American Notes.
Page 6
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From Our Correspondent in New York.
Motorbuses and taximeter rnotorcabs in New York are numerically equal— there is one of each. The cab is the Renault, and the bus is a De DionBouton sent over from London equipped with the type of body used in the British capital. It has now been in use in Fifth Avenue, the fashionable thoroughfare of New York, for some months and has given entire satisfaction. It is reported that the use of these vehicles will be extended shortly, but it is not wise to place too much credence on such reports. Passenger service in New York iS a monopoly, unfortunately, and though motorbuses, as used in London, would do much to relieve certain congested districts, it is very doubtful if they will be adopted in the near future,
The Motor Carriage Company, with which is united the New York Cab Company, has lately placed an order for 300 French cabs with the " Unic " (Georges Richard) and Chenard and Walcker factories. Deliveries are expected to begin in August, and to be at the rate of 25 per month until the first order is completed. The company has a capital of ,2oo,000. Mr. Walter Allen, now connected with the De Dietrich Import Company, is said to be the manager of the concern, and W. K. Vanderbilt, jun., is financially interested. The cabs are to be the same as those now used in London and Paris. Fares will be 25. rd. for the first mile.
Notwithstanding its reputation for progressiveness, New York cannot claim to be on the level of several European capitals in the matter of automobile transportation. It is true that more electric commercial vehicles are in use in this city than in London, Paris, or Berlin, but the total number of commercial motors in New York is less than that in any prominent European city. Petrol motors, which Europe has fixed upon as the best mode of solving the difficult transportation problem, are almost non-existent. Here and there are to be found big business houses, carrier companies, etc., operating petrol motors, but believe I am correct in saying that there is not .1 single commercial house in New York which owns one dozen petrol-driven vehicles.
The reasons for this neglect are manifold. Trusts, which make their influence felt in almost every branch of American life, are in a certain sense responsible for it. Horse contracting work, if not exactly a trust, is in the hands of a few large corporations having most of the features of trusts ; they are united, pckVtgell, well organised, determinedly resist-the introduction of new methods, and give such satisfactory service on their own lines that heads of business houses hesitate to break away. The two or three big horse-dealing firms of New York keep a stream of evil stories in circulation concerning motor vehicles ,• these stories, of course, are passed round faithfully by the big army of men interested in herse traction, and
tend to maintain a spirit of mistrust against motors. The success of the pleasure vehicle in America is largely responsible for the neglect of the business side. Manufacturers work on the lines of least resistance and naturally prefer to supply a big series of pleasure cars to a public already converted to the motor vehicle, rather than to construct a small number of commercial vehicles which must be proved and tested before being accepted.
The dearth of drivers has prevented petrol motor vehicles being extensively adopted. Reliable chauffeurs can earn wages on private cars which no business man would consent to pay, and so long as there is such a dearth of good drivers at reasonable wages, so long will the petrol motor for business purposes be neglected in the United States. Insurance rates retard the development of the industry to a considerable extent. New York is exceedingly dense ; consequently, petecilcommercial vehicles would have to be kept in the vicinity of valuable property and goods. To do so involves an excessive insurance rate. Petrol motors are forbidden on most of the docks and their approaches, with the result that a wide field of activity is closed to them.
The lack of information as to cost of operation is another cause for the slow development of commercial vehicles. The companies who have done the experimental work make a point of giving no information whatever to outsiders on the cost of operation. One firm which has used electric haulage for years, declared recently that they receive an average of one letter per day asking for information as to the relative cost of horse and electric traction. To these requests a polite stereotyped refusal is
sent. The manager of a large automobile concern told me recently that hehad to give a formal assurance to all his customers that he would never refer any enquirers to them for particulars on motor vehicles. Personal experience has shown that an application to any user of rnotorvans, for information of any nature whatever, will either be ignored or firmly refused. This attitude works harm, for the already unconverted to often interpret it to mean that the users are not satisfied, whereas their repeat orders prove that they are; figures from any business firm would be received more readily and be more generally accepted as accurate than the estimates prepared by constructors. Even in the American automobile Press, the cost of electric operation is one that is rarely treated, owing to this difficulty of getting at real figuies.
There are many indications that petrol motors will increase in number in the near future. Although the electric is particularly well suited to New York with its crowded streets, compactness, and slow-moving traffic, there remains a big field open for the petrol motor in delivery service around New York, for cabs, and for motorbuses in certain districts. A large amount of long-distance haulage is at present being done by horsed vehicles ; this couldmore profitably be handled by petrol or steam vans. Many of the carrier companies and a number of grocery firms now send wagons a hundred miles Up the State by relays of horses rather than trust them to the railway companies. It is obvious that this work could be handled better by mechanical than by horse traction, and very much better by petrol cars and steamers than, by electric vehicles.