OPINIONS and QUERIES
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Licensing of Hauliers Again Advocated. Low Fuel Cost an Important Asset of the Oil Engine Hauliers and the Clay Business. A Driver 01)jects to Forward control. Operator Versus the Act
The Need for Reorganizing Goods Haulage.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
13590] Sir,—I have read with interest your recent articles and correspondence relating to the plight of the road transport industry, and I endorse the opinion that the industry should •be reorganized. In my opinion (and I have been a transport owner for many years), the clearing houses have contributed considerably towards creating the present deplorable conditions. It is common knowledge that, if one clearing house quotes a rate, another will cut that rate; clearing houses, I admit, have their use, but why should they be so keen to cut each other's throats, especially considering the boomerang effect which rate cutting inevitably causes?
In many other industries the chief firms concerned standardize the price of their particular service or commodity, knowing well that it will be mutually advantageous. Why not adopt a similar method in our business?
The articles by Mr. W. R. Jackson, of the Warpool Transport Co., which appeared in your issues of November 10th and 17th, I thought, exposed many existing anomalies, and provided much food for serious thought on the lines which reform could take.
As a typical instance of rate cutting, I quote the following :—A client of mine, with whom I have previously done business, inquired for a tender for 10 tons, 200 miles. I quoted a price which I knew to be reasonable (and below railway rate). To my amazement one haulier quoted half my price. The man who gave that estimate cannot have any knowledge of running heavy transport lorries, or does he think the Road Traffic Act can be ignored?
I contend that all old-established transport firms should be registered for the routes which they cover, the tonnage, and the types of vehicle which they own, then the manufacturers and others who avail themselves of road transport and the services of the clearing houses would know with whom they are dealing, and the types of machine and service allocated to them.
As things exist at the moment, the driver who secures the load may just have come in from a long run, or, perhaps, having called at the office casually, he snatches at any price with the hope of getting the return load, or pacifying the creditors who are dunning him for the instalments on his lorry. It is easy to see that, under these conditions, the customers' interests are often overlooked.
There are numerous causes which have brought down rates, with most of which readers of the C.M. are familiar, but I do not think the railway companies are so culpable as many people try to make out. There are thousands of tons hauled at much lower rates than those of the railways, electrical equipment, building materials, heavy machinery, meat, fruit, foodstuffs, wool, cotton, and many other commodities.
Manchester. S. R. TEGGIN.
Where the Oil Engine Scares.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOT'OR.
[3591] Sir,—In a recent issue your correspondent ' Progress" strikes the right note indeed. I wish that there were more progressive people like him, to help wake up those who are—if not retrogressive—at least apathetic, regarding the wonderful advantages now being obtained with the best of the oil engines.
Your correspondent mentions that the price of petrol will soon be much higher. It surely will. The colossal over-production is causing equally colossal difficulties amongst the various producers, and the fall in the value of the pound has made things 25 per cent. worse. Our wholesale suppliers here .are now trying to bring about a great combination with the sole object of reducing the overhead expenses, but they are still selling at a serious loss.
The price of oil fuel may eventually be raised somewhat, but not in proportion to the rise which must logically take place with petrol. From the oil-engine user's point of view, the great point to bear in mind is that, even if the price of fuel oil ever reaches that of petrol, the oil engine will run well over twice the miles per gallon, as against petrol. In some cases, the distance is three times as great, and added to this we now have ample proof that maintenance costs are considerably below those of the petrol engine. The advice given by " Progress" in his last paragraph is the best that can be given to owners of fleets of vehicles.
Leeds. W. H. GODDARD,
Lessons Taught by the Haulage of Clay.
The Editor, TEE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[3592] Sir;—As a regular reader of The Commercial Motor, and being concerned in motor haulage at St. Austell and district, a letter published in your issue of November 10th, under the heading "A Plea for Better Haulage Rates" greatly interested me.
"Free Lance" may remember that rates in the clayhaulage business 10 years ago were particularly good, comparing most favourably: with rates ruling in other parts of the country. The haulage was held then, and until about three years ago, by a collection of small hauliers, whose methods, to say the least, were generally haphazard, but whose numbers were large enough to enable them to cope with any shipment of clay which came along. For example, supposing a clayworks captain was instructed to ship, say, 500 tons of clay in two days, he would hire his chosen dozen or more hauliers. Incidentally, of course, all hauliers would get the news. Wagons up to the number of 50 (each capable of carrying 4 to 5 tons) would arrive at the clay dry the next morning. His chosen hauliers would draw lots for turn of loading and number of loads—outsiders would draw for anything that was left—if there was any for which to draw.
In the meantime one or two motor hauliers started B39
to operate and many rates were cut and cut again, until horsed transport was out of the question, and motor traction was far from being a profitable investment.
Approximately three years ago, a " consumptive " haulage concern was absorbed by another which operated 20 miles away, and a manager was appointed to reorganize it. To this manager is due the bettered conditions of transport which prevail here. He has for the past three years consistently fought against " cut-throat " competition, but at the same time he is too shrewd a business man to sub-let work and thus place on the debit side of his ledger telephone calls and clerical charges which 5 per cent, barely covers. His haulage is chiefly clay, and he has, so far as my knowledge goes, one of the best fleets of lorries and equipped maintenance depots in Cornwall. The drivers of these lorries are never "laid _off." It was the inability of the various free lances which lost them rates, which even " S.T.R'" would have deemed good. As regards the plaint re coal merchants, millers, etc., they are not in sufficient numbers to affect clay haulage 1 per cent. The only serious competition they make is in the carriage of cattle and farm produce.
Very, few 30-cwt. lorries, and certainly not those of the concern I have mentioned, travel at high speeds when carrying 50 cwt. The greatest offenders are the 50-cwt. lorries carrying 4 tons and all owned by free agents.
While writing, it may be interesting to reproduce here a notice which appears in the cab of each vehicle of the aforementioned fleet:— "Speed of lorry not to exceed 28 in.p.h. Any • driver exceeding this speed Will be dismissed. No bonus will be paid on any load exceeding 5 cwt. over-load."
There is only one large haulage concern which specializes in clay—the one I have mentioned. There is an association of small hauliers which leaves much to be desired, and to me, an outsider, they are not sufficiently co-operative, or spirited !
In passing, might I take this opportunity of thanking you for the invaluable help The Commercial Motor offers to all interested in road transport.
St. Austell. BUY BRITISH.
A Driver's Objections to Forward Control.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[3593] Sir,—In your issue dated November 17th, in an article on "Olympia From the Operator's Viewpoint," you make mention of the ventilation of forward-control vehicles.
From the viewpoint of a humble driver, I should like to protest against the almost universal use of forward-control vehicles, especially with full-width cabs.
I have no doubt that the application of forward control effects a big saving in floor space, but the amount of fumes and foul gases which finds its way into the driving cab is certainly not conducive to good health or safe driving.
I think that the time is not far distant when this type of vehicle, at least for passenger wdrk, will be prohibited. SCOTS DRIVER. Bathgate.
A Coach Owner Who Tried to Believe in the Road Traffic Act.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[3594] Sir,—.I have had a fairly long experience in the operation of motor coaches. I watched the introduction of the Road Traffic Act (1930) and I followed its course carefully.
Its successful promoters were able to relieve any misconception as to some of its provisions, which were construed in different manners, and on the whole thought the Act would be for the good of the industry.
In my association with other independent proprietors I have since heard of many hardships in its 1340 administration—and I have felt that the decisions have not been correctly communicated. I have listened sympathetically to many incidents, such as where a case has gone against an applicant who alleged that he had a good history and a well-merited service. I have cross-examined the party concerned, believing that there was some incident he had not disclosed to me; some factor mentioned at the hearing and not repeated ; and I have even got to the pitch when I have believed that the applicant must have been discovered in the making of false statements or the presentation of false figures.
I owe a very sincere apology to all those who have communicated their difficulties Co me.
My company's application was heard last week in the South-eastern Area and this week in the Metropolitan Area.
After starting the service in 1920 it was a difficult fight to establish it—for six years neither my partner nor I took a penny out of it, and only because that was impossible.
There was a severe fight to get out of that position— there will be another before either of us will go back to it. F. A. Flax, for the M.T. Co. London, S.E.4.
The Fares Inquiry—" Farcical Procedure."
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[3595] Sir,—I am by no means sure that the subject of this letter is not more suited to the columns of Punch, less for humorous than for satiric comment. It is almost unbelievable that a tribtinal composed of five more or less eminent Traffic Commissioners should sit in solemn conclave for a whole day and a portion of another to receive individual representations an the subject of fares from various presumably competent bodies, and then to terminate the proceedings by solemnly handing back all the evidence to a committee composed of the said bodies in order that they might make representations collectively I Surely the Commissioners are aware that endeavours have been made frequently and continuously for four years to reconcile the divergent views of the parties represented before them, with an entire lack of success? Do the Commissioners think that a pat on the head is going to have the desired effect? May it be that there was lacking the moral courage to face up plainly and straightly to the issues so clearly put before them?
There was, after all, only one important issue, once it was clear (to the obvious relief of many persons present) that there was going to be no inquiry into stage-carriage fares: that was the one-scale versus the two-scale express fare. Both camps had the opportunity—and one took it at great length and tried to educate the tribunal in the process—to present their case, and presumably all the necessary evidence was forthcoming.
I should not like to think that it had taken so long to arrive at the standing charges of public-service vehicles—all the same figure, excluding depreciation and driver (" which cost varies with the mileage"), of MOO each—that no time had been left to obtain expert advice on this "minor" issue of the two-scale fare; and yet, apparently, a committee is to deliberate over expert advice on this matter, which, if available at all, should have been forthcoming before the Commissioners.
Whatever may be the real object of this farcical procedure, the result will be delay, and resultant chaotic fare conditions for the first half of 1932. What, furthermore, can be the object of having the rail interests represented on this committee as well as the roadrail combine? They are masters in the art of saying nothing at the greatest possible length—the greatest living exponents of the science of complete inertia.
If they help to fix road fares—express, mark you well, not stage—they will have an easy job to prepare their list of cheap excursions for 1932.
London, S.E.11. COACH OWNER.