Answers to Queries.
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Bonuses for No Accidents.
[2412] (Insurance)---The practice of paying small cash bonuses to drivers, say of Is. each per week, for the absence of accidents is so general that we expect you would find it to be a rule with most owners.
Non-skid Device for Solid-rubber Tires.
[24133 (Brecon).—The best non-skidding devices are the Parsons non-skid chain and the de Fornier tread ; the latter is used on a certain number of fire-engines. The respective addresses are as under : Parsons Non-Skid Co., Ltd., 23, Store Street, London, W.
J. de Fornier, 81-83, Shaftesbury Avenue, London, W.C.
The Hellmers Valve for Water-spreading.
[2414] (Specification).—Your inquiry refers presumably to the Masehinenbaufabrik H. J. Helltners, Hornerlandstrasse 178-183, Hamburg, which company makes a speciality of sprinkliingapparatus for road watering. These people supply the Berlin Corporation with such apparatus, and they have also equipped some of the motor-sprinklers marketed by German firms.
Rural Councils and Licences.
12115] (Salopian).—A rural district council generally speaking has no right to require a local jobmaster, or indeed any other person, to take out hackney-carriage licences, but power is given to the Local Government Board under the Public Health Act, 1875, to invest a rural district council with all or any of the powers of an urban authority, which powers include the licensing of hackney carriages. It is, therefore, necessary to ascertain whether any such order has been obtained by the particular rural district council by winch you are affected.
Are They Serious re Axle-weights in Lancashire?
[2416] (Mann facturer).—The Lancashire authorities are laying down weighbridges extensively and -quickly ; the number of prosecutions for excessive axle-weights and excessive speeds is increasing. The intimation of the Government that it will in future pay .50 per cent, of main road cost may or may not tone things down, but the fact remains that the intention of the Lancashire authorities to enforce the law strictly is being carried out with every evidence of increasing severity just now. We should strongly recommend you to do what you can to keep particular types within their most favourable axle-weight limits when loaded, if any slight modification of the design will assist to that end.
Dual Uses in Relation to Local Licences and the Petrol Tax.
[2,117] (North Britain).If you use the car for dual purposes, including the taking of ordinary pleasure or recreational trips from time to time, you will have to pay 3d. per gallon on your petrol all the year round. You will also have to pay the full horse-power tax. The law on these points is absolutely well settled. You must therefore judge whether the convenience of -having the car for pleasure trips at week-ends merits the extra cost over the whole year. You will probably be of opinion that it does.
You will escape the sliding-scale tax in respect. of horse-power, if you only use your vehicle for hiring purposes, hut you will not escape the petrol tax. Any vehicle which is used to carry passengers, other than a motoreab or a motorbus while standing or plying for hire, has to pay the full petrol tax. You had better inquire whether the hackney carriage licence in your -district does entitle you to stand and ply for hire with a motor vehicle ; most urban districts and all city councils have additional regulations and charges.
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What Do We Think?
[2118 (Hotel).—The make of ear which you mention is ore of which we hear good reports, although we have no personal experience of it. Whether it will satisfactorily carry 13 cwt. of samples and a traveller will to a certain extent depend upon the additional weight of the bodywork.
Wants "The Strongest Tractor."
j2I i9 (Haulage).—We do not quite follow whether by "the strongest tractor" you mean the one of stoutest and heaviest construction or the one with the most power 1 You certainly cannot do better than choose between the following makers :— Aveling and Porter, LW, Rochester. Chas. Burrell and Sons, Ltd., Thetford.
Clayton and Shuttleworth, Ltd., Lincoln. Wm. Foster and Sons, Ltd., Lincoln. Tasker and Sons, Ltd., Andover, Hants.
Wallis and Steevens„ Ltd., Basingstoke.
You can pull only one trailer at a time with such a tractor under the Heavy Motor Car Order.
Thinks of Running a Light Van.
[2420] (Stores).—The loads which you mention are
well suited for a van. Our free sheet of working costs will show you the outgo under various headings, when conditions are normal. You cannot hope to get the working cost of a van, inclusive of proportion of depreciation, down to 1,3s. per week, but if you can find enough work for the van to do in extension of trade, the cost per mile run will undoubtedly be less than with a horse van. The point is, whether you can with advantage add up the necessary mileage—say, at least ia0 miles of running a week, to he sure of paying v -11.
A Town Van for 12-cwt. Loads.
12.121] (Bootle).Our free sheet of working costs may incidentally he of some help to you, in connection with the matter of vans for 12-cwt. loads. The normal costs are slightly above those which are put down for a 70-cwt. van. We think you cannot do better than specifythe van which you order as one to carry an imposed load on the chassis of 17 cwt. ; in fact, if you wish to have a margin for development of trade, a standard one-ton van would, in our opinion, be the most economical purchase. It is astonishing how one almost invariably finds that loads are put up, and extra men are given lifts, when a motorvan is purchased. You must, however, use your own judgment.
Starting His Steamer in Work.
['422] (Cheshire).—Our table only shows 15s. a week charged against the cost of working the wagon, iu respect of the second man, but it is pointed out that this is only a proportion. The ther proportion of the second man's wages is undoubtedly chargeable against labour account, and not specifically to the wagon. Possibly, in your case, it does not matter how you charge it up. In the circumstances which you explain, we very strongly recommend you to arrange to have a
man from the works, free of charge if you can get it, but at whatever reasonable cost they suggest otherwise, for a couple of weeks, in order to put you into the way of handling the wagon. You may otherwise have the misfortune to collide either with some gate pillar, while marneuvrieg or reversing, or to have a more serious accident. Y9t1 should, of course, insurn the wagon. You should see a revenue, for any hiring work, of as nearly as possible twice the working cost per mile shown for an owner who works only for himself and carts only his own loads. Where you have to cut rates, you should certainly never see less than a. revenue of Is. 3d. per mile run without a trailer. and 7s. Sid. per mile run with a trailer.