Overseas Trade.
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A considerable portion of this issue is devoted to a concise statement of the case for modern self-propelled transport in a variety of branches. The text is phrased, and the illustrations are arranged, with the primary object of an appeal for consideration by those who have not pre% iously turned their attention to the merits of motor vehicles and tractors. The drawings, electros and letterpress, together with the extensive announcements of manufacturers in the advertisement pages, practically tell " all about everything" in commercial motoring that is worth the telling. We do not claim that we have been able to describe in detail each and every machine, accessory or component that can rightly be held to fall within the score of divisions into which the great field of heavy motoring may properly be classified : there has been no attempt to print long series of catalogue details. On the other hand, as those who are competent to judge will readily agree, we have compiled, so far as has been possible within practicable limits of space, a fair and reasonable summary under each of the chosen heads. It is highly gratifying to the writer, after close upon 14 years of intimate association with the fortunes and reverses of the utility motor, to be able to show so many good reasons for immediate action on the part of prospective new buyers. It seems almost incredible, when we see round us, to-day, after an interval of but little more than 11 years, undeniable evidences of proved success, yet it is true, that the first public competition in England for heavy vehicles, which was held, at Liverpool, in the year 1898, should have witnessed, as it did, so many calamitous breakdowns on the road. From the date of the drawing-up of the conditions for those trials, in November of 1897, during the second and third Liverpool Trials in the years 1899 and 1901, at the War Department's tests of 1901 and 1909, throughout the Royal Automobile Club's big trial of 1907, and in the course of attendances at some 10 important competitions on the Continent, the gradual evolution of approved types has been an all-engaging study. The knowledge and right to write authoritatively on the progress and current worth of commercial motoring does not, be it noted, emerge in any case merely from participation in road tests of an experimental character, and we should like to point out, in view of the preposterous claims of authority which are put forward in some quarters, that every part of this week's special section comes from the pen of the Editor, or the pens of the several members of the Editorial staff of this journal, all of whom have had valuable experience in the design, construction and use of heavy motor vehicles and tractors. This journal, too, as the recognized organ of the Commercial Motor Users' Association, which is the only body of its kind in the United Kingdom, has at its disposal a unique and un Irivalled collection of running data and other records, the
great mass of which is traced to our being afforded exclusive access to the principals and managers of certain important business concerns whose motor departments have been successfully conducted. In these circumstances, we feel that new readers, both At Home and Overseas, will realize that the working costs and other quantitative 'figures are sound, our opinions impartially expressed, and the whole of the section the outcome of that which can alone count in any special department of industry—actual experience. We may add, in conclusion, that this number partakes very much of the nature of a rade mecum upon heavy motoring generally. It can, therefore, advantageously be used, by manufacturers and agents, to enforce the intrinsic worth of to-day's achievements in any one of the many sections to which we give prominence.
Six Thousand New Trade and Public-service Vehicles Yearly,
The Royal Automobile Club now carries out, amongst its many useful services, the annual compilation—from official sourcesof the new and total registrations of motor vehicles of all kinds for the United Kingdom. The latestpublished returns concern the records at the 30th September last, and they show that the totals then were : motorcars, 84,840; trade vehicles, 15,181; public-service cars, 8,752; motorcycles, 75,000; total, 183,773. The increases, since the 30th September, 1908, proved to be : motorcars, 13,435; trade vehicles, 3,077; public-service ears, 2,872; motorcycles, 9,974; total increase, 29,358. These are striking figures, but, as we have pointed out on the occasions of previous returns, the totals are vitiated, to an indefinite but certainly not-inconsiderable extent, by unnotified lapses and cancellations due to export (secondhand), withdrawal from use, destruction and sundry causes. It must not be overlooked that the original registrations now date back to no less than six years ago. A warning is also necessary, against the erroneous idea that the so-called " trade vehicles" are all heavy motorcars within the meaning of the Order of 1904; many of them, of course, weigh less than two tons unladen. The increases for the year are, however, of a reliable nature, subject to a small allowance in respect of those parties who secure for their motorcars that exemption from carriage duty—at the cost of the personal indignity of trade classification—which ensues upon the lettering of the , vehicle with the name and place of abode. There remains, after that adjustment, an addition of close upon six thousand new commercial motors, slightly more than half of which are vans, lorries or other trade vehicles. These are concrete data, and they bear eloquent testimony to the rate at which horses are being displaced, although, of course, part of the increase is due to new uses, for, by reason of their peculiar qualities, in that they absorb the terminal cartages into the one straightforward run, motors can make jobs for themselves, to the joint exclusion of horse and railway services. The outstripping of the private car should take not more than five years.