By The Hawk
Page 49
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BIRD'S EYE VIEW
I notice that the Metropolitan " Applications and Decisions" has been gchanged in layout and style "to achieve greater clarity and uniformity (to quote an official of the Ministry). One of the most significant changes is the lumping .together of new .Aand B-licence applications, and the only way now of discovering whether an application is anA or a B is by reference to a• minute letter after: the apPlicant's reference number.
The main difference between this area 'S " As and Ds " and that of other areas is that the .Met. book lists the numbers of Vehicles and •the weights of each separately.. Instead of, in the case of a large hid, a simple, short and sweet " 10 V 30 T" (which, to the uninitiated, means " 10 vehicles of a total Unladen. weight of 30 tons -); the Met court interprets this as "1 V @ .4T 4Cwt., 2 V @ 2T 19Cwt. and so on: You can imagine just how much space is taken up when,someone is applying for, say, 30 vehicles all of slightly different unladen weights!
Unfortunately they have not changed this in their new styling. Here, surely, they couid have saved a great deal of space and money—and saved my arithmetic, too!
New Met. As and Ds
Veteran Trouble My colleague who attended
the Historic Commercial Vehicle Club's rally has been dared by his wife to bring home a relic of the 'twenties— and told that it will end in divorce if he insists on completing the negotiations that will make him a veteran owner. Anybody interested in taking on a veteran with a veteran?
An impressive line-up of new vehicles, you might say. And indeed, it is a line-up of new buses—but not on delivery. Look again the 18 double-deckers of Potteries Motor Traction Co. Ltd. seen in the adjacent photograph are full of passengers!
Whilst the 19th double-decker employed on a record private-hire operation recently undertaken by PMT was picking-up its passengers in Crewe, the remaining 18 buses --all Alexander-bodied Daimler Eleetlines lined up for this photograph. The occasion was an outing to Blackpool of some 1,200 newspaper delivery boys and girls. The outing was arranged by the North Staffordshire branch of. the National Federation of Retail Newsagents.
Not What it Seems!
Much Travelled We are about to lose our
editor, Alan Havard—bnt only for a few weeks. He is off to Japan next week to take a look at transport and the commercial vehicle industry in the isles of Nippon—so we can soon expect a series of Oriental Diaries to follow up his North American Diaries that were such a success last year, following Alan's visit to the USA and Canada.
Boggle Corner... Are you forced sometimes to
boggle? I am. I am boggling like mad at this moment.
Consider: not so long ago Mr. Marples turned down all the designs for a particular motorway service area because they failed to reach what he considered a minimum standard of practicality. At the moment a major part of Mi is being torn up and rebuilt because, apparently, -specifications were drawn up on the basis of greatly underestimated weight and density of traffic (plus the apparent belief that water would run off a virtually, flat surface).
Now comes news of the latest triumph. In the first report on the Dartford-Purfleet tunnel (now a whole 18 months old) the general manager says: "The design of the toll booths is not satisfactory. The operator's position is too high, his working conditions are cramped and his operating position is at the wrong end of the booth. The only door in the toll booth is fitted in the panel which faces the oncoming motorist and the cramped conditions would make impossible a rapid escape via the windOw in an emergency. The Ministry of Transport has been requested to replace the existing toll booths by a version of those in use at the Forth Road Bridge.
.. Boggle with Me "The tunnel has not been kept at the standard of cleanliness intended, as the specially designed cleaning machine has not yet been delivered, although it was ordered in August, 1963. . .
"The provision of only one public lavatory has proved to be insufficient, and in the summer months the associated lay-by has not been nearly large enough to accommodate the vehicles whose occupants wish to make use of toilet facilities. Furthermore, arranging for vehides on the Western Approach road to cross over to the lavatory has called for a considerable effort on the part of the tunnel staff and, even so, the procedure is not without an element of risk.. ."
Need 1 go on? I invite you to boggle with me—and not least at the extra money which will now be spent.