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Replacing the Impressed Vehicle.

13th March 1919, Page 1
13th March 1919
Page 1
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Page 1, 13th March 1919 — Replacing the Impressed Vehicle.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

E DFALT in our last issue with the disability under which coramercial-vehicle owners, who had had their vehicles impressed in the first year of the war, are now labouring. • They disposed of their vehicles to the military authorities at a time when every transport vehicle obtainable was required for military purposes at prices which, it is agreed, were then quite reasonable, but they could not foresee that, when the time ca.me to replace the vehicles, the purchase price would have risen from 50 to 70 per cent. We have contended that the Government should in some waY assist those owners to replace their losses, particularly in view of the fact that ship-owners have been exceedingly well compensated for their losses. On further consideration, we think that the least that can be done for those people who have had their .vehicles impressed is to make some arrangement whereby they can have precedence in buying, so that they shall not have to compete at public auction with everybody and anybody. If this precedence is given, we thtrik the needs of the case will have been met, provided that the agreed price at which they will be allowed to buy in no ease exceeds the price which was paid for the machine when new.

Our suggestion to vehicle users requiring to replace ,their impressed vehicles is that they should send a letter of application direct to Lieut.-Col. C. V. Holbrook, 1, Grosvenor Place, London, S.W.1, stating the date and place of impressment, the make, h.p. and year of manufacture of the vehicle impressed, and the price received for it, asking to be allowed to buY in replacement, at an agreed valuation. A few applications of this sort would impress the authorities with the fairness of giving extra consideration to those people who, by releasing their vehicles at &time of national need, rendered a material service to the country.

Disposing of Surplus Lorries

RUMOUR, for some curious reason or other, has gained currency during this week, that the Mechanical Transport Disposal Section of the Ministry of Munitions, dealing with surplus Government property, had decided to dispose of a certain proportion of the property by negotiation. There is no truth whatever in this statement, as the firm intention of the Ministry is to make use of public, auction rooms, and, with regard to certain of the property, of public tender. , Of the 62,000 commercial vehicles which are in the possession of the authorities: it is estimated that about 40,000 will come up for disposal, subject to the requirements of the Army '_of Occupation, which, obviously, is something that no man can estimate, but the number which is being notified to the Disposal Board as being surplus to requirements, week by week, is still very small and can scarcely be put even at 100 vehicles per week. There has been current, too, a rumour that, of the new and unused vehicles, totalling about 3,000, some or all would be offered for immediate sale, but we believe that we are right in saying that the Advisory Committee which has been 'appointed to assist the Controller of the Mechanical Transport Section has not yet come to a conclusion as to the best way of dealing with these vehicles. Our opinion is that the motor industry, taken collectively, does not really know its own mind in the matter of the disposal of the surplus Government lorries. This matter has been discussed and argued over—for how long is itl—but there has been no . genere agreement as to what shall be clone. in consequence of not showing a united front,•the motor trade has not been of any real assistance to the military authorities in the matter of disposal, and the users' representatives have not advanced any useful proposals. The result is that the Disposal Board has decided upon auctioneering ,as the best means of securing the largest amount Possible for every vehicle available for disposal. A few sales have been held, but one on a larger scale takes place at the Agricultural Hall, to-morrow (Friday), and it will be followed by two others during the month at the same place, by one in Edinburgh, and then at other centres so soon as the vehicles are notified; for-disposal.

A Very curious fact has come to light in connection .with the vehicles which were seen 'depreciating" in an open market square in London. These machines on disposal fetched more than the price that had been paid for them by the military authorities.

Maintainthe Competition of Motor Transport

RARELY HAS a Government measure met with so widespread an opposition as the proposal to take roads and road surfaces under the mantle of the projected•Ministry of Ways and Communications, and our feeling, at the moment of writing, is that roads will have been severed from the Bill on its second reading. With some of this opposition, however, we have not found ourselves altogether in agreement, as it has taken the form of endeavouring to cure a sore spot by killing the patient—an effective Measure if it succeeds, but one that is so likely to be resented and, by failing, likely to defeat the real object. . . ' The Government's measure, the first introduced in a Parliament which is new in so many. senses and. ;which has . come in with a mandate of reform in almost every walk of life, is• bound to find favour (taken as a whole) with the bulk of the people. There is a general belief in the value of co-ordination, although it is coupled. with a distrust of the commercial ability. of Government Departments. But the Bill is carefully phrased to quell these doubts and fears by leaving the present administrative staffs of the railways, docks, harbours, etc., in control of the undertakings and making the new Ministry a. coordinating authority. The public can visualize many advantages arising from a sensible re-arrangement of railway services., for example. They are prepared to applaud any efforts, however small, to utilize the canals to better advantage. They can imagine benefits arising from the provision of cheap electrical-power. Hence the public sympathy is with the Bill as a whole, and they have had to be shown that the roads, with motor traffic, constitute a powerful competitor and auxiliary of the railways, one which it would be fatal to the public interests to cast into the maw of the railway companies. " They have had to be shown that the new Ministry must, of necessity, be composed of railway men and dominated by railway interests and that, with (such a tribunal, the competition of the roads and motor transport would be crashed. Just as the roads and road transport must be kept out of the railway Bill, so the air and aerial transport must not come under the same control. Otherwise, both must. share the fate of the canals—which is a standing disgrace to British railway methods of dealing with ,competition, the loss being that of the

public, of course.i

The Unprotected Bus Upper Deck.

NO winter period goes by without the question of the feasibility of improving the London omnibus, by covering in the upper. deck, being revived. This winter the need has been more urgently felt because of the removal of the knee aprons and because of the prevalence of influenza.

The objection of the Police as licensing authorities to any proposals to this end has been the raising of the centre of gravity of the vehicle, but the existence of fair grounds for this objection has never been tested and, in any case, it can be met by underhanging the springs, so lowering the centre of gravity materially. The real objections fall under two heads : first, the unexampled and extreme,handiness of the bus ; and, second, constructional grounds. The motor omnibus, unlike the tramcar or any railed vehicle, can go anywhere in reason. Its route can be diverted or extended in a matter of moments. But many bridges over roads are unduly low, and routes, now open to buses as at present constructed, would be closed to them if covered upper decks were standardized. Lowering the road surface in order to increase the headroom is already a vital necessity in many cases, and the existence of that need, in order to provide greater freedom in higher loading, is an argument in favour of a road authority independent of railways and other ways and communications.

But, the first difficulty need not prevent the buses on the majority of routes in London being equipped with covered upper decks. Details of construction may now be considered. Artificial lighting and ventilation seem the biggest problems, and, as the windows must be small, the covered top would, in the summer, be draughty, which could not be a good exchange for the fresh air of the uncovered vehicle. This suggests a top readily removable and replaeeable, with an alternative of the folding Cape cart hood .order.

With eight or nine months before the change will again be called for, the .omnibus undertakings could easily carry out the reform, but, unless the police attitude be at once altered on the matter of vehicle weight, the reform cannot be instituted and London's travelling public will be doomed to another winter's exposure to the inclemencies of our climate or, in the alternative, the inconvenience and delay of waiting for vacant inside seats.


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