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view by the Hawk
• Independent Lab
Leslie Hucicfield, MP, showed courage in forthrightly condemning his party's stated policy of reintroducing quantity licensing if there is a change of government, when he spoke at the FTA's central London lunch last week. Sortie TGWU MPs have been threatened with dire penalties for opposing the party line on certain issues. Leslie tells me he is not a sponsored TGWU candidate — i.e. one who is subsidized by union political funds — which is odd, since he succeeded Frank Cousins as MP for Nuneaton.
I gather that Leslie's pledge never to vote for or in any way support quantity licensing owes something to discussions with Ken Jackson, the TGWU's road haulage national secretary. The TGWU must be careful not to let transport policy be dictated by the National Union of Railwaymen and the Transport Salaried Staff Association. These unions make most of the transport headlines at Labour Party conferences.
• Confident gamble
What makes a coach operator spend well over £14,000 for a coach externally identical with one costing much less — and offering little obvious extra attraction to customers? I put the question to James Smith, proprietor of Heyfordian Coaches, when he took delivery of Britain's first Volvo-Plaxton recently.
His answer: "I'm buying a Volvo in the hope of getting a coach that will work for the first 25,000 miles without much attention."
Second question, then: what does he already run? Answer: a mixture of AEC, Leyland, Ford and Bedford, nearly all with Plaxton bodies. He also has a single Seddon-Caetano, which he tells me has proved very reliable — though in the hands of a driver who doesn't appreciate the Perkins V8's characteristics it can be--a_ bit thirsty.
Another man seeking reliability for his £14,567 is Les Wilder, m.d. of Golden Miller Coaches, who's getting the first VolvoDuple. He's got an all-Plaxton fleet, mostly on Bristol LH chassis, and this will be his first Duple. He told me he's also looking for a 12m Volvo, and thinks this will have to be a Plaxton since Blackpool will be busy getting over their backlog of 11-metre orders for some time.
We went for a run in the Plaxton-bodied B58 and although the conventional metal springing was nothing to write home about on bumpy local roads, it felt very smooth and well-damped on reasonably good surfaces. And on M1 the coach cruised happily at 70 mph at 2200rpm with something in hand— as might be expected with 260 bhp on tap.
• On the buses
Whatever it may lack in realism (or intellectual appeal), On the Buses has been a remarkable chunk of free publicity for the bus industry. The wonder is that busmen haven't made more local capital out of it.
Now SELNEC PTE has — by making its own film. Graham Simpson, the PTE's public relations officer, tells me it's a 25-minute 16mm colour film of a day in the life of the undertaking — all shot live around Manchester; the commentary is by TV man Michael Aspel.
The demand for such a film is obvious. Surely. SELNEC is not the only bus undertaking which is frequently asked to provide speakers for schools, clubs and other gatherings -7– and a film is a way of adding an extra dimension to a presentation: people carry away pictorial images much more vividly than words.
• Space man
Distances downunder tend to be a bit breathtaking. I recently had a chatty letter from Jack Maddock, editor of our Australian contemporary Truck and Bus Transportation, in which he records a journey from his Surry Hills base, New South Wales, to Western Australia. I quote:— "I was over in Western Australia looking at some of the 'big iron' running around the place. Very interesting indeed; I went across by express bus (some 2600 miles), then knocked over another 2600 miles by car in WA and finally flew back. Ciivered about 7000 miles in 12 days. You would be interested in the 145ft triple semi-trailers and their operation."
IF Doing' Enn Zed too
Jack's also been busman's holidaying in New Zealand by avoiding the hundreds of coach tour itineraries and "doing" both islands by scheduled services. The biggest operator apparently is NZ Railway Road Services,
with 700-odd petrol Bedfords, but there are quite a few sizeable private coach operators "whose services dovetail in quite remarkably".
Altogether the psv world in NZ is in as interesting state. The private firms run tht heavier chassis like Leylands and AECs plus a few Perkins-engined V8 Seddons• Now Mercedes-Benz are getting more than a toehold, many being fitted with luxury coachwork — though one municipality has just ordered 145 Mere buses.
The Japanese are not unrepresented, Hino heavy psv chassis are already giving a good account of themselves, and now General Motors has started marketing Isuzu vehicles alongside Bedfords — and this move is expected to mean the inclusion of some passenger models.
• Cape capers
Darting smartly across the southerr hemisphere I also bring comment on Sout1 Africa, whence Fred (Cape of Good) Hopt has lately returned and set down saint impressions in his club's magazine Kingpin Seems that SA's first lorry driver traininE scheme is being financed by a weekly levy of 15 cents (about 7.+p) on all conunercia drivers and 30 cents on hgv drivers. Try that one on Jack Jones!
True, the employers stump up twice ft much.
South Africa, he says, is worried about it disproportionately high road casualty ratt — 8400 killed and 17000 seriously injure( in 1971, compared with Britain's 7696 anc 90,910 for a vastly greater number of vehicles and vehicle-miles.
The new driving centre has set itself the task of giving basic courses to all 500C existing commercial drivers (that figure sounds remarkably low). Did I say basic? In the three-week course they learn about mechanical systems, braking and electrical layouts, why vehicles skid, jack-knife and sc on, the main legal requirements, some firsi aid, how to check maintenance, find faults load and secure goods.
They also get a tough driving course including skidpan practice.
The Hawk's thought for the week: If you have to kick his backside, pat his back first.