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OPINIONS FROM OTHERS.

12th December 1922
Page 26
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Page 26, 12th December 1922 — OPINIONS FROM OTHERS.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The Editor invites correspondence on all subjects can)tected with the We f)f commercial motors. Letters should be on one side of the paper only and typewritten by preference. The right of abbreviatiori is reserved, and no responsibility for views expressed is accepted.

Motor Taxation.

The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.

[2047] Sir,—The inequity of the proposals by the self-styled "Motor Taxation Reform Committee" no doubt accounts for the fact that fewer than 250 members of the new Parliament are claimed as having pledged themselves to disregard reposes of use and consider mere physical user. Under the guise of reversion to the petrol tax, a deliberate effort is about to be made to reduce taxation upon private cars and increase it upon trade motors, both goods and hackneys. It is the latter which serve the public.

The National Council of my Association will rely upon. placing its case in the first place before the appointed*Departmental Committee, -and thereafter before the House of Commons through those members who consider, for example, that a van delivering bread should only be liable to pay a lower road tax than the same make and weight of private car carrying people for their own recreation. The Legislature of this country, in the past, has regarded purposes of use in taxing road vehicles, and the present is no time to add to the burdens of trade in order to favour the owners of private motorcars.—Yours faithfully, FRED& G. BRISTOW, General Secretary, The Commercial Motor Users Association (Inc.).

50, Pall Mad!, London, S.W.I.

The Editor, THE COMNIRRCIAL MOTOR.

[2048] Sir,—We have seen reference to a memorandum submitted to the Ministry of Transport by various bodies in relation to motor taxation, and, as engine builder should like to say a word thereon.

1.8Te gather that at the suggestion is to retain the present system of taxation, with all the machinery in connection with collecting same (but on a lower rate per horse-power), and in addition to bring in again the old arrangement of a duty per gallon on petrol used. This, it seems to us, will inevitably involve the duplication of collecting systems, the increase of officials and more bureaucracy, ell of which the country has been trying to get suppressed for the relief of the taxpayer. Also, it seems to us that. the 5.1),st of collection will absorb a very large part of the taxes so gathered.

As regards-the absolute necessity for revising the burden of taxation, however, we are entirely at. one with the general principle. At the same time, neither we ourselves, nor a good many people we. speak to, are disposed to accept the view that reversion to a tax on petrol is a way out of the. difficulty.

It may be taken for certain that the commercial motor interests, motor boat interests, aeroplane interests, the users of stationary plants, agricultural tractors and so on," with possibly doctors, commercial travellers and others, will inevitably again demand relief by way of rebates, with all the booking systems, etc., of which we had such a sickening some years ago. On broad lines of policy, we say that what the country requires is an ample supply of duty-free spirit for any and every purpose, and that if, on some agreed basis, sufficient money cannot be raised for the roads, then the balance should be taken from national funds. It is grossly unfair to tax the motor-using community for roads which are used by everyone, whether they contribute to the cost or not. Again, with the reconstruction of the roads throughout the country, the necessary outlay will be gradualily reduced whilst, concurrently, the sum collected from motor vehicles will increase.

From the point of view of the transport problem, B42 it is not good policy to handicap road transport, which proved such a useful alternative system when there was trouble on the railways a little time back, or to hinder road transport in competition with railways. It might, however, be possible to rearrange the incidence of taxation to some extent as between the private car and the commercial vehicle. Again, if the petrol tax is .introduced, then vehicles driven by steam, electricity or producer-gas will apparently not be rated in proportion. Also, there is the matter of indigenous fuels—for example, benzole—and we may hope at some future date alcohol fuel will be largely used. It is proposed to leave these fuels free, so apparently users of same will not be contributing a portion of the. tax.

It will be a nice question as to what duty is payable on certain paraffins with certain spirit contents on importation, and presumably many vehicles using low grades of spirit may even be exempt from petrol tax.

Now, what we ourselves prefer would be to see the present horse-power basis continued, but on a much lower level ; for example, 10s. per horse-power next year and 5s. per horse-power the following year, with some rearrangement of the rating for commercial and passenger vehicles where necessary. Anyhow, as engine builders we are absolutely against rebates and refunds in any form also special licences for users of paraffin, and all the bureaucratic organization which will be inseparable therefrom.

Care must be taken to see that, in getting relief in one direction, we do not defeat the object by increased cost in another. The present rate of taxation is almost vindictive, imposed in a time of national stress, and it is not so much the system which is wrong, as the level OO: which that system is based.

Of course, we none of us know what will happen under the new Government, but we would like to add that if any imported product has to be taxed at all, it might be such things as imported rubber tyres, but on no account tax fuel. There should, however, be no necessity to tax anything if a wise and judicious course is followed now, and we again regret the retrograde proposal to revert to the fuel tax.—

Yours faithfully, THE PARSONS MOTOR CO., LTD., HARRY PARSONS.

Assembled or Made Under One Roof.

The Editor, THE Comereemer. MOTOR.

[20491 Sire-Your correspondent " C.M.L.," in issue of The Commercial Motor for November 28th, appears to have misunderstood my remarks to a certain extent, but I am. pleased that it helps to keep this discussion alive.

The terms " magneto " and "sparking plug" were only used in a general way, and it was not intended to convey the idea that engines, axles, etc., were interchangeable, although, thanks to the Standardization Committee of the American S.A.E., these larger units are practically beeomine interchangeable. 11 am certainly not, as " C.M.L." seems to think, in favour of American vehicles where British can be obtained, but possibly the name of our firm led to this idea, although we are an entirely British company and hold the manufacturing rights, for the F.W.D. in this country. It should certainly not be necessary for the owner of an assembled chassis to keep a directory of the makers of the various units, as in nearly every case the original maker's nameplate or name is to he found on the unit. I do not suggest that the whole chassis should be made up of bought parts, and as a rule the working parts which would need replacement are found in the main units, and surely there is less risk in buying an assembled chassis, where the failure of one firm will only interfere with the supply of spares for one part of the chassis, than in buying a chassis where, the failure of the one firm may cut

off the supply of all spares for that chassis. Certainly it is not worth while to consider the possible failure of a firm if one buys from a sound company (although British manufacturers sometimes go out of business), but apart from this, does not specialization of manufacture tend to efficiency and decreased cost? C.M.L.'s suggestion that the only equipment of an assembling plant is a few sets of spanners is certainly nearer to the truth in America than he may think.

Regarding his remarks on the "system of relying on the productions of unsound firms, reference to a list of component manufacturers will show that they are, as a whole, on as sound a basis as chassis manufacturers.

C.M.L.'s argument regarding the terrible figures, . referred to, of the large number of " orphan " vehicles in America, seems to be in favour of the assembled chassis, as in all probability the manufacturers of the unit from which these " orphans " were made are still in existence, and can supply spares for the majority of parts required, even although the assembling firms may be out of business. I certainly do not recommend the introduction of American mass production in this .country, as the output is not sufficient to make this economical, but I certainly think it would pay many British firms with a small output if they bought some of their units from outside firms having a large output and consequently a low production cost.--Yours faithfully, C. F. CLEAVER, A.M.I.C.E, M.I.A.E., FOUR-WHEEL DRIVE LORRYCO., LTD. Slough, Bucks.

The Small Haulier and Load Insurance.

The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.

[2050] Sir,—May I beg the hospitality of your columns to answer the letter from Mr. Walter Gammon, No. 2,040, in the issue of November 28th, re load insurance?

I am very pleased to see that he appreciates the small man as well as the large haulier, and the fact that most of us do our best to he efficient. By efficient, does he mean as regards lorry and load insurance only? If so, most of us are really inefficient (unwillingly), because, as I stated before, present rates do not permit us to insure. Some insurance companies require premiums of 5s. per £100 load value, and on a lorry carrying approximately £1,000 load, this would mean £2 10s. per load. I suggest that Mr. Gammon's rates are not so high as to permit of that premium being paid. If his company insures the load, the cost of which he says is not charged to the haulier, why need the haulier, to whom he sublets, insure it again ? I suggest that Mr. Gammon does the same as other clearing-houses, in passing the responsibility for goods on to the haulier to whom. he sublets, thereby cancelling the need for both to insure the load.

I do not encourage (as he suggests) the clearinghouses that cut rates, but beggars cannot be choosers, and sometimes they are the last resort. An idle lorry does not pay, and a bare living is better than unemployment. All clearing-houses claim to be of repute, but I would like to see the rate-cutters go bankrupt or fade away. I did not wish to convey that the office of a reputable clearing-house was exactly easy work. What I meant was that, comparing the work of the clearing-house with that of the haulier, the latter was the harder for the money earned. I was criticising clearing-houses of which I had had experience, and I have not had the pleasure of working for Mr. Walter Gammon yet; but 1 may inform him that I have heard from other hauliers very good accounts of his company.—Yours faithfully.

H. ROBERTS.

Partner of VIGARS AND ROBERTS, Kilburn, London, N.W. Haulage Contractors.

The Dilution of the Oil in the Crankcase.

The Editor' THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR. [2051] Sir —With reference to the articles on this subject which have appeared in The Commercial Motor, we have looked through the records of experiments which we have made in connection with the condition of crankcase oil after use. Our information is not very full, but may be set out as 'follows:—

(i) A. sample of oil of flashpoint 260 degrees F. was found to have only flashpoint 158 degrees F. after running approximately 250 miles in the engine. (2) In the case of a test of another oil having flashpoint 380 degrees F., the flashpoint had fallen to 192 degrees F. after one hour's heavy running on the test bench; this engine was fitted with aluminium pistons. (3) Oil of a flashpoint of 180 degrees F. had fallen to 158 degrees F. after five hours' running on the bench. 'We may say that the original oil of 180 degrees F. had, at the time of taking the flashpoint test, already been in use for some time, so that the extension of the test shows that the flashpoint steadily diminishes. This test was in connection with aluminium pistons of a special design. (4) Oil of 362 degrees F. flashpoint had fallen to 190 degrees F. after running about 320 miles, and this special sample was found not to contain so much carbon, and was generally in better condition than some of the other oils tested.

Sp. Gr. Flashpoint Viscosity at 70 degrees E....

• 120 ,.

• 140 „ • • • .923 338 degs. F. ... 2,505 secs 405 .„ 225 „ After about 25 hours' running in an engine fitted with cast-iron pistons, which was subject to repeated motoring by the dynamometer with the throttle open in testing a coil and accumulator ignition set, the fallowing results were found : Sp. Gr.

Flashpoint ... 108 degs. F.

Viscosity at 70 degrees F.... .. 1,530 secs.

)3 120

... 345 „

• 140 ... 180 „

In this test we are afraid we cannot say how much of the reduction in values for the oil was due to the ordinary running of the engine, and how much to the dilution, which we are afraid would certainly be brought about with motoring the engine.

We are certainly strongly of the opinion that dilution of crankcase oil is a thing to ba carefully watched, as the higher boiling fractions of the petrol not being burned deteriorate the crankcase oil considerably.

Very important points, to our mind, are the question of draining the crankcase when the oil is hot, and the risk attendant upon too blindly flushing out with paraffin in a well-meaning attempt thoroughly to scour the engine. There is no guarantee that a portion of the paraffin is not left in, causing deterioration of the oil.

The varieties of oils on the market at the present moment call for very careful selection, and we certainly do think all users of motor vehicles are well advised to use only recommended high-grade oils, and we as a firm are always prepared to give the user of our vehicles the benefit of whatever tests we have made.—Yours faithfully, HALLEY'S INDUSTRIAL MOTORS, LTD.,

G. MacDotastp, Engineering 4anager. B43


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