Opinions from Others.
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The Editor invirrs correspondence on all subjects connected with the use of commercial motors. Letters should be on one siae of the paper only and typewritten by preference. The right of abbreviation is reserved/ and no responsibility for views expressed is accepted.
Why Higher Railway Rated 7 The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1474] Sir,—With regard to your article on "Higher Railway Rates Unavoidable," in your issue dated the 3rd May, whiled agree that railway rates will probably be advanced, yet why should they, in view of the recent statement by Mr. Bonar Law in the House, that (quoting from memory) "the railways had also shown a substantial profit,' although at the time large increases of wages had been given to workers I--Yours
faithfully, "TRAFFIC MANAGER." Bootle.
[We refer to this subject editorially on the first page of this is ue.___ED.] Preventing Accidents with Tractors.
-The Editor, .THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1475] Sir,—I hate for seinetine past been acting as engineer, and occasionally driving a tractor and working a plough, and as I have seen and heard recently of several accidents, all of which might have proved very disastrous through either want of knowledge or experience, I thought a few hints concerning the control of these tractors on the road might prevent many such misadventures.
There are many motor agents throughout the country taking on this important work of motor ploughing, and from my recent experience I think the same mistakes that have already been made will be made again unless some explicit instructions are given to each person who takes on this work, I have written to the Machinery and Implement Section in London, who are organizing the whole of this work, as I think each organizer and engineer should be written to on this matter.
I believe quite 90 per tient, of the accidents that happen with tractors in this country is through attempting to change gears on hills without scotching the wheels. No fewer than four cases, each of which might have proved disastrous, have come before my notice within the last few days, during the journeys by road from one field to another.
If out of gear for only an instant on a hard road. the average tractor on the slightes. t gradient will begin to run, and in no time become completely out of control whereas with gear engaged or seotched it cannot possibly run away.
Three ,points Worth noting are :—(1) Always scotch wheel before changing, gear ; (2) always keep clutch fully engaged When running down hill ; (3) if engine ,governor is out of action when going down hill either throttle engine, cut off ignition, or turn off fuel.— Yours faithfully,
THE BRITOL WAGON AND CARRIAGE WORKS CO., LTD.,
Bristol, G. FALCONAR FRY, Managing Director.
Motorbus Fares and L.C.C. Affairs.
• The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1476] Sir.—Referring, to the articles recently appearing in THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR, an, addition to these may, perhaps. not be out of place. For one thing, the handicapping of the motorbus _company in their legitimate desire to increase the fares is attributable to the artificial and suicidal policy of the L.C.C. in persisting to run the car service at a lass, for which bad management the unfortunate ratepayers have to pay the piper. The question naturally arises whether such a state of things should be allowed to continue? Take, for instance, 850 the absurdity of continuing the halfpenny fares which is apparently the pet hobby. These are accepted at busy times of the day, Sundays included, to the exclusion of bona-fide long-distance passengers and also those taking return tickets ;'and as they necessitate so many stoppages they are indirectly responsible for many of the accidents that occur almost daily, besides contributing to the blocks in traffic, owing to their helplessness and monopoly of the centre of the roads, apart from the annoyance they cause to long-distance
passengers. , When we consider that the motorbus services are being curtailed and at a time, too, when a full service should be in full swing, we may well imagine the loss which has to be borne by the motorbus company, and we should likewise remember the loyalty of the company in the sacrifice it has made in handing over to the Government hundreds of its buses and drivers for war purposes. Goodness only knows what we should have done without them! The L.C.C. has done nothing whatever in this direction ; that, of course was impossible. Then, why in the name of Fair Play, should a loyal and necessary service— more necessary now than ever—be strangled by the unfair competition of an undertaking which only seems to exist for the express purpose of paying big salaries to officials and perpetrating a system of slavery upon its unfortunate women conductresses, for in the way the business is carried on it is really nothing more or less/ Apart from this the work on these double-decked cars, especially when loaded. siria,cks very much of a dog's life for these poor women, many of whom are married, with families, and husbands at the Front.
Considering the exacting nature of the work in all weathers, why does the Council not employ two women on each loaded car morning and evening? It is an acrobatic feat for a woman to get about the car in such chicumstances. But all of the fares must be got in ! Are they? Getting about the car with a money-bag half-full of coppers with a punch Strapped round her neck, weighing a matter of 2 lb. and another monstrosity weighing another 1 lb., her badge num
ber with several heavy leather straps bound round•her body, what chance has • the ipoor creature to
breathe ? And she has to be responsible for all! Fancy running up and down the stairs with all this " impedimenta, and pushing her way amongst the straphangers! It is a puzzle how she manages to take care of the cash ! After the last trip for the day she is DGt dope, because the yard has to be visited for te purpose of paying in, and woe betide her if she cannot make her accounts agree, She is there perhaps half an hour or more analysing the mysteries of ticket numbers, etc. Possibly if she is on a late ear she does not reach home until the small hours of the morning. What a life!
This is war time! Why not abolish tickets, punches, inspectors, the army of officials. and judge the ear by results? We' are all more or less under martial law. Surely the L.C.C. should be included in this 'lei It is sometimes necessary to dissect things it era deeply for the purpose of getting at the truth ; and as great things hang on little things it is not out of place to include extraneous matters even in journals which one may class as business and commercial. However that may be, this communication is written with the object of righting a wrong. One would imagine by the way the L,G.O.C. is managed that it was its desire to pose as a charitable institution. Unlike the L.C.C., which has no shareholders to study (more's the pity), the motorbus companie,s have re-. sponsibilities, financially and otherwise, about whfich the former knows nothing and cares less. Your art:ales speak of halfpenny fares: Let there be no mistake-about it—no coin of lesser value than id. will suffice to permit the carrying-on of the business satisfactorily. In the Management of the motorbus companies there issomething worth working and living for. Red tapeism is -naturally .absent in-all bona-fide industrially-conducted concerns; it is not so in those managed officially by councils and such like authorities. Beehives of industry are not to be found in these councils and Governmental. institutions! There is always a large want of sincerity, and quite a suspicion of tainted meat.
No one will deny that a rise in fares is riot justified any more than arise in wages is not deserved in the present crisis. Your point abbut unnecessary travelling is a good one, for it is unfair to the long-distance traveller, or worker going to and from his work; to be ousted and delayed along the route by these absurd short-distance "Weary Willies" ! It makes one's mouth water to hear you speak of a return to normal existence; considering the purgatory we are passinathrough. Certainly nothing seems to matter at the present time, for we do not know what i going to happen next. What a time ! It seems as though we shall have to educate the public who are given to buying the cheapest things in the market and who patronize the cheap and nasty (in a sense) modes of conveyance. From time to time we hear talk. of the people's trarnsiAnd we occasionally hear something about the salaries of the officials. The fine art of spending other people's money is not a very difficult matter when you hold a blank cheque on the unfortunate ratepayer. It is simply daylight robbery of the ratepayers' money—to say nothing of the abandoned and water-logged ship, the tramway track (save the word). Wear and tear is ignored; the track must last for ever !—Yours faithfully, Dalston. ".Faut FLAY.
Ford Converting Units.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1477:1 Sir,—As so much interest appears to be taking place just now in conversion units for Ford cars, for converting them for commercial uses, it may interest youto learn that we have just received from our first agents, who have now been handling the Olson converting unit a little over a year, their tenth Order.for six, making sixty in all up to now.
Whilst writing, we may also say that we are now supplying a special chassis extension which has the effect of lengthening the wheelbase either 2 ft. or 2 ft. 6 ins, and of adding 3 ft. or 4 ft.lto the available platform length of body which can be used. This has been introduced to meet ;the requirements of those wh &se goods are.of a bulky rather than a-dense nature. We find the ordinary 6 ft, or 7 ft? platform length, which is available with the standard unit without extension, gives all the accommodation required for most trades, seeing that the width of platform can be carried out if required, to about 5 ft.6 ins. • It may also interest your readers in veryhilly districts to learn that we now are able to furnish supplementary 15 in. by 2 fn. brakes with either of our steelwheeled solid-tired sets.
Also, it may be interesting to mention what we believe is another record, and this is that, although we have beet selling theseunits now for 15 month', and many of theni have many thousands of miles t•3 their credit, chiefly with second-hand chassis, we have not yet had to record a single complaint, nor have we had to supply a single replacement part for any of the units we have yet supplied. As a record of reliability we think this will take some beating.— Yours faithfully, BRAMCO, LTD. Coventry. A Six-wheeled Motorbus.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
I1478] Sir,--With reference to the controversy on motorbus weight, I should like to suggest that instead of cutting down the unladen weight df the present motorbus chassis, which is already at a minimum, a six-wheel vehicle might be designed and
constructed. This sounds rather complicated and clumsy at first thought, but with a little consideration it could be constructed so as to be practically as simple and quite as manageable as the four-wheel bus. There would be far less vibtation and damage to roads caused by a six-wheel vehicle weighing, say, atatenS, than by a four-wheel vehicle weighing 2i ca 3 tans, as the weight would naturally be more evenly distributed, and the vehiale would run far more smoothly instead of having the alternate up-and down movement of the front and rear wheels which fourwheel vehic es have and which causes the terrible state of potijioles which roads frequented by fast and heavy lorri or buses gat into. As regar the 'method of steering the six-wheel chassis, ate ring could either be on the front arid -centre whee a or front and rear wheels, or else the centre whee s might run independently on castors; in the latte ca-se it, would be necessary to have a device for ocking the castors when requiring to reverse, wh ch device could be operated from the driver's. sea . I simply ubenit this as an idea; not having gone any further into the pros and cons of this arrangement.—You s faithfully,
ALAN STIRRLEY, LIEUT. M. T. , A. S. C. " R" Corps, Siege Artillery Park, B.E.F.
Canadian or American Tires ?
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTCri.
[14793 Sir, , -My letter, which appeared in your issue of the 19th April, was intended as an answer to that from Mr. Burnley under date,29th March; it was not my intentiea to enter into a controversy re percentages of tires imported by us, and so far as I ant concerned this correspondence must now elese.—Yours faithfully, E. AVERY, Sales Manager,
THE GOODYEAR TYRE AND RUBBER CO.
(Gt. Britain), LTD.