THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR CENSUS FOR 1926.
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The Ascertained and Estimated Figures Show that there are 464,678 Vehicles in Great Britain Engaged in Carrying Goods and Passengers for Profit.
THE wealth of material which is provided by the mere fact that every motor vehicle operating in this country has to be registered or its registration trenewed at close intervals should enable us to be provided with some extremely interesting statistics. In America a great deal of trouble is taken and expense incurred in extracting deductions from the licensing and other statistics, but on this side there has not been evidenced so much interest as one would have liked, and the Ministry of Transport, which would be the Statistical organization in this respect, has not cared to incur the necessary expense, so that hitherto the only statistics available from the facts ascertainable under registration have been the number of licences. issued during the year, classified according to the class of vehicle or road locomotive, and the total amounts received in each class for licence fees, with an average figure for each class showing the licence duty paid on each vehicle. There has also been available a series of tables to show the number of licences issued by the ,various licensing authorities of the country.
• September 30th a Wisely Chosen Date.
The first attempt to elaborate this statistical data has now been made, the date, September 30th, 1926, having been chosen and the figures taken being those relating to the vehicles that were licensed during the three months ending on that date. We should think that this is the best •period to choose, because the licences !current during that period include all the annual and the current quarterly licences and cover those vehicles which are licensed for the latter months of the year (when the privilege is more generally adopted of licensing vehicles for four, five or six months ending with the fourth quarter of the year-December 31st). During the three months from July to September, again, it is probably true to say that all available motor coaches are in commission.
We are reproducing these tables in summary form so far as they are likely to give interest to our readers. Thus, in taking the summary of vehicles, etc., registered in England, Wales and Scotland (the total for Great Britain), we have included the figures under the following heads :-(1) Cars taxed on horse-power (because. .s. number of these is used in connection with business
and other forms of transport)' (2) goods vehicles subdivided under the heads of (a) internal-combustionengined, (b) steam-driven, (c) electrically propelled ; (3) motor ploughs, many of which are used for haulage work in connection with agriculture; (4) road locomotives and tractors, subdivided into (a) agricultural and ('b) general haulage; (5) motor hackney vehicles; (6) exempted vehicles, which will include fire-engines, ambulances and vehicles employed by the Army, Navy and Air Force.
We have excluded from our tables the following:Bicycles, tricycles, bath-chairs and tramcars.
Private Cars and Motorcycles in Commercial Use.
Of the 686,232 ears taxed on h.p. and shown in Table I, it is assumed by those who are in a position to form an opinion, that about 10 per cent, are employed in some respect or other mainly for business purposes. -In passing, too, reference can be made to the 609,000 motorcycles which are registered, a small percentage of these being employed in the transport of goods and passengers for profit..
The figures in connection with goods vehicles, road locomotives and tractors and hackney vehicles are analysed in Table II, Table III and Table IV.
Turning now our attention to Table II, it will be seen that under the heading "Internal-combustion Engines," the number of vehicles, etc., licensed is set out according to the class, which is determined by the unladen weight of the vehicle. There is DO need here to ga into the different figures for the counties and county boroughs in England, Scotland or Wales, hut the figures are there available for examination. Taking the total figures for Great Britain in every case, however, it will be seen that the largest number concerns vehicles that exceed -12 cwt in unladen weight but do not exceed 1 ton. This class covers the whole of the Fords, the Morris vans and vehicles in which the weight is kept down to the minimum. This includes over 50 per cent, of the total of internal-combustionengined vehicles, a proportion which was estimated with very close accuracy in The Commercial Motor some months ago.
The 2-ton class at 48,118 is the next highest, whilst there is fair equality in the numbers of the 3-tonner, 4-tonner and 5-tonner, the figures falling away very rapidly after the 5-ton point is turned. It will be seen that out of 247,384, the total of internal-combustionengliaed vehicles, 363 were six-wheelers, whilst the number of vehicles licensed to draw trailers was only 4,421.
Turning now to steam-driven vehicles, once again the figure is extremely close to The Commercial Motor estimate of 10,000, although we know that "20,000 steam vehicles in the country" has been a very general assertion. Of the number licensed in September, 9,186, nearly 50 per cent. (4,509) were licensed to draw trailers, and this number makes an interesting comparison with the 4,421 internal-combustion-engined vehicles also licensed to draw trailers.
Electrically Propelled Vehicles Small in Number.
The electrically propelled vehicles in the country only reached a total of 603, the largest class being that which does not exceed 25 cwt. unladen.
The total of all goods vehicles in Great Britain at the date taken was 257,173. To this must be added certain vehicles taxed on the horse-power basis (say 68,000, or 10 per cent, of the total), certain motorcycles and tricycles (say 25,000), many of the exempted vehicles (say 10,000) and about 10,000 vehicles registered as hackney carriages, the primary use of which, however, is as goods carriers.
Road locomotives and tractors (engaged solely in agriculture and exchring the agrimotor solely used for land cultivation) numbered 524, the largest class being tractors which do not exceed 5 tons in weight unladen; over that weight figure the classes are very small. Road locomotives and tractors used for general !haulage totalled 3,146, the largest class being that which exceeds 4 tons in unladen weight but does not exceed 6 tons; the figure is 1,117. In the 10-ton class a figure of 603 is shown, the other figures for the different classes being quite small.
A High Proportion of Small Hackney Carriages.
In connection with the figures for hackney vehicles, a rather curious factor has emerged, and one which certainly does not agree with our estimates. We did not put the number of cabs and private-hire vehicles so high as 60,515, which is given for th'ose hackney vehicles the emting capacity of which does not exceed six persons. Over 60 per cent, of the total hackney vehicles registered, viz., 100,835, would hardly seem accurate, and we should think that this is very largely boosted up by the registration of vehicles in their double capacity, viz., as goods carriers and passenger carriers, for it is pot uncommon to see on a vehicle which is an Obvious goods lorry a hackney-carriage plate showing
c30 that it is entitled to carry-generally-6 or 14 persons. Country garages, too, have a number of vehicles available for hiring-out purposes, and they are invariably equipped with the hackney-carriage plate. We should say, therefore, that quite 10,000 of the vehicles shown in this class are really goods vehicles, and that number should be added to the class for internal-combustionengined goods vehicles.
The Figures for Buses and Coaches.
Next to this class are the 14-seaters, which total 14,926, and next to this, again, is the 32-seater, the figure for which is 8,115. This class includes the large motor coach and the single-deck bus. The big doubledeck bus is included in the figures for the three classes covering ,vehicles exceeding 40 and not exceeding 48 passengers, exceeding 48 and not exceeding 56, and exceeding 56, the total of these three being 5,020. Of these, London would claim nearly 5,000. There is, of course, a large number in the 14-seater class, but, taking out the two big figures, say, London's buses and the cab and private-hire vehicles, what is left for the small bus land the motor coach generally is not very much-that is to say, the figure is not so big as one might have expected. It is not very easy to arrive at a close estimate of the number of coaches and buses, but, taking out the cab and private-hire section (in which is included the goods-cum-passenger carrying lorry), we are left with about 40,000 vehicles, of which 'nearly 15,000 seat up to 14 passengers each, leaving. 25.000 as the figure for the larger coaches and the buses, of which we may estimate that 5,000 are buses running in London.
We hope that the Minister of Transport will see his way to the making of further analyses from the figures which are available to him, because all these statistics are, in a limited degree, of extreme importance. Anyone in the motorcar trade can, for instance, draw very useful deductions from the classification of registered motor vehicles by horse-power, the figures acting as a guide to the "big market."
Our own census obtained from the Ministry's figures, supplemented by our estimates, is as follows : Registered goods vehicles ... ... 257,173 Vehicles, taxed on horse-power .... 68,000 Motorcycles ... ... 25,000 Exempted vehicles (fire-engines, ambulances, etc.) ... ... 10,000 Road locos. and tractors ... 3,670 Hackney vehicles (actually goods ' lorries, carrying passengers occa sionally) s.. Hackney rehicles 10,000 90,835 464,678