STEAM VEHICLES OFFICIALLY ENCOURAGED.
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We referred recently to certaiti coming concessions in respect of steam vehicles using coal fuel, which are already allowed laden weights of 14 tons on four wheels and 20 tons on six wheels, and an axle weight of 9 tons. By the Motor Vehicles (Construction and Use) (Amendment) Provisional Regulations, 1938, a vehicle and trailer on pneumatic tyres are now permitted a maximum weight of 24 tons, Steam-driven heavy motorcars, registered before January I, 3939, are allowed an increase of 3 ins, in the permissible overall width, if this be required owing to the fitting of larger tyres to support the greater axle weights.
A minor amendment exempts trolleybuses, which are being towed in the course of delivery or construction, from the provision that trailers must be limited to 22 ft.
" Ministry's Biggest Single Objective."
"As Minister of Transport, I pay a sincere tribute to the great value of the Institute as the rallying point of the leading people engaged in all forms of transport." These were the words of Mr. Leslie Burgin, when speaking at the annual dinner of the Institute of Transport last week.
He also said that he wondered whether -everyone appreciated the scope and opportunity presented by the question of a rates structure for road transport. It was, he said, one of the Ministry's biggest single and immediate objectives, and concluded with the words, " I invite help from the industry. I invite help from your Institute. I promise my own help. It is a big task and well worth while."
Sir Joseph Nall, D.S.O., M.P., who took the chair, referred to himself as a road carrier, and asked why there was all this talk about road transport being Et2 a new industry because it used power vehicles. Actually, it existed long before the railways.
• The more the haulage side was regulated and suppressed, the greater would be the increase among ancillary users. This would add to congestion, because they were one-way users. If there was to be an effective rates structure, there must be a revision of the Road and Rail Traffic Act, which was the craziest of the lot. The licensing of road vehicles must he overhauled ; categories should be abolished and all put on the same basis.
A C.M.U.A. Disclaimer.
We are informed that the Commercial Motor Users Association has not at any time in the past worked, nor is at present working in conjunction either alone or with Associated Road Operators, or otherwise, in the "
vetting" of "the £4,000,000 road transport scheme," or any other scheme of a similar nature, nor, in fact, has the President or National Council of the Association, or any person, firm, company, or finance house, on their, behalf and with their authority, worked n such a manner or for such a purpose