News of the Week
Page 24
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THE LAI iST ON LICENSING
ALL Road Transport Commissioners are moving gradually towards a return to the pre-war licensing system. Most have already held public sittings.
So far as passenger-vehicle licensing is concerned, the R.T.C.s, as chairmen, will, for the time being, sit alone under an Order that has not yet been revoked. They will continue this procedure until all Commissioners have been appointed. Although actioa is being taken, this procedure will probably continue until early next year. Meanwhile, the change-over from the Road Haulage Organization to the scheme devised by the Road Haulage Association is progressing smoothly.
No appeals under the Road and Rail Traffic Act have yet been lodged against decisions by the Commissioners, but Appeal Tribunal offices have been arranged, although, at the time of going to press, the addresses are not available.
Points raised by the manufacturers of electrical equipment regarding the movement by road of heavy products in their sphere are being looked into by the Ministry of Transport. These comprise big indivisible loads. The Highways Engineering Division of the Ministry, of course, continues to give advice regarding the routes that vehicles carrying such loads should follow.
VISIT TO SWEDEN
FURTHER details of the forthcoming visit to Sweden by members of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers can now be given.
The party will leave by the Swedish Lloyd m.v. "Saga," which is due to sail from Tilbury at 5 p.m. on October 5. A special train will leave St. Pancras Station at 2.15 p.m. The " Saga" is due at Gothenburg about noon on Monday and the tour programme will begin in Gothenburg on that afternoon.
The two principal Swedish organizations which are acting as hosts and making all the arrangements are the Svenska 1...rsurafikbilagareforbundet (Swedish Road Haulage Association) and Svenska Lokaltrafikforeningen (Swedish Passenger Road Transport Federation).
By special arrangement. Monday night will be spent on board ship. The party will leave for Stockholm by train the next day. Full details of the complete programme are expected shortly from Stockholm.
The returi journey will be made by the Swedish Lloyd s.s. " Suecia." leaving Gothenburg at 5 p.m. on October 12 and due at Tilbury about noon on October 14.
UNION DEMAND FOR DISMISSAL REFUSED
AFTER a demobilized R.A.S.C. t'tdriver, Mr. Andrew R. Young. had been reinstated in employment by John Paterson (Motors), Ltd., Glasgow. which took over• John Menzies, Ltd„ his former employer, a shop steward from the Transport and General Workers' Union, informed Paterson's that Mr. Young Must be dismissed This ract was revealed' on Septerii
bet 4, when Mr. Young appialed to the Glasgow Reinstatement Committee against dismissal, the request for which was stated to have been made on the ground that, although the appellant was a member of the Union, there was another driver who was senior to him in membership.
Mr. Frank Paterson, a director, said that his concern thought it was acting correctly in employing Mr. Young as a driver. On the return of other men from the Services, some of the drivers became redundant and were given notice of dismissal. Mr. Young was not included. The Union, however, insisted that he be treated as a comparatively new employee and placed on the redundant staff. Mr. Paterson added that he did not think the Union request was right, so he kept Mr. Young as a spare man.
The Committee unanimously decided to make a reinstatement order from September 5. Mr. H. Ellison, who presided. said that the company had acted entirely fairly and passed comment on the interference by the shop steward.
THANKS FROM THE MINISTER
LETTERS of thanks for their war-time services have been sent by Mr. Alfred Barnes, Minister of Transport, to hired operators and controlled undertakings.
"There is still essential traffic to be carried," says Mr. Barnes, "and although the (Road Haulage) Organization as previously constituted will no longer operate, I am sure that everyone will do their utmost to ensure the success of the new arrangements which have been agreed with the industry."
B.R.F. BOOK ON TRAFFIC SIGNS
EARLY -November will, it is hoped by the British Road Federation, see publication of its illustrated book dealing with traffic signs. This will concern methods of signposting from the earliest times and all over the world. Reproductions of photographs and drawings will show the right and wrong ways of approaching this important subject. which has such a direct bearing upon road safety.
OBITUARY WE regret to learn of the death, on VV September 5, at the age of 70. of Mr. Bert Clews, chairman and managing director of the Clews Petersen Piston Ring and Engineering Co., Ltd.
Another personality in the industry and a friend of long standing. Mr. J. H. Stirk, died on September 7. He was Regional Traffic Commissioner for the North Midland Area. Before being appointed as chairman of the East Midland Area Commissioners as long ago as December. 1930, he was for 14 years traffic manager of the Birmingham Cooperative Society. He was also, at one time, connected with the L.M.S. Railway. He possessed a wide knowledge of road transport and will be greatly missed in the industry. MR. DRAYTON NOT SURPRISED
CAUST1C comments on nationalization were expressed by Mr. H. C. Drayton at the 1Qth annual general meeting of Transport Services, Ltd., on September 6.
Referring, first, to the Road Haulage Organization, he said that, under the voluntary contract between the Ministry and the company, the former KW the right to terminate it last November or on August 15 this year. It had been hoped that the company would have been met in the same spirit, at the end of the first period, as that in which it had entered the contract, but the Minister took advantage of his additional six months* option.
The company was not happy under control, but learned enough to reinforce its conviction tha', under nationalization, there would not be any decrease in the cost of transport to industry and the public unless there was a subsidy. In a concern like Transport Services, the drivers are more than the term indicates. They are keen to get business and they keep the managing directors in touch with any that is going. They welcomd the end of control.
One of our Labour Ministers, speaking in a freedom-loving Dominion, said that nationalizers had to prove their case. Mr. Drayton was not surprised, however, that no steps had been taken to do so here. The statement was one of expediency, which it was necessary to make in that Dominion, whereas there was no obligation to implement it here.
BACK TO THE EVENING THE Yorkshire Section of the tute of Transport, which, during the war, introduced lunch-time meetings because of the abnormal conditions, will next session revert completely to the pre-war practice of holding the monthly meetings in the evenings. These will take place at the Great Northern Hotel. Leeds, on the second Wednesday in each month, at 6.30 p.m. The session will 'open on October 9, when a paper on railway claims will be contributed by Mr. E. Steele, of the L.M.S. Railway.
EDUCATION IN ABERDEEN
A THREE-YEAR course for road transport students appears for the first time in the 1946-47 prospectus of evening classes issued by Aberdeen Education Committee. The committee is anxious to provide facilities for returned ex-Service personnel who wish to brush up their technical knowledge. The session begins on September 24.
TYRE TIPS FOR BUYERS OF EX-W.D, VEHICLES UYERS of surplus War Department vehicles will find some helpful advice in a Dunlop booklet, "Tyre and Wheel Equipment." It points out that Service vehicles were often fitted with tyres produced to meet specific needs, and that, to get the best out of them, appropriate limitations as to loads, speeds. and tyre pressure must be observed. These limitations are specified in.-detail and there are instructions on fitting and removing the tyres and their wheels, Useful information is; also giv,en about the type of tyre. to be used for replacement.