Underpaid Licence Duties.
Page 47
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Surrey County Council undertakes periodical cheekings of the declared weights of motor vehicles, with the object of ensuring that the vehicles are properly assessed for the purpose of payment of licence duty. During the past ten months 296 vehicles have been tested and in 112 cases (38 per cent, of the number tested) the ascertained weight of the vehicle has been in excess of the declared weight to an extent sufficient to necessitate the payment of additional duty amounting in the aggregate to £909.
Bean Vans on Mail Service.
Some idea of the success which haft been achieved by Bean vans engaged on the transport of mails in London is embodied in a short article published in the November issue of the Bean Bulletin, the house organ of Bean Cars, Ltd., of Tipton. It was in February, 1926, that four chassis of this make with mail-van bodies were put into commission, and' they gave such satisfactory service that in June of the same year the contrac tors for the transport of the mails ordered 30 vehicles of an identical pattern. This concern now uses a fleet of 35 Beau vehicles for parcels collection and delivery between the London postal headquarters, several railway termini and sub-post offices.
Although the vans have to operate in some of the densest traffic areas they run an average of 16 miles to the gallon of petrol consumed, whilst records show that 1,200 miles are covered on a gallon of oil. Notwithstanding the fact that the vehicles have been in use 22i hours per day, the contractors hate not lost a day's work.
London Bus Transport Records.
During the month of October the 4,000 motorbuses comprising the fleet of the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., and its allied concerns, Covered 15,353,008 service miles compared with 15,243,287 miles in the seine month a year earlier. During the month 140,155,737 passengers were carried. The passengers carried and the miles run this year are the highest yet recorded for the month of October.
A Surfeit ot Petrol-supply Stations.
A special committee of the Surrey County Council reports that while carrying out tours of inspection to ascertain what advertisements on the highways are objectionable, it covered about 200 miles, and regretted to note the rapid increase in the number of petrol and oil-s.upply stations throughout the county. In its opinion, quite a number of these, with their multi-coloured petrol pumps and oil tanks, are quite as disfiguring as many of the advertisement hoardings which have been condemned. On the other hand, the committee saw certain supply stations where all the apparatus is painted in a uniform tint, with the result that such stations are by no means so unsightly as some of the others.
The county council has decided to urge the Government to amend the draft Road Traffic 11111 in order that the Home
Secretary or the Minister of Health may be empowered to make regulations in regard to the design and location of petrol-supply stations.
Compulsory Mud-splashing Preventers in Prance.
Efforts• have been made to induce the French police authorities to postpone sine die the regulation requiring all industrial motor vehicles weighing 3 tons and over in the Paris district to be fitted with some device which will prevent mud-splashing. As a result the Prefet of Police agreed to postpone the date of the coming into force of the order from November let to December. 1st. Ae from the latter date, however, the order will be strictly enforced. With an Albion in Uganda.
We have received from a reader in Uganda the series of illustrations which we reproduce on this page and which indicate some of the difficulties associated with the operation of transport vehicles in that country. They show a 50-cwt. Albion lorry crossing the Inpologoma River on the native ferry, which is composed of two native dug-out canoes about 20 ft. long, with lengths of suitable timber laid across them and held together by g,rasa rope. The runners at the end of the ferry were rather weak 'and badly positioned, so that when the lorry passed over them they capsized and precipitated the vehicle partly into the river, from which it was,extricated with some difficulty.
This vehicle is doing good work in Uganda and has covered 14,000 miles transporting bales of cotton from the ginnery to the Lake Port—about 40 miles each way. It runs on paraffin and travels about 10 miles to the gallon of fuel used.
National Benzole Director's Death. We regret to learn of the death of Sir Arthur Francis Pease, Bt., J.P., D.L., who had been a director of the National Beuzole Co., Ltd., since its formation.