THE APPEAL OF THE MOTOR COACH.
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What Should Be Done to Ensure Success for the Industry in the 1924 Season. The Coach Proprietor's Chance to Popularize the Travel-by
road Movement.
WHAT WILL be the prospects of the motor coach industry for next year? This is a question which coach owners should be considering now, but, probably, too many . oikners have such dismal records to look back upon for the past season that they dare not look. to the future. Satisfactory or unsatisfactory, the experiences of the past season's working ought. to be reviewed in all seriousness at the earliest" possible moment, and the lessons to be gained thereby brought to, bear on the plans
for the coming year. ••• In a number of cases, chiefly in the industrial districts, as distinct from the holiday resorts, coach owners had, in ie certain instances, a disastrous season in 1923. Bad trade and bad weather are generally quoted as being responsible for this result, and the heads of coachoperating concerns are iriclined to throw up their hands in despair and declare that these two factors are beyond their control.
It must be agreed that owners cannot control the trade of the country and bring prosperity to potential coach _users in order to enable them to pay for the privilege of enjoying the pleasures of the open road. Still less can they control the weather. But low • far can coach owners, individually arid as a body, set out to counter these two evil influences as they affect their own particular industry ?
Of the two, the effect of bad weather is undeniably the worse. The English climate is notoriously uneven, although we think it reasonable to predict that the spring, summer and autumn months of 1924 are not likely to be as gatchy as those of the year now drawing to a close. The optimistic coach owner can, therefore, put his faith in the belief that he has better prospects in store.
Faith goes a long way in -business, but it does not always bring success, and since the coach owner cannot get over the difficulty of bad weather he can surely do something to circumvent it by providing better weather-protection facilities on his vehicles, thus enabling him to continue his work when, to say the least of it, conditions are somewhat unpropitious. It is admitted that the difficulties associated with this problem
are not easy to solve, but that they will be solved is assured, although this is not probable until more direct attention has been given to the subject, in which looms large the comfort and convenience of passengers.
But, point out many owners, if trade be bad and purse-strings are tight the public has no spare money for luxuries, and motor coaching, they say, is certainly a luxury. This is no argument whatever for the coach owner, or any business man, to put forward. The proprietors of kinema theatres are in a somewhat similar position to motor coach owners in that they provide whatis termed a luxury for the people, but long queues are still to be seen at all the largest picture houses. What applies in one ease applies almost to the same extent in the other ; it is simply a question of the method of appealing to the public, and herein lies the coach owner's chance.
Nowadays the public believes, and rightly so, that recreation is essential, and this factor provides the motor coach owner with the opportunity for convincing the public that open-air recreation is essential.
Of late years the desire for the open air has increased immeasurably, this probably being a legacy of the war. And what an opportunity the motor coach presents for enabling lovers of the fresh air to see more of the countryside and to exercise their longing for the open road But Ile motor coach owner has not seized his opportunity. The kinema has another appeal, but, in spite of the tightness of the public's pursestrings, this appeal has successfully drawn money from the pockets of the multitude. the appeal of the kinema has been put before the public, but many motor coach owners have been content to bemoan their fates and to complain of bad trade and bad weather.
Probably a turning-point in the history of motor coaching was reached when the conference of those concerned turned down the scheme for the organization of a national body to work in the interests of the isolated and individual owners. Divided some coach owners have failed, whereas in a body they might have faced and overcome diMculties. There has been no united voice to make proper and organized appeal to the public for the motor coach, industry.
Motor coaching will not popularize itself amongst the public as will some of the necessaries of life, and to make thei industry assured of success it is necessary to instil into theepublic the belief that it cannot do without motor coaching. This -is not such an extravagant demand as it would appear to be at first sight:' .• Smoking is not a necessity-, but many thousands of men believe it to be, and -the same remark applies in other directions. , In nine cases out of ten the public is led to believe that it cannot 'do without' Many Commodities because of judicious advertising. People are tempted to buy because the fact that certain articles 'posses Merits has -been impressed upon. themby -advertisereents. Themotor coaching • industry is in a similar position, but except for intermittent appeala by individual owners its claims have not yet been properly put before the. public. An inetance of what the photographic. profession his clOrie in the,direction of
boosting photography" is worth relating here. It is understood that there are, roughly, 7,000 photographers in the country, and they have been appealed to to raise 25,000 for the purpose. There is a suggested minimum of three guineas to be subscribed on every £1,000 of a. photographer's turnover, and the scheme is beiqg carried out by a big London advertising agency, in conjunction with a committee representing the professioni The enthusiastic support. of the manufac turers has been secured in view of the advantages it will indirectly confer upon them. Could not a similar Scheme be organized for the motor coach move meat? One is badly needed.
Comfort for Straphangers.
A defect of the banging leather strap provided , for the convenience of those passengers in a motorbus or tramcar who may have to stand, is that it cannot be kept clean and is, therefore, more or less insanitary. In a new type, which is being placed upon the market by.G. D. Peters and Co., Ltd., of Windsor Works, Slough, only the attachment to the longitudinal support for the strap is of leather. -The hand-grip is of metal, either aluminium strip or brass tubing, bent to such a shape that it affords a comfortable grip, and coated with noninflammable and easily washed celluloid, which has the advantages that it is more comfortable to hold than bare metal, , and also that it prevents any objectionable clanging noise in the event of the strap swinging and striking another one or some other part of the vehicle.
In an alterative design, no leather is used at all, the metal grip being supported direct from the roof of the vehicle by means of a steel cable.
A New Combination Body.
Messrs. William Dickens, of Pinfold Gate, the old-established coachbuilders, of Loughborough, have recently produced a body which can be used equally effectively as a van, bu8 or motor coach, the price being £145 for the 14-seater. The body, an example of which is illustrated on this page as applied to a Ford chassis,, has four doors, the rear pair being used when the chassis is employed as a vah. All the seats are removable, there being three rows, each seating four people abreast, a central gangway being obtained by turning up the middle seats. There are five lights on each side which drop into the framework and the doors. The complete body, as will be seen from the illustration, is a neatapd workmanlike job and at the price should prove attractive.