Licences for Second Men.
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a case of general interest to owners of steam ‘1 agons and tractors was before the Leeds Stipendiary recently; it concerns the requirement of a. 5s. driver's licence (annual) for the second man—the Mate, fireman or steersman. The point, to which previous references by us mewled in the issues of the 23rd September and 14th October, 1909, when a tractor-driver was fined in London,
now cal Is for consideration afresh. As is well know 11, not a fe-w steamers are so constructed that two men share the control : the. more-experienced man, who lays hold of the main regulating lever and gives directions, is commonly regarded as flu driver. The Leeds Stipendiary, wha leek a week to consider his finding, stated that " the driving of a motorcar involves control of directien as well is control of motion." He proceeded, that, " as the defendant at the time had control of the direction of the wagon tin his opinion a very-important part of ilriving), he considered that the defendant should have been licensed in :lever lance with the Act." He imposed a tine ef 5s_ arid casts upon the defendant.
Seetion 3 (1) of the 1903 Act reads: " A riersen shall not drive a motorcar on a. public highway unless lie is licensed for the purpose tinder this section. and a OrSCIII shall not employ any person who is not so licensed to drive a motorear." No owner, of course. specifically employs the second man " to drive," hut it has, wethink, to be admitted that. the second man, whenever he steers. does share the driving. The recognition of the Heed tor two men Ott some vehicles is implied by the opening sentence in Article IV of the Motor Cars (Use and Construction) Order of 1904, which reads: " Every person driving or in charge of a motorcar when used on any highway shall comply a ith the regulations," etc. Dual driving control, if not divided responsibility, is evidently eontemplated ; it may be right, that the sharing of the work invelves the obtainieg of a licence for each man.
The point is arguable. We, 14 months ago, were against Universal applications for second-man lieences, although
we pointed out the necessity where the " MaTH was avowedly a learner-driver. We feared the unjustified claim of a purely-nominal " driver '' to higher ititges. In the absence of two licences for any vehicle, the owner 11111 properly assert that he regards the second man in the light of an " occasional hand." How will he stand, in this respeet, if he now be advised to spend, or to reiotire the second man to spend, :is. per annum on the extra licence? The money, obviously, is no gauge of the importance of such a. step. Is any serious and runt Ii'-; que,tion of principle involved?
We are inclined, after consultation, to answer in tin-. negative. The mere possession of a licence by tillsecond trait cannot be held even prima-foci, evidence i,i altilitv I-to drive: that point was fought and settled in the House• of Commons in the year 1903. The only qualification is that antliplicant for a driving licence must. he not younger than 17 years; nt age. This may appear to be a stupid position ot affairs, but it is the law. If, therefore, owners are folly alive to the facts of the case, if it, he generally appreciated that a man with a licence may not be able• to drive at all, and if oa nets continue to pay any second man at appropriate rates in relation to the real driver (who May he. defined as " the man in charge " of the machine)_ we foresee no evil from compliance with a reading of the Act whieh it must he costly to challenge. The Exertaive Committee of the Commercial Motor Users Association will. we know, take the case into full consideration on the 7th inst., before which date any makers
or ewners can for their views.
The Importance of Correct Registration Particulars in Respect of Body-work..
We briefly report, elsewhere in this issue (page 261), a police-court case which arose from an oversight of a type• that might affect some hundreds of our readers. the owner of a 10 h.p. motorcar with interehangeable passen-ger and van bodies, which vehicle had been duly registered —with its then passenger body-work correctly described— in June, 1907, began also to use it with an interchangeable van holy in the fall of 1909: through some peculiar• middle at the L.C.C. offices, into which we are not coneerned to inquire here, he mats asked to re-register thevehicle as a van. This owner. accordingly. paid £1 twice over, in respect of the registration of the same chassis: sin the first occasion, he described it as being fitted with a " open touring body " ; on the second, with an " open van body." Be omitted to use the word " detachable " orC, interchangeable." On the 25th October last, while driving the vehicle with its passenger body, this owner was observed by a police eonstable, who booked the registration number and other particulars in the belief that the car lucid no front lights. Later inquiries disclosed the fact that the registration paper which the owner produced. was in respect of a motorcar with an " open van body " The summons, of course, was dismissed, but the incident may serve as a warning. An owner of any motorcar, whether light or heavy, is required to notify, to the clerk of the council which granted the registration, any change. which affects the eorreetne.ss of the description on record. This requirement is found in Article V of the Motorcars (Registration and Licensing) Order of 1903. It reads: " If any cireumstance (other than a change of ownership dealt with in the preeeding Article) occurs in relation to any motorcar which affects the aecnracy of any particulars entered as respects that car in the Register' of Motorcars, the owner of the motorcar shall forthwith inform the Cnuncil with whom it has been registered. and on receipt of such information the Council shall forthwith cause the entries respecting the motorcar in the Register of Motorears to be amended accordingly, and shall furnish the s»vuer with a copy of the entries. so amended. No lee shah be charged by the Council in respect of any amendment of entries or transmission of a copy of entries under this Article." Any indifference to the law hereattent may lead to other tro•ubles, and not always to that dismissal which the defenclimt's solicitor was able to secure in the ease tinder notice. the repainting of a vehicle, unless it be redecked in its originally-recorded colours, causes the sthligation to arise : the examples circulated by the Local Government Board, in the year 1903, specifically lay clown the rule that both the type and colour of the body or bodies are to be given with exactness.
"We e Carry You All the Way.11 A London evening contemporary, with picturesque inaccaracy, one day last week placed the title, " A Fog Harvest," at. the head of all article, which it published, with t-ssard to the temporaryinflation of undergroundrails :Ay receipts as the result of adverse climatic conditions above-ground. Consideration of the facts, to which our euntemporary thus drew attention, once again brought name to us—but this time with added force—some of the disabilities with which the motorbus companies of the Metropolis still have to contend. It is likely that all the larger concerns in London ail! soon, after a pitiless " trying reach the profit-ca tilingstage, and that they will cheerily declare, good dividends, in spite of the increasingly-relentless competition of tubes and trams, and in spite nf the impossibility, month in and month out, of filling vehicles" inside and out: whose top-decks on inclement days are only for the hardiest and most-robust of travellers, and whose inside seats on sultry days are only for the aged and infirm.
Wo have, as our readers may remember. from time to time, demonstrated the manner in which the tubes particularly, and the trams in a less degree, suceessfully bid for public custom by ingenious and enterprising advertisement. It is in this way that the competitors of the motorbus in London secure the casual passenger, who is a most-importont factor in London's traffic returns. Frankly, we have little faith in the service-number method of indicating routes: it may be satisfactcry for the regular and cunsistent user, who wouhl be just as well off without such indication, hut it is almost useless for that valuable patron the casual passenger. Numerical mnemonics are sehimn efficacious. Kindergarten methods, though smacking el the hifantile. are more useful for publicity purposes. Another instance of ineffective nomenclature is that
afforded by the present foolish method of proprietary articles by initials. The public retains no memory a what the letters " X.Q.L." imply, when it. has seen it, or a slight variant of it, used to specify such widelydilferent objects as corsets, bacon, tooth-powder and carburetters! We have, perforce, to admit that-the old omnilms routes, officially nicknamed, were designated far-more effectively. What Londoner, or indeed what travelling provincial, has forgotten : the it Royal Blues; " the " City Atlases " the " Old Fords; " the " White Putney's ; and the " Favorites? " They were easy to remember, and (int-tilt to forget. If such classification is, under modern conditions, reletereil impossible, the least proprietors should do is to insist that the travelling public shall be encouraged to remember that motorlmses are " still at their service." as much, if not more so, than the tribes and trams, We willingly concede that the bus companies have not (mite the same facilities for permanent fixed publicity displays, but, as we have previously written, the tubes are out of sight, and would soon be out of mind did they not insist otherwise. ' The time has now conic when the casual passenger must be enticed. If a stringer in London is to-day in doubt as to a route, lie fins no incilitie.s for the immediate discovery of suitable motorbits-interchange services. Fe is left in no doubt by the tubes, He will be told, by special attendants in such stations as Piccadilly Circus, that it is possible to travel by tube the whole way between the most-awkwardly-placed points. Those attendants are never " stumped ; " they garner crowds of customers. Whither the omnibus time keepers, who were to distribute motorbus timetables, have disappeared is a mystery. IL is difficult to hear of anyone who has seen many such time-tables tifstributed. The publicity methods of most of the London motorbus companies are archaic: those of its rivals are irresistible. It is the latter, therefore, that secure nearly all the chance passengers. Our complaint is that no energetic means are taken to counter the tubes' activities. What Londoner or visitor to London has not smiled over that insistent statement, pictorially enforced, " Our Road is Our Own.'' And what more-effective reply for the motorbus than a constantly-displayed statement that " We "Carry You All the Way." We present the idea. to any company with the enterprise to adapt it. We know it to be good. It is the parallel, in reference to " live leads '' (passengers), of the effective argument in re goods—that the motor absorbs the terminal stretches into the one journey. In the tubes, one has to carry oneself for quite-appreciable distances.
The Show Tug-or-War.
Several of this country's oldest makers of commereial motors are pulling against the Show : at the other end of the se-ale, the younger makers, together with several of the old-established firms, are voting for it. The noncontents, however, are working upon a concerted plan of opposition. We do not give names, since their disclosure would constitute a breach of confidence, but the facts cf the case have heenme a common topic of conversation in trade. circles. These several gentlemen have entered into a bond whose terms require them, under penalty of ,r-500 by way of forfeiture for non-observance, not to show. This fact may indicate one of two motives: determination to take all possible steps in order to keep the bulk of trade within a particular " inner ring; " a philanthropic desire on the part of the experienced leaders of the industry to prevent younger co-manufacturers from " wasting any money over a show at Olympia." The latter supposition involves acceptance of the falliteious premise that the course of events in 1908 is a guide to that in 1911.
We are both amused and interested by this spectacle, but we consider it the reverse of edifying. We might go so far as to class it with other instances of clashing interests which fall under the category of trying to serve two masters • in this case, certain personal interests and the legitimate needs of the industry at the moment, were it not that a suggestion of bad faith, which we do not make, might be held to be involved.
Our attitude has never been one of vacillation and indefiniteness: we have upheld the claims of Olympia, 1911, unswervingly. We do not question the expediency of a vote on the question, but we take this opportunity of recording our opinion that the above-mentioned inner-circle bond is evidence of more-than-average prosperity amongst the constructors who have signed it. These makers, we repeat, founded their earlier reputations and trade by— amongst other essential and necessary methods—the support of motor shows. They are, we admit, fully entitled to stand out now, although we doubt the equity of the possible reflex consequences of their action. We repeat our old point: no previous all-commercial show is any proper guide to the splendid results which may reasonably be anticipated at the end of March next. We frankly add that we do not wish to see the show killed, It. means an abnormal amount of hard work when it comes, and, in addition, it will this time call for an expensive pre-show programme on our part that is no alluring prospect. The fact remains, that, after an interval of three years, the best interests of the cab, van and other utility-traffic developments call for the bolding of such a show in the capital of the Empire. Those who lightly vote against the show forget, we think, that the dates have been in our diary for many weeks, and that " Dominion and Overseas " readers have to lay their plans for visits to this country a long time ahead of a coming event whose prior announcement may decide their programme. That is merely one important factor of many in the situation.