The Manchester Show.
Page 1
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Seventh North of England Show, at Manchester, which is this year divided into two sections, with those sections in two different buildings, will open its doors to-morrow (Friday). This exhibition is indebted to us for oonsiderable advance publicity in the, counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire more especially, and we this week give some detail particulars of the leading exhibits in. the form of a Show Guide.
Next week, in accordance with our custom of the past seven years, we shall bring out the first-published illustrated Show report, and this. report will be on sale at the North of England Show, and in other parts of Manchester, during an appreciable period of the continuance of that show, in which respect, as well as others, the Show report of THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR will enjoy thee distinction of being unique.
Booked Times to Reduce Congestion.
Congestion and delay at big Lancashire industrial centres, and most of all in Manchester and Liverpool, are, so far, the despair of all who are acquainted with the huge extra charges and losses for which the ohtaininj5 state of alTairs is responsible. Organization is well-nigh impossible, and cart owners or motor-lorry owners have largely to trust to luck when they wish to tender loads for acceptance at warehouses or the dock-side. A motor-driver may happen to find only four or five vehicles " waiting turn, but he is much more likely to find himself the twentieth, or even farther back still, in the line of vehicles which are suffering demurrage by the hour. Everybody is dissatisfied, but nobody has so far been able to advance a practicable eolution. We feel confident, however, that the germ of that solution will be found in the proposal for booked times, with which proposal an esteemed Lancashire contributor deals initially in this issue (pages 542-543). Some warehousemen, we know, do already profess to attempt it.
It will be obvious, even to the uninitiated in Lancashire traffic methods, that not every unit of traffic can hope to get a booked time allotted to it, and that, no matter how near to perfection this plan of working may ultimately approach, there will always need to be what we may term a casual bay. That fact, however. provides no good argument against a whole-hearted and sustained effert to give the booking system, which is nothing snore than a regularizing of business on the appointment basis, a. genuine trial.
We feel confident that the first warehouse or shipping company whicE does systematically give preferential treatment to people who can book their loading and unloading appointments will reap a very considerable benefit. It is clear that there need be no waste of time on the part of the warehouse or stevedore's gangs. If booked work falls slack, the men can be turned on to the heterogeneous handling of whatever vehicle presents itself with or for a load— exactly as they are now The basis of working which is outlined possesses the further merit. of involving
little if any expense on the organization side, whilst it holds out the certainty of numerous savings.
Responsibility for Running over Dogs.
There is an incorrect but none the lees widespread impression, that the motor-vehicle driver who accidentally runs over a dog is liable for the injury or death so caused. This impression is wholly inaccurate. The only conceivable circumstances in which a motorvehicle driver can be so held liable is in the inconceivable event of his deliberately planning to kill an inoffensive example of the canine species.
The dog is a nimble animal : that goes without saying--unless it be aged or overfed. It is the clear duty of the owner of any dog to keep the animal under eontrol, and any dereliction, which is usually either implied or evident from the. road circumstances which lead to an animal's injury or death, deprives him of whatever vestige of claim he might otherwise possess. The conditions are entirely different in the case of a motor-vehicle driver who has the misfortune to hit a horse, a cow, or other relatively slow-moving beast of sedate gait. He may, then, be liable. We are prompted to these remarks, on reading the hearing of a claim, for the loss of a Newfoundland dog, against the London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., which was before the. Westminster County Court on the 4th inst. The judge, when dealing with the assertion that there was negligence on the part of the motorbus driver, pointed out that the negligence was on the part of the dog and its owner.
The Legal Limit of Protection Against Weather for Motor-lorry Drivers.
We have been very much struck, during the past few months, by the manner in which some manufacturere and owners are boxing in their drivers with woodwork. There is a real danger in this method. if it be carried to excess, because the driver is in no position properly to carry out his various running and manceuvring duties in the absence of suitable side-lights and back-lights. THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR has for years been an advocate of adequate protection for drivers, .against. rain and wind, and there can be no two opinions as to the wisdom of the owner who keeps his employees comfortable. The provision of an ample canopy, and of protection for the driver at the sides, is to be commended. so long only as its does not introduce the element. of danger. We, therefore, wish to direct the attention of all our readers to the fact that the President of the Local Government Boned is opposed to any degree .of protection which totally encloses the driver of a. motorcar so as to interfere with hie obtaining at all times a. full view of the road and of the traffic ahead of the vehicle. Similarly, in the case of the driver of a commercial vehicle, who has to back and to marneuvre, means of looking out in the direction of motion should at all times be available. They can then be used whenever the loading permits, whilst the forward and side views should never he impeded.