Department store runs beat-the-strike buses
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IN AN EFFORT to counter the effect of Corporation bus strikes at Stockton-on-Tees every Saturday, Wilsons Department Stores, of Stockton, is to hire six coaches to carry people into the town from outlying areas on Saturdays. The service will be free. The coaches are being hired from the Wolsey Bus Co., Norton, Stockton.
Stockton Corporation bus employees have announced their intention to stop services every Saturday until the Corporation decides to negotiate a wage rise.
Bus strike deadlock
IN Birkenhead it was said the town could be without buses "for a further fortnight or even as much as a month or six weeks".
The busmen had been offered the same agreement that had led to the return to work of the men at Bolton, but they had rejected this offer.
Last week the transport committee offered to set up a working party to evolve the productivity agreement. The Union had insisted that the men should be told immediately how much extra pay the agreement would bring. Because of the men's refusal to work before they knew the exact financial benefits of a productivity agreement, a position of deadlock had been reached.
Casting vote bonus
ON THE casting vote of the Lord Provost, Dundee town council decided on December 7 to proceed with a productivity bonus for the city's 800 busmen.
Frequency cuts on routes—one operated by one-man buses—will save £40,600 of which twothirds (£27,000) will be paid to the busmen as a bonus, while the department will save £13,000. The men's bonus will be 13s 6d a week.
The start of the scheme, which has been approved by the men's union, depends on approval by the Ministry of Labour and the Federation of Municipal Transport Employers. Any further economies on other routes will be shared in the same way.
Fare boxes experiment
MANCHESTER Corporation Transport this week installed American fare boxes in two of their o-m-o single deckers for an experimental period of several weeks. Mr. K. Holt, chief cashier of the transport department, said that on his recent visit to the United States he had obtained two of these boxes on loan from the Johnson Fare Box Company of Chicago. They have been put into two of the "Minimax" service buses and will dispense with the use of tickets.
Apart from dispensing with ticket machines, this machine could help to eliminate fare evasion. At present it is difficult for the driver to ascertain whether passengers have purchased the correct number of 6d. tickets for their particular journey.