OPINIONS and QUERIES COST OF REPLACING IMPRESSED VEHICLES IT was
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with feelings of sympathy and understanding Ithat I read Mr. F. A. FIM's letter in your issue of October 12. Mr. Flin complains that vehicles which were requisitioned in the early part of the war and for which compensation was paid at a very low rate, are now being sold at fabulous profits, whilst the original owner of these machines is having to pay enormous prices to obtain vehicles in replacement.
A small company in which I am interested and which owned only three vehicles at the outbreak of war, had all three taken from it on September 8, 1939. They were almost brand-new Albions and the price paid by the Royal Air Force, which was responsible for the impressment, was simply the used value with deductions made for worn tyres, etc.
Through losing all its vehicles this company was virtually put out of business without any compensation, and to get back it must buy new or used machines at the present high prices This seems to be very unfair, and it is particularly aggravating when one reads that these requisitioned or impressed vehicles are now being sold by Government authorities at a profit.
London, W.6. M. W. Hmuus, A.M.Inst.T.
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST, AS one who has spent over five years in the Middle East during the war, I have read with interest the article by Staff-Sgt. Hirst; in your issue dated October 19. Whilst he has undoubtedly made a good study of his subject, I feel that he has not sufficiently emphasized the generally extremely low standard of maintenance which exists, principally in Egypt, on all mechanically propelled vehicles, whether passenger or goods.
Overloading of from 50 to 100 per cent, of the rated capacity is common, and the native drivers' fatalistic attitude towards defects (It is the will of Allah!) results in many major breakdowns occurring which could, otherwise, have been avoided. Overheating, at least in Egypt, I would largely regard as the fault of leaky radiators. British Army vehicles, Bedfords, Commers, Austins, etc., even when driven by Egyptian civilians, rarely boil, although they admittedly operate around the 200-degree F mark in summer. Egyptian mechanics, whilst excellent at certain jobs and at improvisation, are unreliable, and the best of them is liable at times to bouts of "making things fit with a hammer" or of " reamering " bearings with a file.
The light classes of American vehicle will, I am afraid, " scoop " the Middle East market unless British firms be prepared to maintain comparable spares and service facilities under the charge of British supervisors.
My own position in the case is not entirely disinterested as, during the latter half of my stay, I was in close contact with business men who have money to invest, and who, because of the high reputation which British goods enjoy in the Middle East, are genuinely interested in trade promotion with this country.
My difficulty lies in the fact that with the limited opportunities I have through being Still in the Forces, it is not easy to find the right British manufacturers who are likely to be sufficiently concerned with the prospects of trade in this particular market.
Chertsey. D. B. ROBINSON THE PRICE OF MILK HAULAGE: SUPPORT FOR S.T.R.
I VENTURE to draw attention to the last paragraph
of the article by S.T.R., in your issue dated October 26, headed "Milk to be Carried For Next to Nothing," and to point out that S.T.R. has evidently made a mistake in his costings when he states that .06d. added to the ' rate, presumably of 1.04d., means an additional profit of only £25 He would be more correct if he stated that the amount referred to would be nearer £275. Actually it is a little more than £275.
I am not suggesting that S.T.R.'s article is fundamentally wrong because of this, but I do say that probably the Joint Milk Haulage Committee had other information before it which caused it to reach a decision to increase the Board's offer of 1.04d. per gallon to 1.1 d.
London, 'W.I. F. L. SABATINI,
Rates and Charges Officer, Road Haulage Association.
(Mr. Sabatini is quite correct. The amount of £25 was 'arrived at, unfortunately, by the mistake of assessing the figures of .06d. per mile instead of per gallon. Even, however, with this correction, the total amount which the milk haulier receives is very little over £400 a year, that is for his own services as manager and foreman-mechanic, and the profit on his expenditure in connection with the operation of five vehicles on milk haulage—a particularly arduous branch of 'road transport, involving seven days per week, 52 weeks per annum. I must confess that I am amazed to read the second paragraph of Mr. Sabatini's letter, in which he suggests that the Joint Milk Haulage Committee had other information before it which caused it to reach a decision. Surely it is the business of the Joint Haulage Committee to hear the case and to judge it on the facts before it. ,This statement of Mr. Sabatini's lends colour to a rumour which was before me at the time I wrote the article, but to which I did not give credence and to which I did not refer in the article because I thought I must have more substantial backing for the statement before I gave it publicity. I was told in all seriousness that the milk haulier concerned had been informed, before he went into the room to have his case heard, that a decision had been come to and that he would receive 1.1d. per gallon!—S.T.R.]
MILK haulage is not my line of country. When I "-I-commenced to read S.T.R.'s article in the October 26 issue of your journal, I did so more as a matter of form, rather than because I thought that I would find anything of interest—which, nevertheless, I did. It must he a long time since I read anything so pregnant with interest, not merely to the milk haulier, not only to myself, but to every haulier in the country. It is a striking example of the sort of sympathetic treatment hauliers get, and are likely to get, from any department with Government backing, such as the Milk Marketing Board. It is an unanswerable indictment of those who are elected by hauliers to represent them and appointed to assist them, and see that they get fair play.
Ironically enough, I had that morning, over my breakfast, been reading about the dockers, who claim that they should be paid 25s. per day, or £7 10s. per week of six days. Their responsibilities and risks are nil. On the other hand, this milk haulier, with five vehicles all specially built, carrying a commodity of highest priority, a man who has built up his business arduously and self-sacrificially over a period of years, a skilled man, acting as mechanic as well as managing his business, is granted little more than a docker.
I have been given to understand, too, that this is not
an isolated case, that this belittlement of rates is part of the settled policy of the Board No blame attaches to the Board for that; presumably its members regard it as their duty to arrange to have the milk moved at the lowest possible cost.
But what can possibly be said in favour of the hauliers' representatives on the Committee, who allowed such a scandalous decision to pass? They, if they have any knowledge of costs at all, must have been aware that the figures put forward by this operator were fair and reasonable. They must have appreciated that, even on the Board's figures, the man was being awarded a pittance. They must have realized that, on the actual figures for cost of operation, this operator is doomed to work at a trifling remuneration until this gross miscarriage of justice is rectified and the rate increased.
I would like to know what those haulier members did for their colleague, one of those who elected them. What steps the Executive Council will take to put the matter right, and if it will replace the members by others more competent. E. B. HOWES, National Chairman, National Conference of Road Transport Associations. Harpenden.
THE article by S.T.R. on the transport of milk
demands comment I am at all times interested in his views, but do not always agree with them Personally, however, however, I think that this is the best job of work he has yet done.
The Milk Marketing Board has treated hauliers in a scandalous manner. It has at the moment a large number . of "C" licensees hauling milk at totally uneconomic rates, and regularly uses this factor to threaten the small haulier and force him to work at these rates S.T.R meets the Joint Haulage Committee and says that he feels that the hauliers' representatives are not sufficiently strong To me, these representatives must be either dumb or they have no knowledge of the men they purport to represent. I would ask them how many hauliers with above six lorries now work for the Milk Marketing Board. I know of cases where the Board has, after paying the haulier a bad rate, even insisted on his refunding part of that For some time past the Regional Transport Commissioners have been reviewing A contract licences, and have continually stated that so long as C licensees were working for the Milk Marketing Board, no Court could convict a legitimate haulier for using his A contract licence for work other than that 'stated on his licence.
It would be interesting to know what the railway companies' profit amounts to for the haulage of milk. It is true that many hauliers are to blame for this position If they could only appreciate that it is better to do nothing than to work at a loss. Most of the small men I have talked to feel that half a loaf is better than none, but I am sure that if they checked their accounts they would find they were not even getting a crust.
Stockton-on-Tees. H. L. WALKER.
LORRIES FOR US, NOT FOR SPAIN FROM some of the papers I_ note that British lorries are being sent to Spain. Meanwhile, we hauliers have difficulty in obtaining permits for new vehicles, and if we get them the chassis are not ready and may involve waiting for many months. At present, many of us are held up for tyres and tubes for old crocks which have had hard work for five to seven years. Housing and road work are being held up for want of proper
machines, drivers and mechanics. These men should be returned under Class B demobilization.
Why not let Franco do his haulage, using his Blue Divisions and wheelbarrows? Give us the men and the tools and we will do our job. A.R. Fochavers.
THOSE TIPPING VEHICLES THAT ARE IDLE WAS very interested to read the letter by Mr. W. H. B.
Quilliam in your issue dated October 26. I am one of those unfortunates who have been operating under short-term B licences, and who, now that the war is over, can go to the devil so far as the powers-that-be are concerned. I cannot help thinking as to how far Mr. Nicholls, of Brighton, whose rise from small beginnings you published a short time ago, would have progressed in the transport world had he had to contend with present-day restrictions and red tape. I, of course, mean no offence to Mr. Nicholls.
It must appear very strange, however, to the ordinary man in the street that all these-tipping and other lorries should be idle when there is so much to be done everywhere.
It really would seem that the Ministries concerned have climbed to such dizzy heights that they are out of touch with the rest of us. Otherwise, why cannot we be allowed to do as Mr. Quilliam suggests and get on with the job?
Personally, I would much rather be driving my lorry loaded with coal, bricks, or anything else for that matter, than punching out this letter with one finger on an old typewriter.
There will be time enough to think' about discarding the little man when everybody has a house to live in, and everyone has his cellar full of coal, and the larder full of food Until that time comes, the Ministers concerned with fuel, food, housing and transport should utilize our resources to the fullest extent possible.
I enclose a copy of my letter to my M.P., Mr Norman Dodds, and you have my full permission to use this.
Crayford. H. C. KIMBER.
Letter to Mr. Norman Dodds, M.P.
I would like to draw your attention to a letter in the correspondence columns of last week's issue of "The Commercial Motor," which states that there are noW " some 3,000 tipping lorries idle in the country." It is written by a man well known in the trade, who evidently knows what he is talking about. Unfortunately, I am the owner-driver of one of the " 3,000 " who, owing to the refusal of the Minister of War Transport to renew my short-term B licence, have had the ground cut from under my feet.
Day after day one reads in the papers that this and that cannot be done owing to. lack of transport; and so it goes on I feel sure that others as well as myself are becoming frustrated by it all.
Surely the obvious thing-to do is to form a pool of all redundant vehicles and, as the writer suggests, use them for coal transport before the hard weather sets in. Must we wait until we are in the same desperate plight as we were last year, and then call in the Army and leave the small operators to the mercy of the Bankruptcy Court?
I sincerely hope that you will find time to raise this important matter in the House before leaving for Yugoslavia, as the majority of the people of my acquaintance has not everehad the meagre allowance of coal, as proscribed by the Minister of Fuel and Power.