COMMERCIAL MOTOR
Page 1
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Officially Recognized by The Commercial Motor Users Association.
The Authority on all forms of Motor Transport. Largest Circulation.
Conducted by EDMUND DANGERFIELD.
Vol. XVIII. No. 458. Editor: EDWARD S. SiRAPNELL-SMITH. 18th December, 1913.
Oxford and Motorbuses.1
The ratepayers of Oxford, in the month of January, 1906, rejected a City Council Bill to provide for the installation of electric tramcars., by about 1700 votes to 90, at a town's meeting. The writer was present on that occasion, and he well recalls all the circumstances. A month later, by 5092 votes to 1117, the ratepayers, by a poll, definitely rejected the electrictraction scheme. The City of Oxford has, therefore, been served only by horsed tramcars, tnitil this month. Now, happily in some senses, all the conflicting interests seem to be 'tumbling over themselves to provide motorbuses. We dear further with the situaI ion on page 356.
Motor-Carrying in Lancashire.
Time and again have we been pressed, by people in all walks of life who know little or nothing about the actual conditions, to give our blessing, in a, figurative sense, to some immature scheme for the exploitation of motor transport in Lancashire. The mere fact that huge quantities of materials, and of manufactured or partly-manufactured goods, have to be moved to and fro, between dock and mill, mill and bleach-works, print-works or dye-works, a•nd also between mill and warehouse, warehouse and packer, and mill, warehouse or packer and port. of shipment, proves an effective lure to the partially-informed premoter. We wrote, last week, concerning " The Call of Lancashire," from the standpoint of the influence which that call exerts upon the writer as a Lancashire man, but we feel that we may claim with equal reason and right to deal with certain aspects of "The Call of Lancashire" as it undoubtedly has affected, and will no doubt continue to affect in the future, the aspirations and hopes of city financiers. A well-known Lancashire carrier, who has won his present. position by hard work and close application, addresses a letter to us this week, on this second aspect of "The Call of Lancashire," and it will be found on page 364. We are in a position to endorse the views that are expressed in it, and are particularly glad to be able to state ourselves that certain Lancashire cotton-manufacturing interests are giving evidence of a readiness to extend their powerful menetary support to the road-carrying industry of the county.
The prospects of success for parties who have worked up their connections and reputations in the county, • over. a term of years, and who have been put "through the mill" on the road and in the'running-s shed, are enormously brighter, so far as regards consistent and ultiniate remunerative working; than they. are for any conibination of Promoters which -attacks the problem frau-the outide. The unsound nature-of , certain PropoSalSIOr the acquirement of existing and old-established.. carryingbusinesses, in the Cotiiity, amply proves the.neoe-saity for this -criticism. We have knowledge-of purchiSe schemes which,had they been allowedto 'go through, : must have resulted in bank-. ruptcy for the .newly-formed company Within a -very short period. The best owners on the spot do not want that kind of future. Some have old family
names and business reputations at. stake, and sentiment is by no means dead in Lancashire.
Lancashire, and with it we place the West Riding of Yorkshire, has yet to be thoroughly developed as a paying area for road-carrying by means of modern motor transport It offers a scope which is, on the goods-carrying side, even superior to the Metropolis. There will however, be no sudden dawning of a " boom" era, and no smsational welcome for any self-appointed and self-satisfied promoter who seeks to step in and out. Acquirement or co-operative schemes, in order that they may be received in useful fashion by the wide-awake and level-headed men who know exactly what competitive road-carrying in Lancashire demands and involves, will certainly be considered in a friendly manner, and will be adopted if they are put forward in the right way. Such extensions and growth will, in any circumstances, be gradual, if they are to be permanently successful, and will not be heralded in advance by glowing anticipations in print anent the schemes which it is intended to carry out. Negotiations will proceed quietly, in exactly the same manner that all serious business affairs are conducted, and will not be shouted from the house-tops. There is certainly money to be made.
Exceptional Bus.-driving.
The secretary of the National Steam Car Co., Ltd., writes to us in respect of a communication from a gentleman who adopted the nom de plume of "Queen's Gate," in our issue of the 4th inst. We publish the secretary's letter on page 363; it reached us immediately after we had closed for press last week, and we therefore had time to send a copy of it to our original correspondent. His reply, this time over his full name and address, will be found below the communication from the bus company.
We leave our readers to form their own opinions, both as to the merits of our conclusion that Mr. Walter H. Thompson did consider his experience to concern a case of reckless driving, and as to the existence of a case for inquiry in place of the present somewhat-flippant. attitude that is adopted on behalf of the National Steam Car Co., Ltd. • Mr. Thompson points out that the company has apparently ignored our leaderette of a fortnight ago, but we have reason to believe that the second paragraph of that short reference to the general situation will not prove devoid of effect. Those suggestive criticisms are more particularly applicable to owners of steam motorbuses, by reason of the fact that such vehicles, as a general rule, run with a wonderful approach to . silence. They are the outcome of daily observation, and we cannot refrain from expressing the .hope. that the owners of London's steam omnibuses2will-accept them in the spirit in which they are written—a desire to eliminate frequent displays of excess of zeal on the part of drivers. The fault is not confined to. drivers of steam omnibuses, but we are satisfied that,, for one reason or another, there is greater call for further close supervision of them than there is in respect of the petrol-omnibus drivers.