ROAD TRANSPORT IN OTHER LANDS.
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Items of News Intended to Stimulate the Interest of British Makers in Overseas Markets.
• Commercial-vehicle Opportunities in Greece.
AN elaborate road-building programme has been drawn up by the Greek Government, which will take about five or six years to complete. The new road system will render available for cultivation an area estimated at 11,250 square miles. It will, it is hoped, increase the value of the agricultural • production of Greece from about f34,000,000 to about £48,000,000 and should result in a big demand for commercial motor vehicles. Although Greece is essentially an agricultural country, it has to import about 111,000,000 of foodstuffs annually, owing to the fact that many of the agricultural areas have little or no communication with the main centres of consumption.
The road scheme is divided into two sections. The object of one is to link up all the main provincial towns which are centres of agricultural production with the ports and centres of consumption, whilst the .second will link up the secondary towns with the main provincial town. Roads from these will be extended to areas which can be cultivated, but which are at present unproductive. For half their distance the existing roads, the length of which is officially estimated at 6,200 miles, are impassable in winter and are in need of reconstruction.
Road Transport Progress in India. THE development of mechanical road transport has engaged the serious attention of the Legislative Council of the Indian State of Travancore, which has made generous appropriations$for the maintenance of existing roads and the construction of new ones to link allimportant sections of the State with British India. The roads in the State now total 3,121 miles in length—a kistance which, area for area, is greater than in other parts of India; in fact, generally speaking, the users of motor vehicles in Travancore enjoy much better roads than elsewhere in India.
Road transport has developed in Travancore as rapidly as in other parts of the country. At the beginning of the present year 2,295 motor vehicles were registered, of which 34 were heavy buses, 563 light buses and 98 cars used for plying for hire.
Swiss Postal Coach. Services.
DURING the summer of 1928 the Swiss postal authorities maintained road motor services for the transport of mails and passengers over no fewer than 33 routes. On 10 of them the vehicles travelled on "roads at a height of over 6,560 ft. above sea level, the highest being 9,059 ft. on the 331-mile service between Zernes, Santa Maria and the Stelvio. During the present winter services are being run on three routes by means of track-laying vehicles.
American Production in 1928. pREL1MINARY figures compiled by
the National Automobile Chambe•: of Commerce show that 4;044,000 Passenger ears and 586,000 motor lorries were produced in the United States and Canada in 1928, the wholesale vtflue of all vehicles being 3,045,820,000 dollars.. The average retail price of the lorries was 955 dollars.
Motor vehicles registered in the United States on December 1st, 1928, totalled 24,750,000, including 3,120,000 motor lorries. The world registration of motor vehicles on December 1st last was 31,725,000 .
The Bulk Transport of Milk in Prance. FROM France we kmn that Les Mes • sageries Laitgres, Societe pour le Transport et la Distribfition due Lait Temperature Constante is the name of a new company which has lately been formed in Paris (48, Cours Albert ler) with a capital of three million francs to undertake the bulk transport of milk by motor tank wagons. . America's Mize Commercial-motor Exports.
ALTHOUGH complete figures are not
yet available, it would appear that 1928 will have proved a record year for the American commercial-motor export " trade. The latest returns available are those for October last, during which month no fewer than 16,573 vans, lorries, buses and chassis of a value of 12,017,485 were exported from the United States, bringing up the aggregate ler the first 10 months of 1928 to 112,564 vehicles and £14,995,780 respectively, as against -88,312 (i11,564,357) in the corresponding period of 1927.
Australia continues to be the leading customer for American vehicles, the Commonwealth being credited with 12,979 of the total, being, however; closely followed by the Argentine with 12,257. Other important markets are Brazil, which absorbed 11,800 vehicles; the United Kingdom 7,223; SWeden, 6.631; South Africa, 4,917, and Belgium, 4,587.
Light vehicles carrying loads of less than 1-ton form the major portion of the American shipments, this class accounting for 32,488 vehicles, or over 75 per cent, of the total, leaving 3,765 vehicles for the 1-24-ton category and only 320 vehicles with a carrying capacity of over 2i tons. It is interesting to add that the proportion of exports to the total American production of commercial vehicles is 24.3 per cent.
Protecting the Spanish Industry.
A DECREE recently issued by the
Spanish Government brings the construction of electric trucks for works and factory use within the regulations Providing for the protection of the motor. industry in Spain.
Registrations in Buenos Aires. IT is reported that the number of motor vehicles registered in the city of Buenos Aires during the first six months of 1928 included 6,136 commercial vehicles and trailers and 887 motorbuses. In addition, 2,289 oars for public hire and 66 for private hire were registered. It is rather interesting to note that during this period 124 motorcycles, adapted for commercial uses, were registered.