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lewness is not enough

25th April 1969, Page 21
25th April 1969
Page 21
Page 21, 25th April 1969 — lewness is not enough
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

How good or bad is the condition in which new commercial vehicles are received by operators? It is always easy to exaggerate a situation by using a few notorious examples, but we have certainly heard a fairly regular murmur of complaint about vehicles which needed attention before being fit for operation. Some of this can be explained by the introduction of annual testing for goods vehicles, which has focused operators' attention on vehicle condition in an unprecedented way. But it seems that in some factories final inspection could be improved.

The matter was raised at length last week by a speaker addressing hauliers in Scotland, who said that both basic design and final inspection were at fault. He gave examples and quite rightly suggested that an operator encountering faults on a new vehicle should immediately inform the Ministry and his own trade association; he might also, in fairness, tell the manufacturer or his agent first. But the MoT has a recognized, and very successful, procedure for dealing with design or production defects, and it invariably brings co-operation from manufacturers. The RHA, FTA, and TA too, are now well equipped to raise these matters.

In a way, it is the faults arising from poor inspection which are more worrying; design faults once spotted can be put right but bad inspection—at both factory and dealership, sometimes complicated by diversion to body or equipment makers in the maker-to-user process—can let slip a quite random range of defects. The speaker gave examples of a brand new 7-tonner delivered with the pivot pins dropping out of the handbrake release, of pipe-run fouling because production does not follow design layouts, of frequent faults in gauges and lighting systems, and of maladjusted load-sensing valves.

CM's testing staff can confirm the latter, and would agree with the speaker's assessment that a defective load-sensing valve makes the vehicle more dangerous than if one is not fitted at all. We would also support one of his suggested remedies: if manufacturers put new vehicles through the test (which could surely be arranged) they could satisfy themselves that they were not going to run into a lot of subsequent arguments and recriminations. But there would still need to be a tightening up of inspection; and operators would have to accept the possibility of a cut in discounts to cover the cost of more thorough dealer checks.

Innocent deception

Bus operators need perhaps a subtler approach to some of the persistent problems that beset the industry. This thought was prompted by remarks in the paper presented on Wednesday to the SR PTA, in which, for example, the author reminded operators how car owners deluded themselves about the true cost of running these vehicles. He then went on to suggest that the score could be evened out a little if tokens and season tickets were used more widely, since this might "lower passengers' perception of the costs involved in using buses".

There's some sound psychology there, and it happens to tie in with a mood in sections of the industry at present which suggests that the token system is not so badly regarded as one might think; and the multi-journey ticket is finding new champions. If the passenger does not have to be reminded of the cost of public travel every time he takes a journey, this may well be a telling factorinthe longterm.

Interesting operating item to emerge was the extent to which, if survey results are accurate, service far outweighs cost in passengers' minds. Would any Traffic Commissioners be prepared to vacate their financial watchdog role in a few selected instances to enable operators to put the idea to the test on one or two routes?

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