New Registrations for March Once Again, Goods and Hackney
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vehicle Figures Show An
maintain healthy tone Encouraging Improvement OUT of a total of 52,909 new motor vehicles registered in March last, 8,446 were goods vehicles and 887 hackney vehicles, the comparable figures for March, 1935, when the total was 47,922, being 7,280 and 724 respectively.
In the goods classes there was a big increase in petrol vehicles, this year's total of 8,166 contrasting with 6,953 for March, 1935. The registrations in the chief categories were as follow, last year's return being given in parentheses:—Not exceeding 12 cwt., 1,781 (1,613); 12 cwt.-1 ton, 1,317 (1,040); 1-11 ton, 680 (604); 11-2 tons, 1,485 (1,524); 2-21 tons, 2,371 (1,655); 21-3 tons, 294 (285); 3-4 tons, 171 (168).
Above 4-tonners, there were 67 vehicles registered in March last, compared with 64 a year earlier; no new vehicles above 9-tonners were licensed.
A halt has not yet taken place in tha falling tendency in goods oilers, there being a big percentage drop between March, 1935, and March, 1936, the comparable returns -being 179 and 108 respectively. In most of the lighter classes falls were recorded, those vehicles below 21 tons dropping from 36 to 10, whilst 3-4-tonners fell from 48 to 27 and 4-5-tormers from 43 to 21. More attention was, however, paid -to oilers in the heavier sections, for the 5-6-tonners increased from 10 to 13, 6-7-tonners from 13 to 17, and 7-8-tormers from 6 to 12.
Included in the goods-vehicle returns were 27 machines licensed for drawing trailers, compared with 31 in 1935_ The progress of the electric vehicle was not so marked in March last as it has been for some months past, although the registrations, at 68, were 13 above the figure for 1935.
Figures for Multi-wheelers.
The total number of six-wheelers registered was 139, compared with 163 in March, 1935. The figure for rigidframed vehicles of this class remained practically stationary (80 against 79), but the articulated pattern fell rather appreciably from 84 in March, 1935, to 59 a year later. The number of eight-wheelers registered, at 28, was double the figure for a year earlier.
In the section for agricultural vans and lorries, a comparison between the
individual classes shows some irregularity, but the totals for each year were praotically unchanged (89 against 90).
Coming to the hackney-vehicle figures, headway hasto be recorded in the three categories. So fan as petrol vehicles are concerned, there were 566 registrations, compared with 494 a year ago, whilst oilers advanced from 212 in March, 1935, to 301 in March, 1936. The chief increase in petrol hackneys occurred in the division for 26-32-seaters (from 95 to 163), but the number of vehicles licensed in the 2026-seater section (58) was more than doubled. In March, 1935, only one 48-56-seater double-decker was registered, but this year the total was 28.
In the class for oilers, most progress was shown in the 32-40-seater category, in which there were 134 registrations, contrasted with 60 a year ago.
All the trolleybuses registered, 20 in number, were double-deckers, the same applying to last year's 18.
In the three months ended March last, 22,685 goods vehicles and 1,843 hackney vehicles were registered; last year's comparable figures being 19,280 and 1,438 respectively.