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Passing Comments

11th October 1940
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Page 16, 11th October 1940 — Passing Comments
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Should Conductresses FFORTS to ease the lot of

be Provided with 1-1conductresses have been Platform Seats r made in the House of Com mons, the Minister of Transport being asked whether he had arranged with operators to secure a compulsory provision of seats on vehicles for the women concerned, or proposed to. do so. The reply was that on many vehkles the provision' of a seat on the platform would be structurally, difficult. On some routes the conditions were such that there would be little or no opportunity of sitting down if such seats were' -available. •Where, however, conditions would allow _this, a conductress could occupy a vacant seat in the bus, provided that this practice did not interfere with the execution of her duties.

Training the Driver rVERYONE who has had to Obtain Economical " experience in the operation

Control . . . of motor vehicles knows full well that the driver is often the factor making for waste or economy in respect of vehicle life. It is not suggested that any man is willingly wasteful, but that care and discretion in driving do make an enormous difference to maintenance costs, as shown by the results obtained. One man will always be having trouble with his vehicle. Another, possibly placed in charge of the same vehicle later, will have little to complain about. Despite the fact that a lorry or bus is a mechanical product, it is almost as susceptible as, say, a horse, to pull on the bit. Engines, clutches, gears, final drives, tyres and fuel economy will all benefit by careful and solicitous handling, and it should be the aim of those in control to imbue drivers with the idea that their charges appreciate and respond to careful nurturing. Maintenance proneness might almost be classed with accident proneness.

Should Commercial NOW that a majority of Drivers Give Lifts to Iprivate-car drivers will give

Servicemen ? , lifts to Servicemen it is not stir . prising that: the sight of a large

and empty commercial Vehicle travelling • in the desired direction evokes frantic signs from thewouldbe passengers. Bus services in the vicinities of many Military establiShments are inadequate to carry all those desiring to travel and .so the-" system is of undoubted value. Commercial drivers, however, are frequently not clear as to their proper course of action, particularly where -mire than a few want to board the vehicle at one time. Employers would be well advised to give explicit instructions on the matter as early as possible.

OUR contemporary, Removals and Storage, the journal of the National Association of Furniture WarehouSemen and Removers, has been featuring comments from members of the Association referring to the future of transport. One from Mr. R. J. Armstrong strikes us as being of particular interest. He thinks that the whole method of transport will be remodelled, the railways into one controlled group, each operating its own system. There will be considerable alterations in the licensing system, and C licences will be much curtailed. Hauliers will, with advantage, operate vehicles for the removal industry on contract hire or day-to-day charges. He considers that more and more we shall see the transport side of the furniture-removals industry supplied by contractors who specializer in haulage, leaving the service side to the removers. He asks • why transport by road should not be a service to the industry in the same way as is rail or sea transit. Furniture Remover's Ideas on After-war Transport . . . . OPERATORS of vehicles using town gas, carried in balloons on the top of the vehicles, have lately discovered that it is inadvisable to leave such vehicles out in the open. More than one large concern in London has had to revert to petrol because of the damage caused to the fabric of these balloon-type gas containers by falling shrapnel and flying glass, the result of some of London's recent night-time air raids.

One Difficult Aspect of Low-pressure Gas Propulsion . . . .

Shadow Groups THE following pithy com o 1 Hatters and rnent on the Leader which Greengrocers... appeared in our issue of

August 30 was sent by a provincial reader who most be nameless. Few operators who know him, however, will fail to recognize his "handwriting ":—" A suggestion has been put forward very strongly in more than one area that all this complicated setting up of shadow groups under hatters and greengrocers should be shortcircuited, and that if the railways be badly bombed in any particular spot they should contact with Traffic Movement, Ltd., which will, at short notice, find them suitable vehicles at a reasonable rate. I think everyone will agree that it is infinitely more rapid and efficient to get things done by unofficial means than to go through the whole rigmarole of filling in forms, stating your reasons in writing, and so on. I have little doubt that the Ministry would require 48 hours' notice of the railways' intention to be bombed before they could overcome the inertia of their machinery and get it under way."

Has the Driver's Owl A N owl calendar which struck Calendar Proved of 1—k us as being extremely useful Value ? to drivers and to those arrang

ing transport by night was published in our issue dated August 30.. It indicated what we may term moonlight expectation—in other words, relief of the black-out by light from the moon. We have not, however, received any comments on the value or otherwise of this feature. If it has been found of use, we are prepared to include it during subsequent months when the black-out period will be at its longest.


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