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T HAT coachbuilders are bringing intelligence and enterprise into motor coach

29th March 1921, Page 1
29th March 1921
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Page 1, 29th March 1921 — T HAT coachbuilders are bringing intelligence and enterprise into motor coach
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body design is clearly shown by our general comments on coach -construction and by the separate account of -the achievements of those who are located in the Midlands. The problems to be faced are many, and it is extremely interesting to watch the efforts made to overcome their.. [Page 186.

THAT a busman should be true to tradition and be impelled to take a busman's holiday is not at all unlikely. The artist whose subject is thus led away from his wife and child, whilst on their annual holiday, to take a spell or two at the driving wheel of a motor coach, not unnaturally shows his sympathy with the busman's family. [Page 177.

IT goes without saying that many of the old-time horsed char-h-hancs owners who have adopted the more modern form of vehicle cannot properly assess the standing charges (as distinct from the running costs) of the motor vehicle. We hope that our article on the subject will help them materially in their understanding of this question. [Page 188.

LT.-COL. A. HACKING, D.S.O., MC., has made a deeper study than most men of the weak spots in the existing scheme of motor taxation, and to him and to the Motor Legislation Committee, of which he is the general secretary, can be placed the credit for securing the right to register the dual-purpose machine of low horse-power on the horse-power basis of taxation. His article on further anomalies in the Act will be read with interest. [Page 166.

THE future design of the motor coach, as shown by present tendencies, is a matter of considerable interest, both to the manufacturer and the coach owner. Pneumatic and cushion tyres on these vehicles are, to all intents and purposes, in the experimentalstage, but it is probable that they will have far-reaching influence on the design of the coach of the future. The question of all-weather vehicles is also of vital importance. These points and many others are dealt with in our article entitled " Motor Coach Design and Construction." [Page 172.

A New Industry of Amazing Growth.

THAT WE should desire to devote the major part of an issue (enlarged for the occasion, certainly) of The Commercial Motor to the subject of motor coaching, in addition to dealing with it adequately week by week, as has been our practice for many months, will show that an industry which is based upon pure pleasure has developed amazingly in the short time since hostilities ceased. The motor coach should not be described merely as the poor man's pleasure motor, for it is not that so exclusively as the omnibus is the poor man's utility motor, at any rate for six days of the week. The motor eoach_appeals to all classes of people, up to those who cannot quite afford to run their own ear—from the seaside tripper who can only afford a few shillings for art afternoon run to the man who is prepared to spend to 230 per head for himself and his family on a motor coach tour of a fortnight or so, with the certainty of extra expenditure on incidentals. Thus, except to the motor owner, everybody can be and is appealed to by the motor coach, and; because of that, it should enjoy an extensive suffrage, which must be of material-assistance when restrictive legislation or local regulation is called for by some person with a grievance—real or fancied.

For the very reason we have outlined, the responsibility of the coach owner is enormously increased. He has such a diversified clientele—the boisterous miner or mill hand out for a day's beanfeast, the orderly and reverent family group visiting places of interest in the course of a day's outing, and the sedate touring party accustomed to good hotels—that he has a difficult course to steer. The boisterous crowd can, and certainly will, if they are allowed, spoil and vulgarize the whole business, and the only possible cheek uponthis seems to be at the dispossal of the coach owner, who should take the strong line and instruct his drivers to support his efforts; to purge motor coaching of the bad name which it was beginning to acquire last year.

Careful driving on the road, with consideration for other road users and with due regard to the safety of the coach's passengers, is another essential to the well-being of the coach industry, for, without it, roads and resorts will be closed to the coach, and its popularity will wane.

Careful administration, again, is indispensable, for, if it be wanting, the business cannot be builf upon sound and economical foundations. Many proprietors with experience of horsed vehicles cannot properly assess maintenance costs, depreciation, or capital charges, and, thus, are prone to undercutting of fares. In the present Position of trade, the most careful administration is necessary.

On all of these points we have much to say in this, issue, which we hope will be read and preserved by coach proprietors, for many facts and figures are given which will be useful for later reference.

The Parade a Useful Means to an End.

0 N SATURDAY next Londoners will have an opportunity for regarding the commercial motor vehicle from a new angle. Except on the cccasion of the annual parade of the C-ornmercial Motor Users Association, it figures as so intensely practical a means of transport as to be largely disregarded in its passage through the streets. It is accepted as an ordinary development of civilization. administering faithfully but obscurely to our needs. That is the penalty of success in catering for general requirements; the development of the boot and of man's clothing may have possessed romance in its early stages, but, nowadays, no one associates the idea of romance With any article of clothing he may don. The bicycle, and, later still, the aeroplane, passed through all the phases from the mere visionary to the eminently practical commonplace, and, despite the romance attaching to both, the passer-by looks no longer at the bicycle a-s it speeds along nor up at the aeroplane in the sky.

But, when the commercial vehicle comes on to parade with its history and its associations, one can recognize romance under the disguise of modern practical usage and gain an appreciation of the affection which the driver can and does feel for" the old bus." -We are convinced that the Commercial Motor Users Association is doing extraordinarily good work in giving practical recognition to the care and attention shown to a vehicle by the driver and his mate. The horse parades, ia their time, served a useful purpose in fostering consideration for the animals. The commercial motor parades take even a higher level, because the results of the encouragement given to the men are far-reaching. The parade is combined with a written and practical examination, which encourages the men to study and to appreciate mechanics; and, in a mechanical age, that is a valuable development of their mentality. _ That the example of the London vehicle owners in supporting the C.M.U.A. parade is being extensively followed in the provinces is a very welcome sign, and we hope that the enterprise of the various centres of the Association will be rewarded by encouraging entries for the examinations from the men as well as of vehicles for the parades.

Wasting a Good Idea.

WHEN THE Minister of Transport rises in the House of Commons, as he did last Monday week, and says that all the work of the Select Committee on London Traffic and of the Advisory Committee which considered the roport of the earlier committee, and of the officials who drafted a Bill for the establishment of a London Traffic Authority, is being lightly passed over and will come to nought, one is compelled to wonder that so much time and public money should be devoted to a lot of foundation work all to be wasted becauss no one will go ahead with the superstructure.

The pigeon-holes of Government departments, and the shelves of ELM. Stationery Office are loaded with. the mass of documents collected and prepared and printed in the course of this foundation work to such an extent as to constitute a scandal. Much of the committee work sanctioned by Parliament may be mere camouflage or eyewash intended to smooth over a time of agitation with the semblance of an effort to institute reform, and no doubt much of it serves its purpose, but in this ease the need for a traffic authority in the Metropolis is so urgent that we sincerely hope that Mr. Kennedy Jones, who was chairman of the Advisory Committee, will keep the matter to the forefront until the needed reform has been secured, for the foundations were so well prepared by the two committees named that no further time should be wasted by Government departments in " oonsielering " the proposals put forward.


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