OPINIONS FROM OTHERS.
Page 24
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
The Editor invites correspondence on all subjects connected with the use of commercial motors. Letters should be on one side of the paper only and typewritten by preference. The right of abbreviation is reserved, and no responsibility for
, views expressed is accepted.
The Omnibus Toll.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[17001 Sir,—I have been very much interested and instructed by the valuable series of ,articles " Hints for Hauliers," written, by your contributor "The Skotch."
As regards the article on chars-à-bancs in your last issue, I have looked through the•figures, but cannot find the mileage fee payable to the highway authority under Section 20 of the Local Government Act of 1916. •
As your readers are aware, the section in question prohibits, under a heavy penalty, any omnibus from plying for hire on or using any route which has not been regularly used by omnibuses plying for hire within two yearsaprior to March 1st, 1916, except with the consent of the highway authority, or, if more than one, every highway authority liable for the maintenance and repair of the highways along which the route runs, and, for the purposes of the section, the expression " omnibus " includes every omnibus, char-a-bancs, wagonette' brake, stage coach, or other carriage plying for hire, or used to carry passengers at separate fares. I believe that. several highway authorities have fixed the sum of 3d. per mile as a condition for giving the necessary consent. Of course, if a char-abanes is running regularly on a particular route within one county, it is easy to calculate the mileage and the amount payable to the highway authority. Last year, however, a number of long char-a-bancs trips were advertised and run extending through several different counties. I am. sure it would interest your readers to know what arrangement was made with the respective highway authorities in these cases.
As regards the heavy taxation which it ia suggested should be placed upon double-decked motorbuses, I trust the committee now considering the matter will not overlook the case of the many motorbuses engaged in carrying people to and from small villages into provincial towns. I am a director of a transport company which runs a motorbus service from Mersea Island to Colchester, a distance of about nine miles, there being no railway between the two places. The population of Mersea, is such that, during the winter months, the bus service consists of three journeys each day (excluding Sundays) into and out of Colchester, so that the omnibus does 54 miles only each week-day.
Is a, motorbus, used under these conditions, to be taxed the same as a vehicle which is running all day long and covering well over 100 miles? If so, I am afraid, the proposed taxation, coupled with the increase of 801. per gallon on petrol, will be the death blow of many provincial motor omnibus services.
To take the town of Colchester for an example, there are several omnibus services running into the town from a number or surrounding.villages. Some of these services run daily, while others only run once a day on one or two days a week, for the simple reason that the business does not justify a daily service. It will be obviously impossible for the owners of these vehicles to continue the service, if they areto be taxed 70 or £80 per annum, while their yehicks are only nsed one or two days a week for the convenience of people wishing to attend Colchester on -market day, etc. The same remark applies, of course, to practically every provincial town in England.
c36 I trust the committee will also consider the advisability of licensing country motorbuses and chars-abasics for a short period, say, from June 1st to September 30th. My company find it neesssary to run. more buses during the summer months, and it does not seem fair to my mind, to tax a vehicle for the whole year when the earning capacity extends eve; a period of four months only. I quite appreciaie that some motorbus and char-a-banes owners remove the bodies during the winter and use the chassis for other purdooses, but, on the other hand, there are owners who prefer to keep the vehicle intact during the winter months, and these, I think, should receive consideration when the new proposals are being passed into law.
I must apologize for the length of this letter, but plead the importance of the matters discussed as my excuse.—Yours faithfully, W. HERBERT BISHOP.
Hoods for Double-deckers.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR,.
(17103 Sir,—Withi reference to the " Inspector's " notes in your issue, February 3rd, everyone seems to have forgotten the first steam bus which ran on the London streets.
This double-decked bus, which was a Thornyeroft steam wagon chassis, on steel tyres, fitted with a body specially designed and built by the Road Car Co., under the direction of the late M. Duff, had a, canopy over the top deck. The canopy was provided primarily to protect outside passengers from .the smuts from the chimney.
This steam. bus ran for the Road Car Co. 'during the summer of 1902 between Hammersmith Broadway and Oxford Circus via Shepherd's Bush and Bayswater.
The stability of the vehicle was very good, and, to illustrate this, I recollect that one Sunday afternoon, in the Shepherd's Bush Road, the bus, fully laden on the outside only, was hit broadside on by a London 'United tram. The impact was a heavy one, damaging the tram.more than the bus, but it failed to turn the bus over, although there were no passengers inside. I have a photograph of this early double-decker, and was responsible for the running of this pioneer type for Messrs. Thornycroft.—Yours faithfully,
D. S. KENNEDY, M.I.Mech.E., M.I.A.E.
Rubberine Fillings.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,7111 Sir,—I have read " F.G.T.'s" letter (No. 1,708) on the costs of /both solid and pneumatic tyres and their relative values compared with tyre filling.
Some months ago I had two 880-120 tyres filled with Rulaberine, and, so far, they have been a. great success, although probably I have not had them in use long enough to find out their faults, one of which, I am told, is that a cut through allows the "mixture(' to escape. Other users speak excellently of them, and, except that they add to the weight of the wheel, they arequite as good as any pneumatic as regards resiliency. I did not have to lay the car up, as the spare rim was sent away as soon as the filled tyre came to. hand.
If they give the same satisfaction as regards "life of the tyre" as pneumatics, I shall adopt them more extensively.
With the usual cliaclaimer.—Yours faithfully, W. CLARKE.