OPINIONS FROM OTHERS.
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The Editor invites correspondence on all subjects connected with the use of commercial motors. Letters should be on one side of the paper only and typewritten by preference. The right of abbreviation is reserved, and no responsibility for
views expressed is accepted.
Motor Taxation.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[21041 Sir,-1 shall be glad if you will please allow me space in your valued journal briefly to express my personal views on the above question, at present under discussion. Being the proprietor a four motor pmnibuses plying for hire, I very strongly eritioise the present method of taxation, as being a great injustice to a small business man such as I am myself.
My buses are doing a matter of three days' work per week ; the remainder of the week they have be stand idle in the garage. The local bus company, who own a large fleet of buses which practically swamp the trade, are able to work their buses every day of the week. In spite of this, I am compelled to pay the same amount of tax for my buses, which are, as previously stated, standing idle for half their time. In my humble opinion, if the tax was placed on the petrol consumed, then all parties would share a proportionate and just burden, instead of the man in a small way of business having to pay as much as those who have a larger control of the traffic. I would like to know the opinions of others placed in circumstances similar to my own.—Yours faithfully, Nor thamptonshire. LIVE AND LEY LIVE.
Fines in Bedfordshire.
The Rektor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[21051 Sir,—We beg to thank you for publishing our letter recently complaining of the excessively heavy fines inflicted on motor drivers by the ,Tustices of the Peace in Bedfordshire for nominal offences, and may say that we have received a number of communications from firma who have been victimized in a similar way.
May we ask through your columns that all firms who are interested in this matter should communicate with us at once, giving us full details offines levied on their drivers? We will then have these tabulated, and either approach the authorities ourselves, or through the medium of "the Commercial Motor Users Association.—Yours faithfully, For and on behalf of KEITH AND BOYLE (LONDON), LTD., Ewe IfoNnsfax, Manager.
Bitumen in Modern Roads.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[2106].Sir,—I was rather surprised again to see, in an article under Mr. Killick's name, the extraordinary figures of tractive effort which appear on page 763 of The Commercial Motor for February 6th. It would he very interesting to know who is the wellknown borough engineer who furnished the " ascertained " figures and how and in what weather he ascertained them. The subject is one on which I am very anxious to obtain authentic information, but the figures set out are so preposterous that one can only suppose that they have been taken just aftvr frost, on a badly assorted setoof surfaces, or else that they have been taken in a dream.
I am a strong advocate of asphaltic surfaces, but I am under no illusion as to their tractive resistance in warm weather. If the heavy horse could speak, he would undoubtedly give his yhte for granite paving (I am comparing the best with the beat), but, in dry weather, waterhound macadam in good condition and made with a really, hard whinstone would come a good second.
Tar-macadam can only be regarded as a necessary evil. If it is rolled hard, stone to stone, it is, of course, an excellent pavement in cold weather, but .4340 the increase in tractive effort when passing from vvaterbound macadam to tar-macadam can bo detected immediately; even on a bicycle. . The slightly resilient quality is no doubt an advantage in asphaltic surfaces, as it is in wood pavement, but coupled with resilience there is, in warm weather, at any rate, during the first year or two of the life .)f the paving, a yielding which is not accompanied by resilience, and this is one of the things which the producers of bitumen have got to eliminate. Another improvement which we want them to help us to accomplish is getting rid of the undulations which seem at present to be inevitable in a surface produced by rolling.—Yours faithfully,
MUNICIPAL ENGINEER.
Re Running Recorder.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
Sir,—We'are pleased to note your editorial reference to the value of the running recorder and your recommendation that more use should be made of this very useful instrument. Undoubtedly, systematically employed, recorders can be made a means of effecting considerable savings by reason of improved service.
They are not mere detective instruments, although, of course, they serve that purpose most effectively, but their real purpose is to inform the transport organizer with absolute exactitude concerning the actual running of the vehicles when out on their journeys, armed with which information, as you point out, 'routes may be altered and much unnecessary standing time, or excess:running time, can be cut out, But, as a matter of fact, serious cbjection is no often taken nowadays to the use of the recorder bY drivers, which we may take to be a general tribute to their honesty of service, and the fact that many thousand recorders are now in use—not only, by tho way, on motor vehicles, but on switch engines on the railways and on operating machinery in the factory —shows not only the usefulness of the instrument, but that the objection of drivers to their use is not a Serious one, and the fact that some firms are employing from 50 to over 100 instruments on their transport fleets is another silent, yet striking, testimony to their value.
There are lots of ways in which the recorder can help the traffic manager, besides showing unneeessarY stoppages and running time. For instance, if undue delays are met with at other people's establishments, the recorder backs up the driver '15 statement and indisputably refutes the statement of the loading foreman at the other end that the wagon was not kept about there, and, supported by the irrefutable evidenim of the chart, such causes of delay can be cut out by representations to those responsible.
Some owners are inclined to think that laxity in this respect does not. matter much, but if the all-in cost of running a motor vehicle is considered, and not merely the driver's wages it will be seen that, especially with the larger outfits, the cost per hour Is considerable, and a, very little calculation is needed to show that, if only half an hour a day can be picked up by the use of the instrument, it will save its cost in a very few weeks, to say nothing of the great saving which can be effected if dishonest service is being given, as the recorder not only tells of every stoppage made, when made, and for how long, but, of course, it also shows all the running time the vehicle has made, so that its unauthorized use for the driver's own purpose is immediately detected.—Yours faith fully, RECORDER CONCESSIONNAIRES. •