News of the Week
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MAKERS AND MATERIAL SUPPLIERS COLLABORATE
-110RiTISII makers of commercial L)vehicles and carsare, through the S,M.M,T., collaborating well with the various producers of basic materials. Recently, a meeting was organized between S.1VI.M.T,' representatives and the British Plastics Federation. In December others met well..-known people representing the light-alloy industry.
As regards fuels, the companies concerned with these had formed a Motor Fuels Panel with eight members, but ie was agreed, at a " post-war fuels meeting" held in December, that a joint committee of 20 members shouldbe formed,9 representing the oil and petrol .companies, and 11 the manufacturers. The first meeting of this committee will be held this month.
VIGILANCE NEEDED TO ENSURE FREEDOM FOR THE INDUSTRY IN an allusion to Government control / of goods transpOrt by road: the annual report of the Road Transport Section of Leeds Incorporated Chamber of Commerce state's: " The Section is convinced „that the greatest' vigilance is required to ensure that, as soon as the present emergency has passed, freedom is restored to the roadtransport industry, and it is felt that it is desirable to question every proposal, to make it clear that the industry is alive to the present tendency towards excessive measures of control."
Recalling that the Section was concerned " at certain increases in roadtransport traffic rates," stated to have come into operation concurrently with the introduction of the M.O.W.T. Haulage Organization, the report adds: "A number of instances of unreasonable increases was taken up, and in most of them the charges were revised in a downward direction. The Section is satisfied that all users of long-distance road transport in the Leeds area have benefited from the activity of the Chamber in this connection."
OPERATORS FORM YORKSHIRE • SUB-AREA OF R.H.A.
WHEN a sub-area of the Road W Haulage Association was formed at an operators' meeting in Keighley, last Saturday., in place of the former local branch of the C.M.U.A., a suggestion that the territory linked with Keighley be extended beyond Skipton to Settle, Ingleton and the northern border of Yorkshire, was received with approval.
This suggestion was made by Councillor Charles Holdsworth, of Halifax, chairman of the R.H.A. West Riding Area, who in explaining the circumstances which necessitated the winding up of the C.M.U.A. branch at Keighley paid a tribute to its work.
Mr. Harry Clark, secretary of the Wesf Riding Area, said that the consummation of the scheme for the merging of associations afforded a golden opportunity to put the road
transport industry on a solid foundation. • Mr. W. Cowlayshaw, who presided, said that one standpoint fiorn which he would judge the efficiency of the new set-up of associations was the extent to which it remedied what had been a glaring weakness—the lack Of publicity for the road-transport industry in the general Press.
After the resolution to wind up the C.M.U.A branch and to form the new R.H.A. sub-area had been carried,. the meeting adopted a further resolution to undertake membership recruitment efforts having an immediate target of 80 per cent. .
Mr.'cowlayshaw and Mr.G. Bonnett ' were respectively elected chairman and secretary of the sub-area, having held similar positions, until the winding up of the old branch organization. The constitution ofthe committee was also unchanged. Mr. C. A. Smith, of Skipton; was elected to represent the sub-area -on the area. committee, and he and Mr. W. Atkinson, of Silsden, were appointed as sub-area liaison officers in their respective districts. ' LONDON SHORT OF 1,600 TAXICABS IN a written anscSer to questions by 1 Sir R. Glyn, concerning taxicabs, Mr. H. Morrison, Home Secretary, said that, Of a total of 5,297 licensed by the Metropolitan Police, about 400 are at present off the streets awaiting repair. • In addition, said the Minister, there are some 1,200 cabs 'which have not been presented for current licensing and are laid up for various reasons, includinn•° overhaul, lack of spare parts, and ' insufficiency of labour to carry out • repairs.
None ot this latter group of vehicles, he Said, has been presented for current licensing, but it was not to be assumed that if they could. bemade serviceable that there w'ould be sufficient drivers
for them all.
HELPING DRIVERS TO REACH . LIVERPOOL DOCKS QO that motor drivers may familiarize s.....7themselves with the new system for the directional routing of road transport to the Liverpool docks, the Liverpool Port Emergency Committee has issued full details in a folder. This indis cates how vehicles will be directed by means of special 'coloured and numbered signposts, which have been erected at road jurictibns, froin-the Out skirts of the port area, -to the required dock entrance gateway.
The docks have been numbered eon• secutively from south to north and divided into secticins, each of whickhas
distinctive colour.. The folder' gives a comprehensive list of berths, etc., and their appropriate colours.
TRADING RESULTS OF R. A. ' LISTER AND CO.
THE report of R. A. Lister and Co., Ltd., for the year ended September 30, 1944, shows a net profit, after making provision for taxation, of £127,735, compared with £136,339 in the previous year. The preference dividend, less tax, for . the Year takes £9,000, and an juterim dividend of 5 per cent. on the ordinary shares took £17,500, whilst a final dividend' of a, similar amount and a bonus of 6 per cent. -account for a further £38,500. A sum of £50,000 is transferred to general reserve, and £11,500 forms a provision to write off the entire cost of goodwill in the purchase price of new businesses. The amount to be carried forward is £73,759, compared with £72,524 brought into the accounts.
COPIES FROM READERS FOR THE FORCES AT -the moment we have -exhausted the " offers " frqm readers Who are prepared to pass their copies of this journal to members of. the Forces. This service is .greatly appwciated by the recipients, and we shall be glad if some more of our readers via agree to help in this way Members of the industry who are on service and who cannot otherwise .obtain this journal. As requests are received, they are posted on in order of the,clate of the offer.
At the same time, men in the Forces who wish to avail themselves of thisarrangement should write to us.
AUSTIN DIVIDENDS
THE Austin Motor Co., Ltd., is to pay the following dividends in respect of the year -ended July 31, 1944:-20 per cent., less tax, OH the' preferred ordinary stock, and 10 per cetit„ less tax, on the ordinary and " A " ordinary stocks, in addition to a 10 per cent, cash bonus on the ordinary and " A " ordinary stocks. less tax.
QUALIFIED ENGINEER AVAILABLE
A RETIRED officer with the rank of PI major, with nine years' workshop and garage experience before a military career devoted to mechanized transport, including inspection work, test requirements, performance, specifica tions, etc., for oil and petrol engines, wheeled and track vehicles, requires a position in connection with the inspection, maintenance, repair and operation of a commercial-vehicle fleet, or the inspection of new vehicles or engines. During his five years' war service with the Ministry of. Supply; he has been in close touch with many engineering concerns' and their principals. Letters should he addressed " Inspector," care of the Editor.
USED • ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT FREED BY. a new Order, which came into forte yesterday, the acquisition and sale of used industrial electrical equipment can be conducted without licence.
HEAVY FINES ON PRIVATE-HIRE OPERATOR
FINES totalling £422, with 25 5s, costs, were imoosed in a Leeds prosecution, last week, upon Mr. R. la A:Dixon, owner of a private-hire motor service in Basinghall Street, Leeds. The penalties were for allowing motor fuel to be used for a journey to Pontefract Races, failing to keep proper records of vehicles let on hire, and using fuel in cars other than those for which it had been issued. For defendant, it was stated that he had not at any time obtained petrol to ,Which he was not entitled. MR. J. S. DARRYSHIRE has relinquished, after four years' service, his position as District Transport Officer for the M.O.W.T, in the Liverpool Area, to take up an appointment in the office of the Registrar of Merchant Seamen and Shipping at Cardiff.
MR, C. W. REEVE, C.B.E., who formerly occupieu the dual position of chairman and managing director of the Associated Equipment Co., Ltd., resigned the latter appointment in February, 1944; he had held it since 1929. Recently, as a tangible expression of the esteem in which he is held, and as a reminder of the pleasant associations which had characterized his 15 years of office a:S managing director, certain members of the A.E:C. staff and works subscribed to present him with his portrait. The portrait was painted in oils by Mr. Francis Hodge, R.I., R.P. After being on view 'at Southall, it was formally handed, to Mr. Reeve 'by Mr. W. J. Roach, a machinist in the cylinder line, and a member of the committee formed for the purposes -of the presentation. In thanking them for the gift, Mr. Reeve' recalled the good relations which had always, existed between himseli and those officials, members of the staff and works personnel with whom his duties had brought him into contact over a
long period.
Ma. W. T. Jamas has been appointed a director of the Sunderland District Omnibus Co., Ltd., which is an associate of tbe BET. Federation. .
1.111i E. C. RUFFLE (Morris COMMercial) has been re-elected chairman of the Commercial Vehicle Committee...of the S,M.IVI.T., and Mr. A. S. C. Chattey (A.E.C.) has been co-opted to the committee in place of Mr. R, F. Fryars, who has resigned. •
M. G. KEITH DREW, after neatly IS years' service, has resigned his appointment as sales director of Delco-Remy and Hyatt, Ltd., to take up a similar position with Frigidaire, Ltd. Certain new appointments have been made by the concern following his resignation. Mu. G. E. WRIGHT, for many years secretary of the company, is elected to the Board and becomes director -and secretary. Another appointment to the Board is MR. S. H. BLAZEY; chief designer, who becomes director and chief engineer. MR. C. H. CHARLith, who has held sales executive positions with the company for many years, has been appointed general sales manager.
MR, GORDON G.' GOODWIN has been appointed to act as deputy to Mr. C. N. Faulconbridge, sales manager (equipment) of the AC-Sphinx Sparking Plug Co., Ltd., and he will operate from the company's Coventry office. He has, latterly, been superintending the production of assembled vehicles for the American Army at a north-west plant. and anticipates that in his new sphere be will renew associations with many men that he met during his previous service in the motor industry, particu-• larly with the Austin company and the Nuffield Organization. Production engineer, technical journalist, publicist and author, Mr. Goodwin handled the sales-promotion activities' of Wolseley Motors, Ltd., prier to the war.
MR, P. HALmwELL, A.M.1.A.E., whose portrait appears on this page, has just completed 25 ,years' service with the well-known North of England road-transport engineering concern of Oswald Tillotson, Ltd., Burnley, Bradford, Manchester and Liverpool. He joined the concern in June, 1919, after serving as Engineer Petty Officer in the Navy. He became foreman at urriley in 1920, being transferred to Bradford in May, 1926, as works and service manager on the opening of a repair depot there. In March, 1940, he took complete charge of the depot as sales and service man.ager, a position which he still holds, He is well known throughout Yorkshireand the northeastern counties to both passenger and heavy .goods-vehicle operators,
ANOTHER WARNING TO DRIVERS
,TORE drivers have been charged 1V1with wrongfully obtaining subsistence allowance and payment for time claimed to have been worked. Their names were Harper and Massey, employed by a London haulier. They were driving vehicles which were seen by an M.O.W.T. official at a car park in South Mimms at 8 a.m. on December 8, but, according to their forms (RH/A/2), they had booked -off at 6 p.m. at Towcester on December 7.
They -were fined £10 and £5 respec tively.
VEHICLE RECONDITIONING BY ARMY AUXILIARY WORKSHOPS A RMY auxiliary workshops operated 11-by Central Garage, Ltd., of Bradford, and their allied companies, have reconditioned approximately 5,000 Army vehicles. Staffs were increased by about a third, the additional workers including women trainees. Extra premises required to cope with the influx of vehicles Were provided by Bradford Corporation. The work llas included the reconditioning of vehicles used in amphibians operations on the Normandy coast.
• PAPER ON TRANSPORT AND EDUCATION BEFORE I.T.A.
THE next meeting of the London branch of the Industrial Transport Association will be held by invitation of the Metropolitan Graduate and Student Society of the Institute of Transport, to hear a paper on " Transport and Education," by Mr. J. A. R. Turner, A.M.Inst.T. It will be held on Saturday, February 17, at 2.15 p.m. at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Savoy Place, W.C.2.
R.T.C. TO SEE MINISTER ON BUS RETURN-TICKETS BAN THE Northern Regional Transport Commissioner, Sir John Maxwell, has informed Tynemouth Corporation that he expects to interview the Minister of War Transport shortly regarding the withdrawal of the ban , on bus return tickets and Sunday morning services.
• The corporation had asked the Commissioner to receive a deputation on the subject of return fares and he replied that whilst he was prepared to do so, it would be better to allow the subject to stay in abeyance until it had been discussed again with the Ministry.
GROWING SUCCESS OF CARRIMORE PRODUCTS QPEAKING at the annual general meeting of Steel Barrel Scamrnells and Associated Engineers, Ltd„ Mr. H. R. Hood Barrs, chairman and managing director, made reference to the increasing number of Carrimore vehicles on. the road, indicating the great popularity of this product of one of its subsidiaries. This company has produced the novel device known as the Carrimore Retractor, which offers • marked advantages. In addition to the well-known Carrimore six-wheelers and trailers, the company intends to resume its peace-time production of a wide range of vehicles for municipal purposes.