300,000 More Vehicles : Bigger Buses : Oilers Increase D URING
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the quarter ended September 30, 1950, licences were current for 4,413,833 motor vehicles, compared with 4,112,903 a year earlier. These figures are contained in "Mechanically Propelled Road Vehicles, Great Britain, Return No. 152A," which has just been published by the Stationery Office at 6s.
Details of the various classes of vehicle in use, other than private cars, motorcycles and trams, are given in the following table: There were 2,56 , or 1.9 per cent., more hackneys (other than trams) in 1950 than in 1949. Last year, of those seating over eight persons, 21,734 were petrol-engined, 51,718 were oil-engined and 4,184 were electrically propelled, making a total of 77.636. The total for 1949 was 74,001, made up of 24,296 petrol-engined vehicles, 45,644 oilers and 4,061 electrically propelled.
Of the vehicles seating more than eight passengers, 49-56-seaters were most numerous (22.7 per cent.), with 27-32-seaters taking second place (14.1 per cent.).
Many Replacements As more than 11,000 hackney vehicles were registered for the first time during the calendar year, says the return, many of the new additions must have been used to replace older vehicles. Smaller vehicles have been replaced by larger types, the number of vehicles having not more than 32 seats having fallen by 2,367 (2.1 per cent.), whilst the number with mor.: than 32 seats has risen by 4,928 (over 10 per cent.).
The change from petrol to oil continues, the number of petrol backntys having decreased by 4.3 per cent., whereas .oilers have increased by 13.3 per cent.
The number of goods vehicles of all descriptions increased by 51,517 (6.1 per cent.). There were more five-wheelers (7,086 in 1950 and 6,824 in 1949), sixwheelers and bigger vehicles (26,827 in 1950 and 25,232 in 1949), and vehicles licensed to draw trailers (20,132 and 17,363 respectively).
Goods vehicles increased from 843,329 in 1949 to 894,846 in 1950; 841,424 of them were petrol-engined, compared with 798,155 in 1949, and 36,872 were oilers (30,337 in 1949).
The growth in the country's fleet of goods vehicles has been distributed over practically all size classes, but the proportionate increases have been greatest in the case of vehicles of 12 cwt. to
I ton (It per cent.) and of vehicles over 3 tons (10 per cent.). The rate of advance has been smallest in connection with petrol-engined vehicles (5f per cent.). Electrics have risen by 12 per cent. and oilers by about 21f per cent.
In the case of oilers, the increase is most marked in vehicles of 24-31 tons, and has amounted to about 40 per cent., although the larger classes have also grown. Oilers now constitute more than 68 per cent. of all goods vehicles over 41tons. 77 per cent, of those over 5 tons and 86 per cent, of those over 6 tons unladen.
During the year ended December 31 last, 417,721 vehicles of all kinds were registered for the first time, compared with 415,217 in 1949. New registra lions of hackneys (other than trams) decreased from 12,351 in 1949 to 11,333 in 1950, the drop occurring largely in the 26-32-seater category and in the classes with over 48 seats.
The decline in the number of new goods vehicles from 107,284 in 1949.10 91,527 last year was accounted for almost entirely by a fall of 55 per cent. in new registrations of farmers' vehicles and of 15 per cent, in those of electric and petrol-engined general goods vehicles.
NEW SOUTH WALES OFFICE
ANEW office has been opened by the South Wales Area of the Road Haulage Association. It is at Room 100, Exchange Buildings, Swansea. For the time being, it will be open only on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The area office at Road Transport House, 8, St. Andrew's Place, Cardiff, continues in operation.
Thames Prices Up
PRICES of Fordson Thames goods vehicles of 2-ton capacity and over have been raised. Typical new prices, with purchase tax, are as follows: Thames 2-ton lorry, £717 its. 8d.; 3-ton lorry, £743 Is. lid. ; 4-ton lorry, 10-ft. 8-in. wheelbase, £800 69.; 5-ton lorry, 10-ft, 8-in. wheelbase, €851 Os. 10d,; Thames-deism refuse collector on 5-ton chassis, £1.296 I2s. 2e1,; Thames Sussex chassis and cab. 10-ft. 8-in. wheelbase, 51.100' us. 2d.; 3-ton lorry with oil engine, 11.145 5s, 90.; 4-ton lorry with oil engine, 10-ft. 8-in. wheelbase, £1,202 14s. 7d.; 5-ton lorry with oil engine, 10-ft. 8-in, wheelbase. £1,253 95. 1Ctd.
INST. P.C. MEETINGS
THE autumn meeting of the Midlands centre of the Institute of Public Cleansing will be held in the Municipal Buildings, Old Hill, Staffs, on October 12. At 2.15 p.m., Mr. G. Eric Sheldon,
chief sanitary inspector and cleansing superintendent of Bilston, is to read a paper entitled 'Cleansing Practice in a Small Borough."
Meetings of the London centre of the Institute have been arranged as follows: October 18, London County Hall; December 13, Westminster; February 14, Tottenham; April 17, Eton (annual general meeting); May 1, Tunbridge Wells. A social evening is to be held on November 15 at Beale's Restaurant, London, N.19,
BUSES TO REPLACE TRAINS DERMISSION to operate road passenger services when railway facilities earmarked for closing down, no longer run, was granted to W. Alexander and Sons, Ltd., by the Scottish Licensing Authority at Aberdeen, last week. The company's application concerned the Fyvie-Rothie
norman Inverurie and Montroseohnshaven-Inverbervie routes.