between the panels, is being offered by Leyland Motors, Ltd., for use on the export range of maximum-load goods chassis. The cab is being built by Messrs. Pearsons: of Liverpool, and has been designed in co-operation with Leyland engineers.
The insulation keeps the cab cool in hot climates and warm in cold countries. In addition, a detachable sun-shade panel is fitted on the roof, and a wellpositioned visor extends for the full width of the windscreen.
The cab is flexibly mounted at three points. The two front mountings bear directly on the chassis frame, and the third attachment is placed centrally at the back of the cab and is pivoted to a truss bar which runs transversely behind the cab and bears on rubber pads carried in brackets fixed to the chassis.frame members.
The hide-upholstered seat, with rubber-filled cushions, extends across the full width of the cab and can easily accommodate four persons. It is made in halves, each opening upwards to give access to a box which has three compartments. The centre section houses the batteries and the outside compartments serve as lockers for the crew's equipment.
NORWICH CROWDS THE BUSES
LAST year, 3,250,000 more people travelled on Norwich buses than during the previous year, and 10,000,000 more than during the last pre-war year. The, annual figure last year was 38,129,042, according to the report of Mr. H. E. Witard, local director of the Norwich Omnibus Co.
Mileage, at 3,226,853, was 400,000 more than last year, but 100,000 less than before the war. Journeys per head were 302, an increase of 81 on the prewar figure
EASTERN HAULIERS HIT
IN the course of a recent traffic case, Sir Alfred Faulkner, Eastern Licensing Authority for Goods Vehicles, said: "I have noticed a general dropping off in traffic in December and January. Transport has been standing idle and the railways have been wanting traffic."
There is usually, a slack period in January, buf this decrease is stated to be exceptionally heavy.
COACH FARES DECISION STILL CONCEALED
THIS morning (Friday) the Regional Fares Committees are meeting to discuss the decision given by the Metropolitan, South Eastern and Eastern Licensing Authorities, under the chairmanship of Sir Henry Piggott. on the application by the Central Fares Committee for an increase of 33i• per cent, above the pre-war level of coach fares on express services to and from London. The Central Fares Committee will meet again this afternoon.
Mr. A. Baynton, chairman of the Central Fares Committee, is keeping the decision confidential until operators have fully discussed it.
GOODS RATES UP BY 121 PER CENT,
FRE1GHT charges by rail and road in Northern Ireland are tb be increased by 12i per cent. on March 1, making them 55 per cent, above pre-war level.
No increase is proposed in passenger rates, as the abolition of the basic petrol ration has diverted a large volume of traffic to the public transport undertakings. When the basic restriction is eased, or removed, the position will be reviewed.
This announcement was made at a Press conference in Belfast, last week, which was attended by executives of the Northern Ireland Railways and Transport Board.
20-MILE LIMIT FOR TAXIS
I N the House of Commons last week,' Mr. Gaitskell, Minister of Fuel and Power, announced that an Order is to be made limiting the radius of operation of hire cars and taxicabs to 20 miles from the place at which the vehicle is normally kept. Exception is to be made in the case of vehicles used for urgent purposes or the hirer's professional business.
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