bird's eye
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view by the Hawk • lt's an ill wind . . .
One effect of a fuel shortage — which seemed inevitable even without the Arab-Israeli war — is that it may produce a renaissance in public road passenger transport. The Government has said that supplies for "essential" services would be safeguarded, and these must certainly include buses.
If car use were to be restrained the bus system in particular would be shown in a good light, and for once services could operate with greatly reduced car congestion. Who knows, bus travel might even becolpe a habit again?
Assuming, of course, that there would be enough bus drivers to provide an adequate alternative service . .
• Refined solution
) Few British transport operators are in the position to adopt the solution to fuel scarcity which McLean Trucking Co, of WinstonSalem, North Carolina, has chosen. The company, which runs more than 8500 vehicles, has agreed to buy a Texas oil refinery for S 10m.
McLean says that the move is part of its diversification programme — and it looks as though it could hardly have come at a better time. The refinery, at Fort Worth, produces all types of petroleum products, including derv, at the rate of about 15,000 barrels a day.
• Carrier's rights
On Wednesday this week the Worshipful Company of Carmen re-enacted a custom, going back to 1586, which establishes the right to ply for hire in the City of London with "marked" carts.
For hundreds of years the Carmen (or carters), who were also Freemen of the Company, were allowed to stand and ply for hire in the City, on payment of a five-shilling annual fee; the licensed carts were "marked" by the Keeper of the Guildhall.
Although the cart standings were finally abolished in 1965, the Worshipful Company was allowed to stand one cart for one day a year as a symbol of the right to ply, and Wednesday's ceremony involved a 1918 Traffic 2-ton truck owned by A. E. Adams and painted in the livery of Adams Bristow (Kingston) Ltd. The vehicle stood at Dowgate Hill, in the City, and the Master, Wardens, Clerks and Beadle in the Company Livery approached the "cart" and the Master went through the motions of hiring.
Although this is the only occasion on which the old right to stand for hire can be exercised, I understand that 10 "carts" owned by Freemen of the Company have been marked this year.
• Standing in
S. G. Harris, the Eastern traffic area's senior mechanical engineer added a nice touch to the opening of the new Reece Transport and Doe Engineering depot near Ipswich last Friday. Before cutting the brown and gold tapes (Reece's colours) he covered the cutting area with a GV9 and then, to use his words, "in the interests of Women's Lib" he passed the scissors to Mrs Olins, wife of the company chairman, to perform the Operation.
It seemed appropriate that the area engineer should pass on the job, as I understand it had already been passed on to him by the Licensing Authority. In fact it was "stand-in" day all round. Just before the opening, the director in charge of the depot, Ted Smith, had been asked to stand in for Ronnie Butt on the panel at the RHA Conference, after Ronnie had unfortunately been taken ill.
• Flower power
A correspondent who likes the all-overpainted advertisements on buses even less than I do, which is saying something, writes to suggest encouraging the aerosol paint vandals to turn their sprays on to this type of target instead of lorry windscreens.
He says he has just seen a colour photograph of the pop-art treatment of a New York subway train by youthful paint-sprayers and it looks just like a British advertising bus.
• Mum's the word Lips were well sealed this week, at a MercedesBenz pre-Motor Show cocktail party, about suggestions that the German company is to take over marketing its commercial vehicle products in the UK. Sales are currently handled by Mercedes-Benz (Great Britain) Ltd which is owned by the Thomas Tilling Group.
When I asked several top people at Mercedes if the rumoured change would take place there were lots of non-committal glances, and "no comment" was the order of the day.
However, the same people were a lot more forthcoming about suggestions that sales of Mercedes commercials in the UK might have to be withheld during the current currency crisis. Though the booming Deutschmark is causing plenty of problems — and the reducing EEC trade barriers are still substantial — I was told that there will be no let-up in the highpressure sales drive in this country.