Higher . Production,
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Increased Exports
by The Hon.
Geoffrey Rootes
A S the new year opens, prospects are good for higher I-1 production, increased exports and a general expansion in demand at home and abroad. Production figures during each month of this year have been running consistently above those for 1959 and by the end of December the total should be in the region of 445,000, 85,000 more than in 1959. Exports, too, have been buoyant.
These figures and the factors germane to the industry's present fortunes provide good grounds for optimism. At home, the removal of purchase tax on goods vehicle chassis has provided, and should continue to provide, a stimulus to production to the benefit economically of both the home and export market.
Abroad, the firm base Britain has established in so many countries, of which Finland, Holland, Australia and South Africa are but instances, stand as evidence of the reputation for the British product, and of the experience applied by our manufacturers in meeting all kinds of demand. Herein lies the basis for the industry's assault on the growing markets in underdeveloped regions, as well as in the Common Market countries and the U.S.A.
Already, Britain is the largest exporter of commercial vehicles in Europe and the second largest in the world. To retain this position, it is vital that she should be enabled to meet a wide range of demand and take into account conditions which are particular to a single region, however small. It is for this reason that many vehicles are built in this country which are destined specifically for export; it is for this reason, too, that the major research and testing centres, M.I.R.A. in particular, lay strong emphasis on creating, artificially, the kind of conditions which exist abroad.
Beyond this, of course, British prototypes before going into production, are tested exhaustively under genuine overseas conditions. The kind of success these approaches are achieving receives testimony in the export returns.
As for the vehicles themselves, certain points emerged at this year's Commercial Motor Show which seem worth recalling in so far as they signpost coming events. There is, for example, among the lower payload types, an obvious trend towards ease of access in forward control vehicles, highly important where a driver is working a local delivery round; and the forward control vehicle itself has, of course, the advantage of permitting a shorter vehicle for any given load-space—an advantage that in these difficult times of over-congestion on urban roads all contributes to reducing the strain.
Outside the towns, the growing motorways system will probably quicken the tendency towards the use of articulated vehicles, and encourage a move towards higher power as a means of keeping pace with the speedier flow of traffic that these roads permit; while at the same time there are signs that power-assisted steering is becoming more popular. On passenger transport, at least, we can envisage the increased use of air suspension, automatic transmission, integral construction, and disc-brakes.
Meanwhile, the trend of events continues to suggest that the commercial vehicle will occupy an increasingly central place in the economy of this country and of almost all others.
Here, in Britain, the moves towards road improvement, particularly in the towns, will surely bring the commercial vehicle into its own, as an invaluable tool of industry and passenger transport. Overseas, the needs and the demand are only just beginning.
It seems certain that 1961, like 1960, will be a year to remember.