The Editor's Proof of Evidence for the L.G.B. Committee.
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The Witness will open his evidence by taking in succession the Articles of the Heavy Motor Car Order, 1901 ; he will then put forward certain special points on behalf of users; the concluding portion of his evidence will be in the natnre of comment upon, and in some instances by way of rebutting, the evidence of which a copy has been confidentially communicated to the Association.
AMENDMENTS TO THE HEAVY MOTOR CAR ORDER, 1909.
THE WITNESS WILL SUBMIT—
Article IL—Definitions.
That these will require modification, according to the recommendations of the L.G.B. Committee in other matters ; for example, the minimum weight of a heavy. motorcar may require to be increased if the expression " weight" is defined hereafter as including any water, fuel or accumulators used for the purpose of propulsion.
Article M.—Weights.
That there is DO reason, qua user, for the retention of unladen weights, but that there may be reasons for purposes of classification ; that the unladen weights shall be increased to 6 tons if the present definitio,n of " weight " be retained, or to 8 tons if fuel, water or accumulators are included ; that any trailer shall be legal up to a weight of 3 tons unladen; that the joint weights of any load-carrying heavy motorcar and its one trailer shall be a maximum of 11 tons, inclusive of any fuel, water or nocumulathrs ; that a tractor, which it is suggested might be defined as "a heavy motorcar which is so constructed or adapted and used as only to draw and not to carry a load of goods, merchandise, agricultural produce or other material," shall be allowed to haul two trailers, under the heavy motorcar regulations, instead of one trailer as now, the object of this recommendation being to encourage the distribution of loads upon a greater number of axles.
[Note.—It will then be necessary for the joint weight of such a combined unit to be 15 tons unladen, inclusive of any fuel, wat?r or accumulators, thus providing for the additional weight of the second trailer.]
Article IV.—Registration of Weights.
That to Clause (6) there shall be added the words: "until any such failure has been remedied."
Article V.—Axle-weights.
That actual axle-weight at the time shall be preferred as a basis of control to unladen or total weight, in conjunction with a combined factor of tire width and wheel diameter, qua any question of user ; that the unladen (or "ready for the road ") axle-weights shall be painted on a heavy motorcar, as well as the registered (" laden to maximum ") axle-weights.
That, if the retention of unladen and total weights is desirable or necessary in the opinion of the L.G.B. Committee, for reasons of classification, it shall be provided as follows :— " (1) No road engine shall be registerable as heavy motorcar which has a weight 'ready for the road' of more than 8 tons.
"(2) Where a heavy motorcar is fitted with a load-carrying body, and is used to haul a trailer, the gross weight of the combined unit shall not exceed 22 tons.
"(3) Where a heavy motorcar is a tractor, and is not fitted with a load-carrying body, and is used to haul a trailer or trailers, the gross weight Hle of the combined unit shall not exceed 16 tons if one trailer be hauled, or 24 tons if two trailers he hauled."
[Note.—It will be observed that the basis of the foregoing recommendations is to allow commercial freedom in respect of the employment of empty trailer plant, such as tank.-wagons, tipping-wagons, contractors' gear, etc., whilst at the same time protecting the roads against excessive axle-weights. The present limit for trailers of 4 tons per axle is approved, and it is to be noted that the axle-weight of the tractor itself will not be in excess of 7 tons.] That, whilst it is urged that 91 tons should be adopted as the general statutory maximum of axle. weight for any heavy motorcar, the following exceptions shall be permitted :— " (a) Where the local authority within whose area the heavy motorcar (and trailer or trailers, if any be drawn) is being used, has, under the hand of its Town Clerk or Surveyor, sanctioned its temporary or regular use with any higher maximum axle-weight ; or "(b) Where, under any applicable scale of taxation, provision is made for a higher annual tax in respect of such excess, and such excess has been duly paid."
Article VI.—Tires.
That, in the case of a heavy motorcar the wheels of which are fitted with separate plates or strakes, on the renewal of one or more of the plates or strakes less than the total number on any one wheel, the new plates or strakes on such wheel shall be as nearly as possible of the same thickness as the worn plates left in position. That the space in Clause (1) of this Article shall be one-sixth instead of one-eighth. That, if the system of units of axle-weight be retained, the basis shall not, for a steel-tired wheel, be reduced below 61 cwt., instead of 71 cwt., for a diameter of 3 ft. thus increasing diameters generally by 1 ft. for unaltered tire-widths, as compared with existing practice, except that the old scale shall continue to apnly to steel-tired wheels on axles which are registered to carry four tons or less.
Article VII.—Speed.
That higher speeds shall be given legal sanction for all rubber-tired vehicles : where 12 m.p.h. is now approved, an increase to 16 m.p.h. or 20 m.p.h. is suggested, and, similarly, an increase from 8 m.p.h. to 12 m.p.h. ; that there shall be authority for the extended use of trailers at speeds considerably above the present limit of 5 m.p.h., in the case of rubbertired vehicles, varying according to actual axle-weight and the use or non-use of a trailer. That, as regards vehicles on steel tires, there shall he legal sanction for 7 m.p.h., instead of 5 m.p.h., when no trailer is hauled, and 6 m.p.h. when trailers are hauled. That the present wording of the Article is ambiguous, and he will indicate the reason. [Note.—The witness hands in (herewith) the recommendations of the Association.] Article XI.—Trailers.
That no objection can now be raised to the cancellation of the existing concession to trailers which weigh less than one ton.
[Note.—The risk of hardship in respect of owners of horse-drawn types of vehicles available for use as trailers, which risk was a real one in 1904, has now virtually disappeared.]
Section 5.—That, in order to get over a practical difficulty which arises in many country motorbus and char-h-bancs services, where it is commonly found that passengers bring an excess of luggage, and cannot be stopped doing so, resulting in the piling of this luggage on the canopy with consequential risk that the vehicle will become top-heavy, legal sanction shall be given for the following clauses :— " The unrestricted use of a, trailer, without brakes, and without reduction of speed below that which is legal for the heavy motorcar to which it is attached, for the conveyance of luggage only, behind a passenger-carrying heavy motorcar, provided the unladen weight of such trailer does not exceed 10 cwt., shall be permitted."
"It shall be legal for any motorbus or other passenger-carrying heavy motorcar to draw one passenger-carrying vehicle on routes which include no gradient of greater inclination than 1 in 12."
Article XII.—Ascertainment of Weights by Officers of Councils.
That the present limit of half-a-mile shall be retained; that an increase to two miles will involve unnecessary and costly delays to owners.
Article XIV.—Use of Heavy Motorcars on Bridges.
That the indiscriminate and wholesale scheduling of bridges by railway companies, canal companies and other private owners shall be stopped, and that no such notice shall be of any effect six months after the issue of the new Heavy Motor Car Order, unless the notice shall have been approved by the Local Government Board after the holding of an inquiry.