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HAULIERS' CAPACITY-INCREASE PROBLEM
AN important principle arose in a case before the East Midland Licensing Authority for Goods Vehicles, when the Midland Motor Co. (Nottingham). Ltd., applied for A licences for 11 vehicles.
The vehicles now applied for, it was stated, would have a greater unladen weight than the 11 which had been on defence permits, but the concern now carried rations for the War Department and did substantial haulage work fritthe Ministries of Works and Transport.
Representing British Rail**, Mr. L. MacLaren said that increase in carrying capacity was nearly 100 per cent. It was only fair that the company should have the opportunity of working the same number of vehicles, but doubling the carrying capacity was a different matter.
Decision was reserved. Point; in connection with the Walker appeal decision were to be considered, NEW TRACTOR MAKER is announced that Government surplus factories Nos. 3 and 4 at Grantham have been reallocated to Newman Industries, Ltd., Yale, Bristol. That ....ompany has acquired plant and a quantity of parts from Grantham Productions. Ltd., for the manufacture of light tractors.
No. 2 factory has been reallocated to the Ransome and Marles Bearing Co., I td., Newark.
DENMARK NEEDS TRACTORS
DENMARK'S present stock of tractors amounts to only 6,000, although the country needs about 20,000. The Danish agricultural industry now employs 416,000 full-time workers. compared with 503,000 it 1934.
In 18 months, the saving on horse fodder would be sufficient to pay for an .idequate number of tractors, which would cost up to £9,000,000 sterling.
SAFETY SHOW'S 2,000 MILES
LAST year, a convoy of vans carrying the No 1 stimdard exhibition of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents travelled nearly 2,000 chiles and visited 11 sites in England and Scotland. The exhibition was open for 113 days and was visited by 306,346 people It comprises 34 separate exhibits weighing altogether 5 tons.
Thc Bristol depot of Pirelli, Ltd., has been moved to 8, Longmead Avenue, Bishopston, Bristol, 7 The Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., is planning to build a bus station and garage in Station Street, Jarrow, as soon as possible.
Mr. W. E. Macve, North Western Regional Transport Commissioner, has issued a warning against attempting to bribe driving examiners.
Nottingham City Council has agreed to the erection of a garage for 50 buses at Beechdale Road, Bilborough, at an estimated cost of f67,350.
Proctor Springwood, Ltd., announces' that it has been accepted as an associate member of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, Tandridge and Crowhurst, Surrey, now have their first bus service. They are on the new London Transport route from East Grinstead to Oxted.
The Gauge and Tool Exhibition will open at the new hall of the Royal Horticultural Society, Elverton Street, London, S.W.1, on January 26.
Messrs. W Thurgood, of Ware, have been formed into a private company with the title, W. L. Thurgood (Coachbuilders), Ltd. The capital is £100,000.
It is reported that the directors of Metal Industries, Ltd.; are to acquire compulsorily the minority outside preference shareholding in Sentinel (Shrewsbury), Ltd.
Manchester City Council is to be asked to approve a mobile dental service for schoolchildren. The education committee plans to purchase six former Army dental trailers.
Ali Katnal and A. H, Sulairnan, of Bagdad, are to represent Leyland Motors, Ltd., in Iraq, and the At4as Transatlantic Trading Co., of Accra, is Leyland agent on the•Gold Coast.
Mr. B. Lucy, of Dennis Bros., Ltd., will speak on " Commercial Vehicle Design" at a meeting of the industrial Transport Association at the Royal Society of Arts, 'John Adam Street, London, W.C.2, on January20, at 6.30 p.m. A RESOLUTION expressing general insdissatisfaction with the level of rates paid to hauliers by the Milk Marketing Board was passed at a recent meeting of
milk carriers in London. Mr. Clive Windsor-Richards presided.
The resolution was passed after a discussion of the rate per gallon paid to hauliers by the Board for the collection of milk from farms and delivery to dairies.
It was reported that, because of the reduction in the quantity of milk produced during 1946-47 season. many hauliers specializing in the collection of milk from farms were operating at a loss. If this trend continued and rates were kept to the present uneconomic level, it was feared that many operators might have to go out of business.
OBJECTIONS PASSED ON WHEN an application for the varia tion of a goods-vehicle licence was heard by the Northern Licensing Authority at Newcastle-on-Tyne, Mr. R.
Wardlava for the applicant, submitted that an objection by the L.N.E, Railway Co. be rejected, as the company did not now exist.
The Licensing Authority stated that, under the Transport Act, the Transport Commission would continue objections made by the L.N.E.R. and he rejected Mr. Ward law's suggestion.
51 VANS FOR RADIOGRAPHY
FIFTY-ONE Leyland radiography vans have been ordered by the Ministry of Supply. They will be based on the Beaver 125 b.h.p. oil-eagined, chassis and will be fitted with spring drawbars to tow trailer generating outfits. It is understood that the trailers will carry 20 kW generators, with their own power units.
The vans will serve as miniature mass X-ray laboratories.
BIRMINGHAM CRAFTSMANSHIP
THE two bus bodies illustrated on page 533 of the issue of "The Commercial Motor" dated December 26, were built at the Birmingham works of the Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage and Wagon Co., Ltd., states Metropolitan-Cammell-Weymann Motor Bodies, Ltd.
GEOGRAPHICAL NOTE
TN connection with the report of the 1 inauguration of the Longford Manufacturing and Coachbuilding Co., Ltd., Neath, it should be noted that the address of C. K. Andrews, Ltd., is Swansea: The van bodies under construction at Neath Abbey are being mounted on Morris chassis.
LIMIT ON C-LICENCE WORK COMING?
A DDRESSING the western section of 1-1 the Institute of Transport recently, Mr. T. D. Corpe said the fact of nationalization must be accepted, and it was everyone's duty to make it as successful as possible.
The Transport Commission would be in competition with hauliers for excluded traffic and short-distance haulage. It could put on any number of vehicles to carry such goods and could run its competitors off the road. It could also, without prejudice to revenue, charge cheaper rates for corn • petitive traffic to secure a monopoly. .
It was reasonable to assume, he said, that, in time, legislation would be necessary to curtail the activities of the C-licence holder.
If the trader found that, in order to get his goods moved, he had to fill up forms and could not obtain a reasonably quick answer to any problems which he put up, he would rapidly . become dissatisfied with the service provided. Decentralization, so far as possible into small units, with the delegation . of powers to deal direct with traders, was essential if nationalization was to succeed.
The general manager of the Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co., Ltd., Major F. J. Chapple, said: "When they removed the C-licence clause from the Transport Act, they wrecked it."
NEW TYRESOLES TREAD ANEW tread design, known as the Wembley, has been introduced this month by Tyresoles, Ltd. The pattern consists of circumferential ribs with spaced indentations designed to achieve maximum traction, and to offer cool running and long life. It conforms with the modern trend towards a flatter and wider section.
Some of the more popular giant sizes can now be reconditioned with this new tread. The full giant range will be completed when circumstances permit.
BUSINESS AS USUAL!
T'THREE of the former railway coml. panies will appear as respondents when John Dawson and Co. (Blackburn), Ltd., presents its appeal to the Appeal Tribunal against a decision of the North Western Licensing Authority. The case will be heard on January 20 at Halifax House, Strand, London.
On January 22, the appeal of Mr. Arthur Inskip against a decision of the Metropolitan Licensing Authority will be considered.
350 LEYLAND MEN DISCUSS PRODUCTION
SOM E 350 senior members of the staff of Leyland Motors, Ltd., met last week to discuss British and American production methods.. Mr. A. J. Charnock, general works manager, who has just returned from America, opened the discussion with a talk lasting over an hour.
He said that the factories in the U.S.A. which he had visited had not the clear floor space available in the Leyland plants. There was little to choose A26 between the two countries, as regards welfare, first aid or social activities in factciries, but Britain was far in advance of America in accident prevention in the shops. American output per manhour was stilt greater than in this country.
BAPTISM IN WINE
THE North Western Centre of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers will be formally inaugurated at a dinner to be held at the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool, on January 29, at 7 p.m. Mr. G. Mackenzie Junner, president of the Institute, officers of other technical associations and representatives of manufacturers in the area will be present. Tickets at 25s. each can be obtained from Mr. H. Wiltmer, M.I.R.T.E., 44, Leytort Avenue, Prenton, Cheshire.
RIVALRY
BOTH the Northern General Transport Co., Ltd., and South Shields Corporation are applying to the Northern Licen.ang Authority for sanction to start a bus service from the boundary of South Shields and Jarrow to the Marsden Inn, South Shields. The applications are likely to be heard on January 27.
£440,000 ROAD PLAN PASSED
THE reconstruct-d Glasgow-Carlisle road, for which plans have been approved by Lanark County Council, will provide for a speed of 50 m.p.h. on curves and will cost about £440,000.
The new scheme alters the alignment of the road on the Abington-Telford section, so that the village of Abington is by-passed.
Crawford is also to be by-passed at a cost of L163,000.
The road will be largely reconstructed between Beattock diversion and the Dumfries county boundary.
A new illustrated booklet on the Crossley double-decker bus chassis, describing the synchromesh and constant-mesh gearbox models, is now available from Crossley Motors, Ltd., Stockport. TRANSPORT CHARGES AN URGENT MATTER IN seeking to find a basis of charges 1 for transport, the bodies created under the Transport Act had made a belated start and their contemplated leisure seemed rather remote from our present difficulties, said Sir David Maxwell Fyfe, K.C., M.P., at the recent dinner of the Worshipful Company of Coach Makers and Coach Harness Makers, in London.
He also stressed the dangers of overcentralization in local allocations of transport. They would have to be dealt with by 'small units with a knowledge of local conditions.
RED TAPE TIES UP TRAFFIC
TIilENTY-S1X members of -Birmingfiam. police force have had to be released from their more essential duties to count vehicles passing through the loop of Broad Stre t on Wednesday and to-day.
This one-way-traffic loop diversion has caused annoyance to motorists and bus drivers since pre-war days. The city surveyor's department and police have wanted to abandon it and the A.A. and R.A.C. have agreed.
The Ministry of Transport, however, demanded that the 26 police officers should first waste 500 hours in counting and compiling statistics of traffic. The results have to be rendered to the Ministry in triplicate.
CARELESS RAPTURE
APPLYING for a B licence, a Sussex haulier said at Worthing that he kept no records of any kind and knew he was all right as far as income tax was concerned, as he had three children ! A Brighton councillor supported the application, which was refused by the South Eastern Licensing Authority.
EAST COAST ROAD PLANS
PLANS have been made by Notts County Council to spend £100,000 on a new by-pass near Gainsborough and a bridge over a level crossing on the Ramper Road. These would link up with a scheme finished before the war. L' A RLIER reports were confirmed last Saturday by the announcement that the board of Thomas Tilling, Ltd., was in contact with the British Transport COmmission for the sale of those assets which were affected by the Transport Act.
A statement issued to members of Thomas Tilling, Ltd., pointed out that hy its acquisition of the four main-line railways, the Transport Commission had already taken an interest practically equal to that of the Tilling company in the majority of undertakings involved.
The directors had agreed that joint investigation should be made into the position of these undertakings as a preliminary to the opening of negotiations for their sale, by agreement, to the Commission. The group of companies owns slightly more than 9,000 commercial vehicles, of which about 8,200 are buses.
"It is intended to submit, within the course of a few weeks, the directors' report and statement of accounts for the past year, together with the chairman's annual review," said Mr. George M. Kydd, the secretary. "If sufficient progress has taken place, a further statement on the subject of the negotiations with the British Transport Commission will be made at that time."
COMPLETE ROUTE RECORD
A RECORD is to be made by the LA Omnibus Society of all coach and bus routes operated in the British Isles on January 1, 1948, together with notes covering subsequent alterations, and additions, Mr. L. M. R. Nicholson is the leader of the team that is undertaking this research.
BIG WAGE CLAIM TO LONDON TRANSPORT EXECUTIVE
AS foreshadowed in "The Commercial Motor" last week, the Transport and General Workers' Union on Wednesday presented a claim to the London Transport Executive for higher wages for nearly 60,000 road traffic employees.
Conductors on country services require increases of up to £1 per week
• and drivers an extra 10s. Drivers and conductors on central motorbus, trolleybus and tram services are claiming an increase of I ls. per week. Engineering employees on the central services demand 'a minimum of £5 18s. a week for semi-skilled workers and £5 10s. a week for general hands. Slightly lower rates for workers on country services are proposed.
Increases varying from 65, to 10s, a week are sought also for the miscellaneous grades.
"MIDLAND RED" HOUSES STAFF A CHAIN of hostels is being estab
lished by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co., Ltd., to solve the problem of finding living accommodation for staff recruited from outside the company's area.
Last year a large double-fronted house was opened at Leamington Spa as a staff hostel for 30 men. It has a number of dormitory bedrooms, and each occupant has a separate wardrobelocker. there is spacious messing accommodation and a large lounge.
Arrangements are well in hand for opening a second hostel at Sutton Coldfield, and inquiries are proceeding in other districts.
LEEDS STAFF ASKED TO FORGO HOLIDAY
EEDS Transport Department has 1...1 issued an appeal to drivers and conductors to forgo their six-day winter holiday in order to maintain services at normal strength. This move follows the refusal of the Ministry of Labour to allow the department to advertise for and engage staff. Those who volunteer to forgo their winter holiday will receive double pay for the week.
LIVING WITH TRANSPORT TWO papers dealing with road pas
senger transport are to be read to meetings of the Institute of Transport: On January 19, at 5.30 p.m., at the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Mr. C. Batman, F.R.LB.A., M.Inst.T., and Mr. M.. G. Bennett, M.Sc., F.Inst.P., will deliver a treatise entitled "Living With transport: a survey of amenity requirements in a public transport service."
Mr. F. Bryan, traffic manager of the Eastern National Omnibus Co., Ltd., will read a -short paper at the Shire Hall, Chelmsford, at 7 p.m. on January 23.
NATIONALIZATION CALL GROWS E Government of Ceylon is being urged by Opposition members to nationalize the island's bus services. According to a member's estimate, a State-owned bus undertaking, replacing the 65 units now operating, could make a profit of about £1,000,000 a year. s27