Motor Jobmasters.
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Every indication points more and more towards a gradual development of businesses whose main object is the provision of vans, lorries, and travellers' broughams on inclusive terms of hire. Many people have already sought to establish hiring connections, both in the private and commercial branches of the motoring movement, but examples of really efficient organisation in these directions are conspicuous by reason of their rarity. We are satisfied that at least fifty hirers have been disgusted, so far as the commercial vehicle is concerned, for two who have been entirely satisfied with the serviees they have been able to obtain from many so-called motor jobrnasters, and it is an open secret that this trade is very far indeed from its legitimate points d'appui or its ultimate development. It can, in fact, be said to be in an embryonic state, for we have yet to meet with a case where the organisation is on a sufficiently comprehensive scale, either in respect of material or personnel, for it to possess the essential degree of elasticity which is a condition precedent to success. We have evidence, it is true, that motor transport can be successfully grafted upon existing businesses, in the instances of a few large carriers and forwarding agents, but these undertakings have the very considerable advantage of that very elasticity which is not found in a new concern which depends exclusively upon mechanical plant. When the day does arrive, as it soon must, for the springing up of numerous such undertakings, tradesmen and others who have freight to give will look more favourably upon the development of motor transport, and regard it as of more general use to the trading community, but we would warn those who are immediately contemplating a departure into this region, that they must be prepared to go slowly at first, to work for particul.ar and selected customers as a beginning, and to sacrifice initial profits to the maintenance, of an uninterrupted and unfailing service, in every case. Too much has been attempted in the past, and more companies will miss success if their promoters do not benefit from the experiences of those who have preceded them in the field of the motor jobmaster.
Payment by the Journey: the Road Car Strike.
Why does the Daily Press give publicity, unstintedly, without question, and without reservation, to the views of agitators, and thereby advance questionable interests? We have read, with no small amount of surprise, on occasions which are too numerous for separate mention, that a man calling himself Hampden Davis " has organised the strike." It is a matter for deep reflection, that a-highly intelligent body of men, such as London motorbus drivers undoubtedly are, should pay any heed to an individual of this type, especially after his peculiar actions during the " Vanguard " strike of May, 1906. ,His failure to secure any recognition at the hands of the employers on that occasion was most thoroughly deserved : so has been his corresponding experience with the Road Car Company during the past fortnight, arid en-ployees of London omnibus companies should pay close regard to the fact that brave talk from a well-paid official is no proof of his ability to serve their needs, apart from the fact that two outstanding contradictions to his verbose assurances now exist. We believe in the combination of workmen, and we have seen—even in that voungesL of industrial fields, the motor omnibus world—excellent results accrue from the establishment of men's. committees for the adjustment and arrangement of any matters where genuine cause for dissatisfaction exists, but we are all against the view that this Mr. Hampden Davis is doing a service to anybody but himself. His earlier records, in the judgment of recognised Trade Unionists of standing, are not calculated to bring either prestige or success to the so-called London Bus, Tram, and Motor Workers' Union. If Mr.. Davis thinks otherwise, our columns are at his disposal for statements of fact.
The difficulty as to a mutually acceptable basis of payment is no new one for those who have been associated with the early stages of motor transport in any of its several branches, whilst there were analogous troubles at the inception of the country's railway system. A little more than five years ago, when the pioneer road-carrying companies were in the throes of their struggles with all the adverse circumstances which obtained under the limitations of the 1896 Act, the added worry over the devising of a fair-wages scheme for drivers caused no small anxiety. The fixed rate per day or per week was soon abandoned, as the men who had to drive vehicles to and from points 30 to so miles distant from the chief dep6t took advantage of their presecured pay : some of them positively revelled, on the slightest of pretexts, in the luxury of an improvised encampment by the roadside, or in the opportunity to rest at an ever-hospitable inn. The journey system was tried next, but the structural weaknesses and other imperfections of the steam wagons of that period, at least when they were subjected to the exacting usage, overdriving, and constant overloading which are peculiarly associated with carting and contracting work, rendered the attainment of even an approach to uniformity impossible. There was, however, a middle course, and that lay in the guaranteeing of a minimum wage as an integral part of the journey system, coupled with proportional allowances where roads were ex ceptionally hilly. These fundamental principles remain the most popular and satisfactory in Lancashire to-day, except where a liberal fixed wage can be afforded, and, whereas only the minimum (usually 255. per week) was frequently earned during the years 1903 to igo5, there is now seldom an occasion, except when snow is lying upon the ground, that steam-wagon drivers have the semblance of a grievance. The fixed wage, work or no work, was admittedly impracticable and uncommercial ; the journeysystem, in an unqualified form and without a minimum, did not em -hie an employer to retain good-class men ; a combination of the two, even where delays, mileages, and other conditions vary.' widely from day to day, and as between any two men in the same shed, has proved to possess the necessary elasticity and has caused the old-time disputes to disappear, How much more simple is the problem by which London omnibus proprietors have been confronted. Their vehicles are never more than 12 miles from home, with the one exception of special orders, and they are upon known routes • where means of inspection and communication exist. The loads are a definite maximum 34 passengers ; there is always enough work to go round; the speed is limited by law, and checked by the timekeepers; and, in comparison with that of the steam wagons of 1902-1903, the construction of the vehicles is literally perfection itself.
Should any great uncertainty or hardship descend upon the men who now accept the system of payment by results, and will the average wage be too low? The replies are in the negative, and that because experience is available from two comparable sources. Both the London General and -the Vanguard Companies have been paying their men on the journey system, for more than twelve months, and their employees are so well satisfied with the arrangement that they declined to help or support the Road Car men, by coming out on strike and making dominOn cause. We regard that fact as one which offers valid consolation to the • fears of the men who are now to come under a change of system for the first time, and as one which provides an irrefutable answer to the irresponsible outpourings of .paid agitators. No company fails to recognise the value of a satisfied and well-behaved set of drivers, but none can afford to pay for services which are not rendered. The London Road. Car Company has had none too good a name with the Lra• veiling public, in respect of roadside breakdowns, and we do not wonder that it has at last abandoned a benevolent but misconceived system of payment, and one which engenders the demoralisation of the men and the time-table. Is it not the laggards and wasters who have objected, because swift punishment will now be the penalty of detection? Why, we ask, should hundreds of good men suffer for the deficiency, incapacity, and crookedness of the few?
Vicious Claptrap.
We cannot too strongly deprecate the viciousness of the suggestion that payment by the journey in any way prejudices the safety of the public, or that it encourages either. overdriving or racing. The facts of the matter are these. If a man loses time on the road over a small mishap or derangement, say, as much as 20 minutes, he is not, as is suggested, allowed to make this good. by forcing the pace of his vehicle. The regulations of the principal companies provide that he may make up for the loss by practically an immediate turn -at the terminus, where his vehicle will be dispatched by the time-keeper in front of any others that may be waiting there, and by repeating this course once or twice if necessary. The driver of such a vehicle, howL ever, is not allowed to race over the road under any circumstances, and he is strictly forbidden to overtake any omnibus owned by the same company and operated on the same service, which may be in front of him, except when such a vehicle is running in a failing state, and if he is specifically told to pass by its driver. Longer delays cause the loss of a journey, or part of one, but the driver gets (xl. an hour during that period. If there is any honesty whatsoever in the so-called organisers who are making assertions about the greater danger to the public, will they give chapter and verse in respect of the Vanguard and the London General companies? We know that there has been a diminution, and not .an increase, in the nurnber of street accidents since the latter company adopted the journey system of payment, whilst the former has practically not paid on any other basis. Experience shows that road-side losses of time are at least 50 per cent, more if the men are paid a fixed daily wage,
and we should say that the public is, by reason of the carelessness and indifference which it induces, both endangered and inconvenienced under that system. Ample safeguards are adopted to the end that there shall be no racing between the men, but occasional instances of rivalry may be witnessed on any day, independently of the system of payment in vogue. The efforts to gain sympathy on the score of greater danger to the public are both impudent and insincere.
The Home Office's New Order.
We publish the whole of the text (pages 420 to 423) of the latest regulations of the Home Office for, inter alia, motorcabs. This important document was available for perusal on Friday night last, and its contents have not yet created any undue stir in London cab circles. It will become effective from the ist proximo.
Conferences between Mr. Herbert Gladstone and representatives of the affected interests had resulted in a modus vivendi before the terms of the various sections were settled, but it still remains to be seen how rapidly, or slowly, we shall witness the introduction of taximeter horse-cabs, whilst we have now to direct attention to two threatened difficulties.
The official publication, in relation to taximeters for horsedrawn cabs, is essentially on the lines of the forecast which we gave in our issue of the 31st October (page 205 ante). So far as motorcab drivers and proprietors are concerned, there is, however, one vital change from the existing possibilities of revenue, and that is the clear manner in which it is now laid down that no motor cabby is legally entitled to carry more than the two passengers for which his vehicle is licensed. Earlier fare schedules, as set forth, for example, in tl!e Herne Secretary's Orders of the i8th AuguSt, 2897, and the 26th December, 1905, merely provided that extra payments should be made" for each person above two." All the schedules to the new Order, as will be observed on pages 422 and 423, contain the added words " when licensed to carry more than two persons." This restriction has not been set forth with so much emphasis before, and it will, if rigidly enforced, affect both motor and horse drivers of cabs which are licensed to carry only two persons. Again, nobody may use the seat alongside the motor driver.
We shall be interested to note whether the proprietors will relicense their cabs to carry at least an additional passenger, or whether they will continue to run the risk of summonses, but it is pretty clear that a large number of the newer and more powerful cabs will be licensed to carry four persons in the first instance. It should be observed that the hirer of a taximeter cab, whether the vehicle is horse-drawn or selfpropelled, has to pay for waiting or stoppages ab whereas the hirer of a cab not so fitted does not pay for waiting until a minimum period of 15 minutes has been completed, or for any subsequent period less than 15 minutes.