OPINIONS
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and
UERIES
ANOTHER KIND OF INJUSTICE.
[5166] There is another direction in which you might use your powerful aid on behalf of some of those engaged in the road-transport industry. I refer to the owner-driver, also the small haulier but little removed from being an owner-driver. They suffer from the interpretation of the Road and Rail Traffic Act in a way which sometimes is more serious, more unfair and more unjust than what has been described, and which is well known to all of us in reference to treatment of the heavy-vehicle driver.
Many examples could be cited of the way in which treatment of these men in the Traffic Courts has reacted most unfairly and disastrously. An instance related by Mr. Backhouse at Porthcawl is to some extent typical and it deserves more publicity than it has had An owner-driver, by dint of many years of hard work and the exercise of business acumen, was in a position, when the Act came into force, to claim tonnage in respect of one of the larger classes of vehicle. This was, at the time when the licence was given to him, engaged on regular service between a Lancashire town and London, carrying for the same client, who was so well satisfied that, a short time before this licence came to be reviewed, he transferred the operator from the London route to the Glasgow service. He did so because the Glasgow route was more severe and be wished to put his best and most reliable sub-contractors on to that route. This note is important because it emphasizes the fact that the haulier concerned was one whose presence within the industry is desirable. The haulier himself was pleased because, although he appreciated that the work was more arduous, on the other hand, the return was better. As Mr. Backhouse put it, he went home that night and told his father that he had had a change for the better.
When, however, the licence came up for review it was pointed out to this operator that his original licence had been in connection with traffic carried between this Lancashire town and London, that he had now, without reference to the Authority, taken to conveying traffic to Glasgow.
His application for a licence was refused, and that man, after many years of building up . a comfortable small business, finds himself without employment, with a vehicle on his hands and no means for redress.
Wigan. DOGGED.
A TRADE BENEVOLENT FUND FOR THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.
[5167] Very sincerely do I thank Mr. Walter Gammons for his prompt and generous offer of support to my suggestion regarding the establishment of a trade benevolent fund for the road-transport industry. It is thoroughly characteristic of him, as so many will agree. I, also, appreciate the letter in your issue for October 1, from Mr. T. Bourke, of the Southall Transport Company, and I hope to find an early opportunity of discussing the matter with him, as he so kindly suggests.
As regards Mr. Pye's letter, which you published on October 8, I was anticipating something of the sort, and repeat my confirmed opinion that this is no question for any individual association to handle, but rather is it one of such vital importance as to merit and demand the co-operative effort of all. Membership of this association or that must not be a factor or a qualification if the real objective is to be achieved, and if we sincerely wish to bring some measure of security to the humblest of those connected with an industry now of national importance. Particularly have I in mind the owner-driver, from whose status so many of us have commenced and by whose united contribution to the carriage of goods road transport has been "placed on the map."
So far as I am concerned, co-operation will be free from any consideration other than the beneficial effect that the existence of such a fund will have on the industry and on everyone engaged in it.
London, S.W.1. E. H. B. PALMER.
[5168] I .read with interest Mr. Pye's letter on the above matter, and, as a member of the (Metropolitan) Western Sub-area Committee. A.R.O., I have a slight knowledge of the proposals which Mr. Pye has in hand. I do not agree with him as to the Association running a grandiose scheme; I do not think this is required. What I have in mind is a simple benevolent aid for anyone in the industry who has fallen on bad times, and I do not consider that this style of scheme can be bettered.
With regard to one association running the scheme, would it not be better for some outside body to form a committee to consider what would be the best interest possible. On this point, as The Commercial Motor would not have any bias in the matter, perhaps the
Editor could give a lead. T. BOURKE.
Southall. (For Southall Transport Co.) WHAT SHOULD BE DONE IN A CASE LIKE THIS?
[5169.] One of our drivers recently found himself in an awkward predicament. He was on his way home from Southampton to London, and, through no fault of his own or of his employers, fell behind schedule.
On reaching Farnham, Surrey, he decided to put up for the night, as the journey to London would have meant exceeding the legally permitted number of working hours. Failing to find accommodation, he went
to the police station. • He was there given three addresses-, but was refused in each instance. He went back to the police station to ask for advice, but was told : "We don't know what you can do about it."
The police then suggested that he should leave the lorry for a while, and later continue on to London. Our driver pointed out that this would not absolve him, so they said: "The best thing for you to do would be to break a window, and get a night's lodging here" (at the police station). Our man could see no alternative but to run on to London, which he did.
There must occur many instances in which drivers find themselves placed as was our man, and we think that he did a wise thing in going to the. police. After all, they are. the people who prosecute in these cases, and we think that something might be done by them in such circumstances.
Could not the police, if satisfied that a case was genuine, give a voucher or note which would enable a driver and his employers to keep clear of breaking the law? Our men are strictly enjoined not to run beyond time, and are always furnished with money for emergencies such as this. Nevertheless, we could be summoned in the event of our lob sheets failing to satisfy the authorities. What, then, can be done in such a
case as the one mentioned? J.E. London, S.W.11.
A BRIDGE WHICH ENGLAND REQUIRES.
[5170] In your issue of October 8 one of your "Passing Comments" refers to a bridge under construction in Germany which is giving employment to 5,000 men. It, however, omits the essential fact—how long these men would be employed.
• May I, on this introduction, give some precise facts about a bridge in this country which is of far more moment to English motorists, particularly commercial transport, than any in Germany? It is the bridge over the lower Severn. When this work is started it will give employment on the bridge itself, materials required for its construction and on the approach roads, to 4,000 men for five years, or to 5,000 men for four years, that being the quickest period, from the date on which Parliamentary authority is obtained, in which the structure could be built.
The lower Severn bridge is the most important single work in Great Britain which would benefit the motoring community. That is to say, . on this bridge and approaches an expenditure of about £3,000,000 would benefit them more than any other work costing the same amount. A rough estimate of the saving in time, wear and tear and transport charges to those using motor vehicles would, in the first 10 years of its use, be £5,000,000.
Now the Roads Improvement Association has been advocating the new bridge for 30 years. At least three times within the past 20 years it would have been built if this Association had been adequately supported by the motoring community.
W. REES JEFFREYS, Chairman, The Roads Improvement Association. London, S.W.9.
MR. CUNNINGHAM ON SAFETY GLASS.
[51711 I am interested by Mr. R. Birch's letter which you published in the issue of your journal dated October 1.
I cannot think that anyone can fairly say that I made any attack whatever on the public-service-vehicle section of the motor industry in my speech to the stockholders on the occasion of my company's general meeting last month. I said In fact, you cannot blame a public-service-vehicle manufacturer or operator for complying only with the requirements of the law, which at present do little more than protect the driver by making safety glass compulsory in windscreens." Is that an attack?
I did not draw any comparisons between the numbers of accidents in which buses and coaches were involved 1342 and other classes of road transport, but I merely inferred what I now affirm, that for passengers to ride in publicservice vehicles, the windows of which are fitted all round with ordinary glass, is exposing the passengers to a risk which they should not be asked to take.
Had my company been content in its early days to rely on the trade organizations to introduce safety glass in the way it has been introduced first in this country and now all over the world, I am certain that safety:.:
glass would have made no progress. This is no criticism whatsoever of the trade. organizations. It is not the business of trade organization to ask for safety glass in vehicles. It is for the public to make the demand and then for the trade organizations and legis.lation to fulfill that public demand.
With the special knowledge I have as a result of.
studying accidents and on account of the position which I hold, 1 deem it my duty to point out to the public, and especially to the stockholders of my company, what steps I think they should take in creating a demand for safety glass all round in public-service
vehicles. G. CUNHINGHAM, Managing Director. •
(For The " Triplex " Safety Glass Co., Ltd.) London, W.1.
CAPT. WALTON DEFENDS HIS PAPER.
.[5172] I have read with interest the editorial in your issue dated October 1 on certain remarks I made in my paper at Porthcawl.
Perhaps you may recollect that I prefaced the remarks at the Conference by saying that my paper was meant to point a moral and adorn a tale, and to that extent, therefore, I was perhaps a little emphatic in drawing attention to certain features. No one, least of all myself, can doubt the beneficial effect of publicity, but one must qualify this by saying that it must be properly applied.
It must be borne in mind, to begin with, that by far the largest proportion of goods carried in this country passes over a transport system which is used for the carrying of goods, in the plainest of plain vans with no adornment whatever and for the carriage of passengers a very plain outward structure, with little decoration, is used, whatever the inside may be like— the basis being utility.
One observes, in counties's instances, bodywork which certainly has no artistic merit, being principally a mass of straight lines and unrelated curves which can have no bearing whatever on the carriage of the goods inside the vehicle nor any publicity value. There may be no story whatever, told on the exterior of the vehicle, as to what is inside it, and very often not even the name of the owner of the van is displayed, or, if it be so, then it is indifferently recorded.
This elaborate structure, however, has a very material bearing on the cost of the vehicle, and therefore on the cost of its operation, which, of course, is passed on to the consumer.
Perhaps I might put it another\ way, and say that the story told on the outside of a vehicle must have a publicity value, but the van itself can be regarded only as a frame, and any elaboration of the frame must detract from the value of the picture. I have yet to learn from experience that a large and meaningless expanse of chromium plating and sweeping, allegedstreamline; curves, can improve in any way whatever either the operating costs or the performance of commercial vehicles.
JOHN WALTON, Chief Engineer IVIechanical Transport. (For Unilever, Ltd.)
London, E.C.I.