News of the Week
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CHANGE OF BASE: HAYS WHARF TO APPEAL grAN January 11, when the Christmas recess of the Appeal Tribunal ends, an appeal by Hays Wharf Cartage Co., Ltd. (owned by the British Transport Commission) against the Yorkshire Licensing Authority's decision to grant a change of base to D. Booth, Ltd., East Morton, near Bingley, will be heard. The Road Transport Executive and the Railway Executive will be represented in the C...1Se.
The application of D. Booth, Ltd., for a B licence authorizing operation from East Morton. instead of Leeds, was the second of its kind to be heard in this country. The first was by B. E. Barrett, Ltd., Luton. and was refused by the Metropolitan Licensing Authority. As a result, proceedings in the High Court are pending.
S.S.D. OF NATIONALIZATION
Tw'TWENTY-NINE members of the British Transport Commission and the Railway, London Transport and Road Transport Executives receive between them salaries, totalling aver £100,000 a year. Individual totals area B.T.C., £28.500; R.E., £32,750; LIE., £21;250. and R.T.F.., £21.250. •
Of his £8,500 salary, the chairman of the B.T.C. Sir Cyril Hurcomb. draws only £7,00b, and one of the part-time members of the Railway Executive, Sir Wilfred Ayre, receives no pay. The B.T.C. is the only body to be granted an allowance for expenses. Between them the members may spend up to £4,000 a year.
Members of the Executives who received higher salaries with absorbed undertakings will continue to receive salaries at the higher rates. As a result, the all-in figure of salaries for these 29 officials is likely to be nearer £110.000.
B.T.C., SEEKS IDEAS FROM STAFF
JOINT consultative machinery is to be set up by the British Transport Com
mission. It will not deal with wages and conditions of service, or with any other matter coming within the establishet channels of negotiation.
The new body will be known as the British Transport Joint Consultative Council. Al its inauguration it will consist of members of the Commission, of A28 the five Executives, and representatives of the National Union of Railwaymen, Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, Railway Clerks' Association, Transport and General Workers' Union, and Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions.
Regular meetings will be held, and the first will take place early in the New Year. Opinions and views on matters of common interest in relation to inland transport and the activities of the B.T.C. and the Executives will be discussed. It is hoped that by this means, representatives of the staff will be able to put forward suggestions.
NEW AUSTIN COMPANY
A NEW company, the Austin Motor, .1-1 Co. (South Africa) (Proprietary), Ltd., has been registered. Mr. L. P. Lord, chairman and managing director of the Austin Motor Co., , Ltd., recently stated that his company had acquired a 112-acre site at Blackheath, near Cape Town.
CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS NAMED
AT last,after much questioning in
Pa rl iament, the Minister • csf Transport has appointed the Central , Transport Consultative Committee for Great Britain. The chairman is Major Eghert Cadbury, D.S.C., D.F.C.
The other members are: Mr. W. Beard, Mr. Neil S. Beaton, J.P., Mr. William Blackwell, Aid. Thomas Bridgiand, J.P., Mr. M. A. Cameron. Coon. J. P. Collins, Lt.-Col. H. Edmund Davies, K.C., Sir Luke Fawcett, Mr. A. H. S. Hinchliffe, D.L., J.P., Mr. David Lowe, Mr. A. G. Marsden, C.B.E., Sir Robert Pattinson, DL., J.P., Sir John Carew Pole, Bt., D.S.O., Mr. C. E. .Prater, The lion, W. L. Runciman, 0.B.E., A.F.C., Lord Rusholme, Mr. R. H. E. Thomas. 0.B.E., Coon. James Welsh, LL.D., and Mr. A. G. Wright.
The secretary of the committee is Mr. G. Cole Deacon, whose offices will be at 22, Palace Chambers, London, S.W.1. INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC RULES DRAFTED QTANDARD rules for transport NJ using the international road networks have been drafted by lead.ng experts of European countries and the United States for submission to the United Nations world conference on road traffic to be held during next summer. The convention, drawn up by the Economic Commission for Europe, is to receive a final review in January.
Technical matters are covered in 10 annexes to the convention, in order to allow for modification when changes are made in road and vehicle design and construction. The technical standards were drawn up with a view to allowing as many countries as possible to adhere to the main convention.
They cover such matters as the design of road signals, brakes and lights, and the maximum weight and dimensions of vehicles which the countries taking part will allow on their sections of the international network.
The convention also covers rules of the road at intersections and crossings, regulations for trailers, a standardized form of certificate, and driving permits valid for all countries.
GRIMSBY BUSES RUNNING AT A LOSS
GRIMSBY Transport Committee has been told that the net deficit for the year ending next March is estimated at £15,000. To the end of October last there was a loss of over £8,000. The committee was urged to take steps to place the undertaking on a remunerative basis, and warned that a loss of 15,000 would reduce the reserve fund to £9,000.
On-nationalization, the council would be told that any deficiency must come from the rates, and not from the Government.
GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS: WAGES CONCESSION
AN interesting point concerning the wages of engineering workers has just been decided by the Government. The Engineering Industries' Association has been informed by the Ministry of Supply that those industries affected by the increase of 5s. in the national bonus payable to all such workers (under the award made by the court of inquiry) shall not be subject to the provisions of the White Paper on personal incomes, costs and prices which stabilized Government contract prices regardless of wage increases. This means, in effect, that such prices may now include the cost of this increase.
AMPLE NOTICE OF "APPOINTED DAY"
GOOD notice of the "appointed day' under the Transport Act will be given, and ample opportunity will be afforded to operators to apply for permits and have them determined before that day, states the Ministry of Transport. Procedure for making applications for permits and the forms to be used will shortly be prescribed by the Minister of Transport.
The Ministry reminds operators that after the appointed day, goods vehicles operating for hire or reward under A, contract A, and B licences will not be able to travel without a permit more than 25 miles, as the crow flies, from their operating centre. The 25-mile restrictioa will automatically become a statutory condition of A, contract A. and B licences, and will cancel any 'greater radius authorized by Licensing Authorities to B-licensees. Holders of B licences will be able to exceed that distance on their own business.
The need for obtaining a permit from the Road Transport Executive will not apply to the following traffics:—(a) Liquids in bulk in a tanker, or in any tank of more than 500-gallon capacity. (b) Special goods, such as dangerous loads, which have to be carried in specially constructed vehicles. (c) Ordinary furniture removals. (d) Uncooked meat for human consumption, and livestock. (e) Felled timber carried in a special vehicle. (f) Abnormal indivisible loads which can be carried only in a special vehicle.
MAKE ROADS FIT TRAFFIC, SAYS LICENSING AUTHORITY
ROADS should be made to fit the traffic, and not the traffic to fit the roads, said the Northern Licensing Authority, when residents in part of Jesmond objected to the renewal of a licence for a bus service that had been running since 1929. The applicant was United Automobile Services, Ltd., and the service was from Newcastle-uponTyne to Blyth.
Residents complained that a reduction of traffic in Ilford Road was necessary. The police also objected. The• Licensing Authority said that he was loth to cancel a service solely because traffic had reached saturation point, but deferred his decision until he had inspected the route.
VEHICLE FOR MINE RESCUES
/-1 A NEW mine-rescue vehicle recently placed in service in Quebec, Ontario, Canada, combines the functions of rescue station, field testing laboratory, maintenance shop, classroom and six-patient ambulance. The vehicle has a central aisle with counters and storage cupboards on each side. Special compartments opening on the outside contain oxygen cylinders connected to a motor-driven pressure pump in the body for filling smaller cylinders for oxygen breathing apparatus, of which 12 sets are carried. A special, rack and rectifier for charging six miners' lamps are located behind the driver's seat, Apart from apparatus to aid breathing, the equipment includes stretchers and first-aid kits.
SEDDON BUILDS METAL BUS BODY FOR EXPORT
QPECIALLY designed for the overseas b.-) markets, an all-metal body of aluminium alloy is now being built in the body section of the Woodstock Factory of Seddon Motors, Ltd., Oldham.
The body can be knocked down into two complete sides, one front bulkhead. two cab sides, five roof sections and a complete back. The whole can be cased for transit and reassembled at the destination. The body, it is expected, will be available either in skeleton form or with panels complete with glazing. Framing is in commercial-grade aluminium alloy of 14.96 tons proof stress and 25 tons ultimate tensile stress. The main cross-bearers are of U section. bolted to the chassis by U-bolts and with rubber packing insulating the aluminium framing from the steel of the chassis.
' • All framing is bolted up with cadtnium-plated bolts. Panelling will be in 16 s.w.g. aluminium, whilst inside panels will be of the stressed-skin type. A fuller description will appear in next week's issue of "The Commercial Motor."
I.R.T.E. PLANS,_ FOR NEXT MONTH
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ARRANGEMENTS as follows have tibeen made by the London and pro
vincial centres of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers:— London: " Diesel Engines," by V. W.
• Pilkington, M.B.E., M.I.Mech.E., Royal 'Society of 'Arts, John Adam Street, Adelphi, W.C.1, 6.30 p.m., January 20. Midlands: "The Psychology of Diagnosis," by R. B. Daniell, A.I.R.T.E., Crown Inn, Broad Street, Birmingham, 7 p.m., January 21 North West: Mr. Pilkington's paper, Engineers' Club, Manchester, 7.30 p.m., January 5. Annual dinner-dance, Engineers' Club, Manchester, 6 p.m.. January 15. North East: "The Development or the Gas Turbine for Road Transport," by J Hodge, M.A., Hotel Metropole. Leeds, 7 January 20... , Scottish: ' Annual dinner-dance, the Ca'doro Restaurant, Glaigow, 6 p.m., January 3. -" Meter Failures," by R. Stong, North British Hotel, Edinburgh, 7.30 p.m., January 10.