Short-period Licences.
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ONE of the most promising amendments secured by motoring interests in this year's Finance Act was that which gives the Minister of Transport the power to make regulations as to the granting , of short-period licences and to prescribe the rates of duty payable for them. This amendment will, of course, only be of practical utility if the Minister takes advantage of the power conferred upon him. The present system is an objectionable one, partly because the extra payment that has to be made if licences are taken out quarterly instead of annually is no less than 20 per cent., which is undoubtedly excessive. Another weak spot in the present system is that quarterly licences expire on the fixed quarter-day, and if a licence is taken out only a few weeks before the quarter-day the same Charge is made as for one which is operative for a complete -quarter.
The difficulty is to devise an alternative scheme not open to these objections, and at the same time satisfactory from an administrative standpoint. We do not want to abolish the arrangement under which licence cards are of distinctive colouring with the result that it is easy for the police to see whether a current card is being carried without having to stop the vehicle. A partial solution of the problem would be secured if registration authorities were entitled to issue licences current np to the next quarter-day in return for payments proportionate to the number of months or weeks during which the licence will remain good. Suppose, for example, that the annual duty on a certain vehicle is 220, then the payment for a quarterly licence taken out at the beginning of jarmary would be 25, plus a small surcharge to cover the cost of administration. This charge might be, say, 5s. Under this arrangement, an owner who preferred to take out four quarterly licences would pay in all 221 instead of 220 per annum. Suppose that half the quarter had elapsed before the licence was taken out, then for the remainder of the quarter he would pay 22 10s. and 5s. surcharge, making 22 155. in all.
Under such an arrangement the colouring of the card wouldindicate the quarter during which the card was current, so that there would be no need to stop vehicles for inspection. This arrangement would assist people who use vehicles for seasonal purposes. For example, a coach proprietor whose season began only in May would take out his first
ficence from May 1st, paying the correct amount for two months until the end of June. The weak spot is that if this same man wished to continue his service until, say, the middle of October, he would, at the end of September, have to take out a licence for the whole quarter up to the New Year. This is a point which would really-need covering if thin system were selected, and it would appear to be one rather difficult to cover Without complication.
The only practical alternative plan appears to be to allow registration authorities to issue licences current until the end. of any month or fromany month u,p to the end of the calendar ye-ar. In this system, again, a fixed surcharge would be made. Under this arrangement the man who wished to continue a coach service through part of October would, at the end of September, take out a licence for one month only.
The objection is that it would be necessary to depart from the system of distinctively coloured cards, except in respect of licences terminating at the end of the year or at the end of the quarter. Vehicles carrying monthly licences not terminating at these times would have to have licence cards of a different colour, and would, of course, be liable to be stopped by the police in order to examine into the currency of the licence.
On the whole, therefore, despite the disadvantage pointed out, above, it is probable that the first of the two suggested systems would generally be found to be the more acceptable, though admittedly it is imperfect.
The Licence Duty Payable for Converted Vehicles.
THIS question of short-period licences isbecoming complicated by the fact that licensing authorities are reading more into the law than was ever intended.
• It had been anticipated that owners of vehicles suit-able for conversion to different uses at different seasons would desire to register their vehicles, for example, a•s: commercial goods vehicles during a certain portion of the year and as hackney vehicles during (in all probability) the remainder of the year. The seasonal division of the year of working is from March 25th to September. 30th'. (both dates being admittedly rather early, and really calling for ad.. justment to, say, June tat and October 15th _respectively). Those who studied the clause in the Roads Act governing the point did notr(whilst it was in the Bill stage) imagine that it would be twisted into anything more than it aeemseto convey, namely, that if a vehicle which is registered for a certain purpose is required to be used for another purpese involving a higher 'tax, the wish of the owner could be accommodated by the payment of the difference, and he would then be covered for thetwo purposes until expiry of lie licence already issued.
But the local licensing authorities are, a. ccording to statements that have been made to us, demand! ing that vehicles registered during the summer months as hackney vehicles shall continue to be so registered (by way of application for and the issue of new licences).. to the end of the year. But SubSection 2 -of Section 5 of the Roads Act. does notsupport this demand, for it limits the op-eration of substituting the new licence (for the vehiclein its altered category) for the-old licence to " the period for which the surrendered licence would, if it had not been surrendered, , have remained in force."
Our advice to motor coach owners, most of whom have registered their vehicles to the end of the current month, is that if they wish to use their vehicles for goods-carrying only and not for passenger carrying during the succeeding quarters,. they should refuse to accede toany demands for licence, duties on the hackney carriage scale, because such.
demands cannot besubstantiated. • 06
The Future of the Electric Vehicle.
THE -electric vehicle may be said to have its way into prominence against a host verse criticism and against those po rivals—petrol arid steam. It has only done sheer merit, and by giving service second te in those spheres of action for which it has j especially suited.
The manufacturers and agents of electric vi no longer make extravagant claims as to the bilities of this type ofsvehicle. They admit ti radius of action is necessarily limited by the ca of its accumulators and by the fact that its as compared with petrol and steam vehicles, i On the other hand, they claim—and we co rightly so—that,, forwork involving small ni but a large number of stops, the electric veh equal, if not superior, to ell other typ mechanically operated transport vehicles, prr that the roads en which it is operated do, not u many steep gradients.
Few people have realized the extent to whi( electric vehicle ha& penetrated our -municipa vices, where it has been found vastly gaper horsed transport, not only from the point of vi material carried, but also from that of costs. compiled by the engineers of numerous ir palities have proved that the saving effect( this type of vehicle is, often as great as 2s. pr of refuse removed. In certain other branch activity the electric vehicle is also more than lug its own. It can be considered as the 1 between horse and motor traction. It prol most efficient substitute, and expedites deli. as well as increases the area covered by thes, The difficulties of obtaining the necessary cha facilities are rapidly being overcome, and elect service stations are springing up all over country. Where these are not available, the i lation of a small charging set, suitable for supr the current for from one to half a dozen or
machines, can now be effected at no great cost the enterprising user who installs such a elle set may find it to his advantage, in that the of its existence may induce others to utilize el, vehicles and to come to him for the nece current.
Agriculture Needs Power Vehicles.
THERE are two sets of people who requir lightening upon the value of applying r to agriculture—the farmers, and the n lecturers of corrunercial vehicles; and as we list tothe speeches of Sir Arthur Daniel Hall, Mr. Edge, Mr. H. G. Burford, and Mr. H. Deck, a Dinner given last week by the Society of Manufacturers and Traders, we could not help • in that those two sections had been more spicuous by their presence at the gathering.
The farmer, with long-inherited experience, with panaceas for all his troubles offered to daily, is justified in going slowly in making changes; but with all the need for bringing come, home to the farmer, the maker of mechanically di vehicles is most strangely reticent and unenterpri doing little or nothing to exploit this source of . ness and seeing no, advantage to himself, iMIllei or ultimate, in the work of the manufacturers dealers in agrirnotors in converting the farmer : manual and horse labour to the use of power. T are one or two exception, but they only make lethargy of the others more obvious.
Let us put forth our best efforts to develop employment of power in agriculture and in ] transport: let us see some interest shown, or business will get into thehands of foreign real just as has the business in the one ton truck.