Let the Operator Advise the Maker
Page 28
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Further Personal Contributions From Members of the Original Conference on This Subject
Commercial Use the Only Real Test
By James B. Osier, 0.B.E., M.Inst.T., M.I.A.E. (Carter Paterson and Co., Ltd.) THE need for the closest co-operation between commercial-vehicle operators and the manufaeturers of , the vehicles. seems to the to be paramousit. The manufacturer may feel that it' is not within the province. of the user to dictate how he is to make his product. .1 agree. It is' well within the province of the user, however, to say what' he -requires in a Vehicle, what , performance it should. give, what characteristics it should have, and what the load-carrying capacity should be. Surely the.manufacturers would' be glad to have from the ,users. some:co-ordinated. report an. these vital points? T do not suggest that operating' engineers should lay down in detail what design should be adopted-; this, I think, would throttle the incentive -.cf the .designer to, improve and progress: The operatingengineers could lay down ,what should be incorporated as necessary characteristics, but 'anything better that May be' produced should always
'be acceptable. • Who is to be the judge as to whether the new idea is better? Actual experience in commercial use is the only test. •
1.Jp to date, the manufacturers have decided what the
. . , . load-carrying capacity of their products would be and
operators have had to arrange their loads to suit the vehicles. If; instead, a careful study were made of the general loads available,it might be found that, from a national economical point of view, it would be better to have in general use a different standard of load-carrying cApacity.
A manufacturer has not the means for testing his product so as to give the same results as will be obtainedwhen they-are in ordinary commercial use. The driver attached to a vehicle-production factory becomes factory minded and gradually gets ,to know 'his vehicle in a manner which is impossible in ordinary commercial use. He sees the vehicle dismantled and assembled many times, and realizes. what is the purpose of every part. The ordinary cornmereial driver does not have this opportunity and 'seldom has the time to be taught. Hisdriving of the vehicle does, therefore, show rip faults which have never,been experienced by the manufacturer when testing the vehicle'.
Intimate association and consultation between the user, and the manufacturermust, of -neee,pity, result in the production of a vehicle which will be a credit to the manufacturer and a benefit to the:user.