LONDON FRUIT AND VEGETABLE HAULIERS' POOL
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A MEETING of hauliers engaged in the transport of fruit and vegetables from railheads to Covent Garden was held, last week, when Mr. G. W. Quick Smith took the chair. The meeting was addressed by Mr. A. H. Mayer and Colonel G. Gray of the Covent Garden Tenants' Association. It was decided that a pool of hauliers should be set up, and the following committee was elected:—Messrs, S. Hartz (chairman), J. Calnan, J. Lyons, A. Mack, W. J. Sims, J.
The committee was empowered to complete all the necessary plans for the formation and operation of the Pool and to report back to members at a general. meeting to be held not later than the end of' February. • The purpose of the Pool is to Covet the conveyance of fruit and vegetables from railheads, docks and wharves, to London markets, activities, in the first instance, to be confined to traffic from railheads to Covent Garden.
JOSEPH LUCAS OFFERS TO ACQUIRE NEW-HUDSON
IT is announced that the well-known motor-accessory concern of Joseph Lucas, Ltd., is offering to acquire the shares of New-Hudson, Ltd., which includes amongst its products the Girling brake. The offer is nine 21 Lucas ordinary shares for every 10 of the 150;000£1 New-Hudson ordinary shares; 285. 6d. cash for each of the 18,050 £1 6 per cent, cumulative preference shares, aud 33s. 13d. cash for each of the 6,950 £1 7 per cent. cumulative B preference shares. Fractions of the ordinary shares will be paid for in cash-at 64s. 6d. per share.
The offer is conditional upon acceptance by holders of at least 90 per cent. of the shares, or such less percentage as the Lucas directors may decide. The closing date for the offer is January 11.
WILL AREA ADVISORY COMMITTEES BE SET UP?
SETTING up of area advisory committees as-part of the machinery for the operation of the Government's new haulage scheme, so as to widen the channel of consultation between the industry and the Ministry of War Transport, is an idea of which more may be heard.
The suggestion is that in each of the areas established under the scheme there should be a committee to provide liaison between the industry, the Area Road Haulage Officer, the District Transport Officers and the Regional Transport Commissioner. . Thus there would be clearly defined means for provincial consultation between the industry and the Ministry's organization, alongside the national machinery on those lines.
Such area committees would be quite distinct from the regional transport advisory committees, which cover passenger and goods transport generally.
The feeling in certain responsible quarters, where the idea has been mooted, is that the Standing Joint Committee might well ask the Minister of War Transport to adopt the suggestion.
DEATH OF PROMINENT HULL •• HAULIER
VUE regret to learn of the sudden VV death of Mr. Edward Spicer Annison, of the well-known haulage concern of E. S. Annison, Jnr., Ltd., of Hull, and manager of the Midland and West Riding Carrying Co., Ltd. He had been in the haulage industry since the earliest days, and by reason of his valuable years of work on its behalf was one whom the roadtransport movement could ill afford to lose. He was one of the 'first committee members of the Road Haulage Association in Hull, when it. was formed many years ago, and was constantly re-elected to the committee of the Association until it was taken over by the Hull Joint Organization (A.R.O. and C.M.U.A.), when he was transferred to that committee, on whrch he took an active part up to the time of his death. He will be missed by this organization, which pays great tribute to him for his work towards the betterment of the road-transport industry.
PERSONAL PARS M. P. J. R. TArp, Road Haulage Adviser, Ministry bf War Transport, has been appointed e member of the Institute of Transport, as has MR. A. F. ANDREWS, Schedules Superintendent (Road Transport), London Passenger Transport Board.
INSPECTOR HARRY OWEN, Of Bradfcrd Passenger Transport Department, has been awarded a medal and meritorious service diploma by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents for his courageous action in boarding a runaway van and stopping it just before the vehicle reached an important road junction.
ACTING MAJOR J. G, APpLEYARD, of Appleyard of Leeds, Ltd., the Yorkshire motor-vehicle 'trader, has been awarded the D.S.O. only a fortnight after -receiving a' bar to his Military Cross. The elder son of Mr. J. E. Appleyard, governing director of the company, he joined theArmy in the first week of the war, MR, A. J. LYDDO:q has' now become Chief Engineer (Highways), M. of W.T., in place of SIR FREDERICK COOK, who intimated his desire to retire from this position. The services of the latter will, however, continue to be available to the Ministry for certain special inquiries and as an adviser on tiighway planning. Maio* H. E. ALDINGTON has been appointed. Deputy Chief Engineer in succession to Mr. Lyddon, and has vacated his position as Divisional Road Engineer, London. STOPPING THE HACKNEY. CARRIAGE RACKET AANY months ago we wrote to the 1V1 authorities concerned drawing their attention to the increasing number of private cars which was being licensed as hackney carriages, so that they could receive supplies of petrol much greater, than those which their owners would have obtained in the ordinary way, and yet these vehicles were being used for all sorts of private ,,purposes outside those for which they had, ostensibly, been licensed.
At last, action has been taken, and whilst the Ministry of Fuel and Power has no power to revoke such licences, it has instructed local authorities that no fuel will be permitted to a vehicle licensed as a taxi since April 1, 1q42, unless it' replaces one previously licensed, or unless the local authority declares that the extra vehicle is essential for increased transport needs.
Actually, the matter should be taken farther than this, because we are quite certain that many vehicles licensed as hire cars before the date given are' not being employed for their true purpose.
INSURANCE CONCESSION FOR GOODS VEHICLES e
IT will be remembered that in September,ber, 1942, insurers of motor goods vohicles agreed to continue and extend, without any general increase . in rates, existing policies for such vehicles while being used within a group scheme, despite the fact that the Emergency Powers (Road 'Vehicles and Drivers) Order, 1939, removed certain restrictions on A, B and C licences hitherto imposed under the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933.
The same concession has now been agreed to in respect of vehicles used for other purposes, on a certificate ky an officer of the M. of WT., that such use is necessary (1) to deal with an emergency or (2) because there are no other vehicles available which are licensed and insured for haulage for reward. These tertificates are issued by District Transport Officers, but not for normal work for the Road Haulage Branch of the Ministry, civil-defence work, Or use which could be put on
a non-emergency footing. These arrangements will be in force until March 31.
B.R.F. TO BECOME MORE ACTIVE
AN announcement by the British Road Federation is to the effect that arrangements have been completed by which it will be in a position to assume a more active participation in current transport problems. When, at the beginning of the war, it was reduced to a skeleton framework, Mr. F. G. Bristow kindly, took over the duties of honorary secretary, but with the new expansion this arrangement has become impracticable, and Mr. Bristow could no, t devote additional time to the work. Therefore, Mr. J. S. ,Neave, solicitor, has consented to act as secretary from to-day: and the offices will be transferred to his premises, 21, Southampton Place, London, W.C.I.
The B.R.F. wishes to record its gratitude to the C.M.U.A. and its general secretary for their co-operation. . PAINT DISTRIBUTION FOR CIVILIAN VEHICLES
cROM to-day, paint for civilian
motor vehicles, including buses, will not be obtainable without a permit to purchase. These will be issued by the Regional Maintenance and Certifying Officer of the M. of W.T., except in the case of London taxicab owners, who will apply to the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis. In general, they will be issued to operators of vehicles, but a limited quantity will be made available through the above Officers to coachbuilders and repairers for private cars and other vehicles not maintained by their owners.
Incidentally, The distinctive colours of many buses,.:etc., may .have to be ubandoned for more sombre shades.
Paint for A.R.P. vehicles (including ambulances and those of the N.F.S.), and for buildings belonging to transport operators; may be obtained under licence granted under the terms of the Control of Paint, etc. (No. 3) Order, S.R. and 0. 1942, No. 2074.
LEYLAND REOPENS SCOTTISH SERVICE DEPOT
AS from January I, 1943. Leyland Motors, Ltd., will have its own direct service representative at 140,Saliteld Street, Glasgow. This arrangement is in conformity with the corn: pany's policy, dictated by war conditions, of centralizing its spare stocks at strategical points throughout the country, to enable distribution of the available supplies to be made quickly and equitably to operators of Leyland vehicles.
'Mr W, K. Shirlaw, the 'Company's Scottish Area Manager. will be in charge of the depot, being assisted in service matters by Mr. H: Pendleton.
The LeyIgnd agents, Messrs. J. XVilkinson, of Edinburgh, and Messrs. John Gibson, of Leith 'and Aberdeen, will continue to represent the cornpany's interests in their respective territories.
HOW SHALL POST-WAR
TRANSPORT BE, CONTROLLED? CHOOSING as his subject " Post".,,war Transport," Mr. John Ballawtyne, former Scottish chief of the L.M.S. Railway Co., recently gave a talk to the Dumfries Rotary Club. The first question to be faced in ,considering the post-war position was, he said, the form of transport organization and control. •The various forms were private ownership. subject to existing or amending legislation; nationalization, i.e., Government ownership and management; unification of control of the different classes a traneport, but each provided by private capital.
Whilst private ownership, with its intense competition, proved advantageous in developing the resources of the country, a stage had been reached long before the war when competition was wasteful. It resulted in experiments with various methods of restriction called " rationalization," which. however, caused Unemployment and ultimately reduced the purchasing power of the community.
Nationalization, he said, was certain
to prove expensive and would behemmed in by so many regulations that, day-to-day ,management would be slow, unenterprising an restrictive. He thought that unification of control, if wisely handled, would be capable Of -providing efficiently and economically' for all the transport services ttroug4out the country, provided the units were not too large and unwieldy. There should be separate ownership of the different forms of transportation, thus providing, subject to legislative control, the stimulus of competition for the benefit of the pnblic and the whole fracling community.
I. OF T. AND "HENRY • SPURRIER " MEMORIAL
TUE, total amount of the " Henry
• Spurrier " Memorial Fund. which " has either been given or is tb lie remitted by the Memorial Committee to the Institute of Transport, has now reached ' £17,105. This is being employed for a Scholarship and Lecture Foundation. There have been some 400 separate donations, including 66 of below £5.
The Institute, the address of which is 15, Savoy Street, London, W.C.2, is prepared to accept, direct for incorporation in the Fund, any additional or ',late contributions from either home or overseas sources.
ADAPT TRANSPORT TO INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT
ADDRE.SSING the Luton Rotary Club, recently, Major H. E. Crawfurd, President, A.R.O., said: " It is no good thinking out some ideal plan of how transport ought to be organized,_ and then expecting industrial activities to subordinate themselves to that plan. The right way to go to work is to let development take its course and then adapt your transport services to that development. That is why any scheme of nationalization or centralized control is ,out of place when applied to transport.. The transport industry can do its work efficiently only if it be left to give that close personal attention to each demand made on it that-exists at present, or rather that existed up to the outbreak of war."
SUNCOLE PRODUCER FUEL MAY • RETURN
THE directors 'of British Coal Distillation, Ltd.; in their report, state that negotiations are proceeding wit.h the Ministries of War Transport and Fuel and Power with the purpose of reopening the Suncole Distillation Works. Maity operators of producergas vehicles would be Most pleased if This fuel again became 'available.
PUBLIC NOT YET PAPER CONSCIOUS r\ESPITE all that has been written Land said concerning the pressing need to save every scrap of paper possible, it is obvious, by the condition of some of our streets, that its urgency has not yet been fully
realized. Bus tickets, cigarette cartons, bags and other material, which would be valuable if saved, are still found ruined by mud and wet:
BUS DRIVERS FINED FOR BLACK-OUT SPEEDING
AT Hamilton Sheriff Court, recently, Sheriff Brown imposed fines ranging kern £3 to £5 on a number of Lanarkshire motor, drivers who admitted speeding in the black-out, the speeds varying from 32 to 40 m.ph. In each case the Sheriff ordered that tho, driving•licence be endorsed.
TWo drivers of public service vehicles pointed out that bus companies in Lanarkshire were running to the same time-table as before the introduction Of the bus curfew. 'Buses were carrying more passengers and, in many instances, the drivers had no speedometers.
Sheriff Brown said that he bad some sympathy with the drivers, 'brut the points they had raised should be placed before the Transport Commissioner by their trade union, Each of the drivers was fined £5 with the alternative of 30 days' imprisonment.
-NEED FOR TRAFFIC SIGNALS POSITION TO BE DEFINED
IINI connection with some of the traffic signals in the borough of St. Pancras, the Commissioner of Police has informed the council that manv months' experience has shown that the 'absence of signals at two junctions has not increased the tendency to accidents.
Hampstead Borough Council has expressed the opinion that the manner in which the Ministry of War Transport and the Commissioner of Police have dealt with the question of the hours of operation of signals is most unsatisfactory and that' representations should be made, through the Metrepoll-tan • Boroughs Standing Joint Committee, asking that the position'Of the borough councils as highways authorities be defined and recognized. This Committee states that it is seeking the advice of the Association of Town Clerks as to the powers of, the Commissioner ofFolice and the borough councils, BRADFORD CONVERTING OILERS TO PRODUCER GAS
UNDER the Government's scheme for' the use of producer gas on the p.s.v. side of the industry, Bradford Corporation is to convert 10 buses to producergas operation : most of these vehicles have oil engines Adaptation of this type has already been carried out with encouraging results, as at Glasgow.
SPRING MAKER'S SUCCESSFUL TRADING
AN increase' in trading profit, but a decrease in net profit, during the year ended August 31. last was shown by Jonas Woodhead and Sons, Ltd.. the Leeds manufacturer of vehicle springs. Trading profit was £100,594. against £92,526 in the previous year. After deduction of £5,000 for depre-' elation and the allocation of £75,000 (against 465,000) to meet taxation and contingencies, net profit amounted to £14,999 as compared with £17,849.
, The directors recommend the payment of an ordinary dividend of 10 per cent., this being the sixth successive year this amount has been paid. The carry forward is £16,753, against .14,!■;08 brought in