Opinions and Queries
Page 57
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Improve Rally Organization
THROUGH the medium of your journal, I have read
the results and reports of the tests for the title of Lorry Driver of the Year, and I feel, as I believe do many other long-service drivers, that they are no more turn a farce and a waste of operators' money.
It seems to me that they prove nothing so far. To rriv mind, the whole scheme has broken away from its orginal meaning. One report refers to a winner who had passed his driving test only a 'week before the cornpc[ition. I say good Itick'.to him for his wonderful showing, but how can he Possibly come up to the standard of those with 20, or More, years of day-andnight driving on. heavy trunk work?
Next there were the trick questions on the Highway Code—good paper work. On paper errors seem to be considered as important as lack of skill and judgment in driving. My contention is that practical road work comes before paper work at any time.
As regards vehicle examinations, I was present when two lads aged 15-16 were sent to examine brakes, hand and foot, also electrical parts. They mounted a 1955 Leyland Buffalo and seemed tO know nothing of this type. They let the air out of the cylinders until the danger buzzer came into action, and if they had been allowed to release the hand brake much damage could have been done because of the slope. Of course, they have to learn,-but not in examinations of this kind without supervision.
It was said that some drivers lost their way, or were misdirected, yet they lost no marks. If they were experienced men, they could not possibly have got lost because all the roads were so well sigriposted. If this happened in a car rally, the competitors concerned would forfeit some marks. I am afraid that this sort of competition will have to be gone into more thoroughly to find the real chanipion of the year or years.
I would certainly give credit to the officials who organized it, they were wonderful, but they should work on a more solid foundation at the beginning, and I feel that greater success may be attained in subsequent years. This should be of considerable help in promoting safety on the road.
Chipping Warden, Oxon. E. E. McGowAN.
Where is the Bus Staff Shortage?
ALMOST every week you publish references to ALMOST shortages. It is, of course, interesting to read such articles and more so of the efforts made by transport undertakings to combat this apparent shortage.
have always believed these statements to he true, but the facts are that, in at least one undertaking, they are incorrect and I, a mere nobody, would give a word of advice to those who claim that they are experiencing this shortage.
In September I applied to Nottingham City Transport Department for a position as driver. Two days later I received a .printed card from Mr. B. England, saying that there was no vacancy to offer. My licence is clean, 1 have excellent references and my age is about 36, yet there' has not been a word, apart from those on the card, to indicate why my application was refused.
This is certainly not an isolated case, as the printed card seems to prove. I could mention quite a number of men and women of impeccable character who, since the advent of coloured labour, have received similar terse messages during their search for employment.
The high wages paid in other industries are said to attract men from the buses. In this district we have a large variety of work, including the mines—where it is possible tO earn £20 a week and yet there is no waiting list. Various engineering work/ in the city in which £10-£.12 can be earned, often by unskilled men, do have vacancies, so obviously it is not a matter of [limey and shift work alone which makes for shortages.
t have often come into contact with the managements of other industries as well as those in public transport, and the difference is striking. To be blunt, the 'treatment from the passenger-transport side is more in keeping with Victorian days, whereas other industries usually treat applicants as if they were wanted.
I. have no statistics at hand, but I think if inquiry were made at the Ministry of Labour offices, it would he found that the percentage of turnover is less in transport than in other industries, the only difference being that in most cities and large towns there is only one large transport concern, whereas there may be hundreds of smaller occupations.
Nottingham. J. SELBY.
Disc Brakes in Mud and Water
I WAS very interested to read Mr. Greenwood's letter
in your issue of September 23. He commenced by stating that he cannot believe disc brakes would be the complete answer for bus operation, unless they could be completely enclosed in order to exclude water.
With so much of the braking surface of the disc exposed to the weather, it is not unreasonable for Mr. Greenwood to assume that the water thrown up_by the road wheels would cause such brakes to lose their effectiveness. This is definitely not the case when the Girling Hydrastatic principle is used, because on each revolution of the disc the water that is not thrown off by centrifugal action is scraped off by the leading edge of the friction pad, which, theoretically, maintains a light rubbing contact with the disc when the brake is off. The result is that the drop in braking efficiency is hardly noticeable, even if an application has to be made immediately after fording a stream.
I can positively assure Mr. Greenwood as to our experience that this spot type of disc brake is by far the best form of brake that has so,far been devised. This is not only in retaining its efficiency in the presence of water and mud, but also in its ability to dissipate quickly the heat generated by braking, the lack of which he considers to be the greatest defect on existing drum brakes.
With reference to Mr. Greenwood's remarks regarding the fixing of the friction material to the shoe, I would recommend him to try bonding, which eliminates the use of rivets, increases its life and prolongs the useful life of the drum, because no pockets are present in the material in which to trap grit to score the drum's braking path.
Birmingham, 11. G. BAIRD, Technical Director, Girling, Ltd.