GREATER ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE DRIVER.
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An Authoritative Opinion on the Value of Commercial Vehicle Parades and the Need for a More General Distribution of Small Awards.
I WAS HAPPY to be able to take same part, in
, the 14th annual parade'. organized by -the Corn mercial Motor Users Association at the venusoin Lineeln'a Inn Fields this year and, although the display could not be compared with:the fast quite bril liant affair on the Tate Gallery site, it, was interestirra And the results of the judging (which I happen to know, was carried outwith. very scrupulous care), were remarkable for two reasons.-First ofoill, steam wagons scored very heavily by the system of marking. adopted by the Commercial Motor Users Association, and this was particularly due to the invariably long life of steam machinery when en-. trusted into good hands. Secondly, the challenge cup, given by the. proprietors of ./ he Commercial Motor went to a team which had won that so muchcoveted prize in 1913 with, I think it was, the identical team of steamers. A very remarkable performance to the credit of the etearniavagon, and a particularly valuable one coming as it did at a time when the commercial-vehicle market is in., process Qf being rather, swamped with the excessive, supply oT petrol vehicles that are on the market at the present time:
There is little doubt that these parades are excel-. lent institutions, but I would suggest to. the judges another year that they did ill to dispense, as they did this year, with the special prizes.tosdrivers of indi
vidual makes of vehicles. Confinedas it was to teams, the 1920 parade brought together quite a number of men who had taken veryagreat pains to turn up on parade with their machines in,firat-class order, but to whom no form of recognItion•could be given on account of their not qualifying for one of the few prizes that were offered in connection with the team awards, or for one of the prizes resulting,froin the drivers' examination. A more general distribution of small awards, .as on previous' occasions, undoubtedly makes the men keener on such fixtures, and brings With it a spirit of' emulation thatAs very valuable from all points of Vie*.
I was told by the ,energetic Secretary of the C.M.U.A. that the reason that the previous custom n38 of holding these fixtures on Whit Monday had had torbe abandoned this year was because so many of the drivers..., were disinclined to sacrifice their public holiday in this way. It would be interesting to know how far this attitude had spread, and how far it was attributable to the decision to limit the awards to entries for the team competition this year. The ent tries at the 1914 parade were so numerous that the writer coukl hardly imagine that this could have been thesonly reason for such a change of attitude in so short a time. If the prizes had been attraetive enough and the spirit of a day out" had been foss teredras it undoubtedly had been up to the time of the 1914 event ; and if the parade committee had retained the individual smaller prizes, I should have been very much isurprised to have learnt that the entrylist would have been any leas than on the last occasion.
There is every reason for the energetic development of such schemes as these par5--..des and the accompanying excellent drivers' examinations with a. view of fostering the. desire in the drivers to befit themselves better for their tasks than merely by remaining as ordinary drivers. There has been a very great influx into the ranks of those who can just drive motor vehicles. .There is so little that is skilful in merelyTheing,able to steer a vehicle that those who are looking forward to making a living aS drivers must, in the future, contemplate the necessity of training themselves to become something better than mere steersmen. The driver mechanic is the type, that the industrywants and that masters want, and the driver mechanic is the man who wilt get the highest wages for his greater..skill. These parades and examinations are the most potent means for-developing the right type of worker. They should' be encouraged not only in the metropolis, but, -most certainly, in one or twe of the Most important provincial districts. I am perfectly confident that, if handled aright, a very successful series of events of this kind might be organized—for instance, particularly in Lancashire.