A Reunion of Horseowners.
Page 1
Page 2
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A report in another part of this issue (page 68) will show that the writer enjoyed yet another privilege one evening last week, in that he was called upon, at the annual dinner of the United Horse Owners and Allied Trades Protection Association, to submit the toast of that Association. The general trend of the speeches throughout was in favour of co-operation between transport interests, and the writer, in that he was entrusted with the first toast after the usual loyal toasts, may fairly claim that he gave the lead in that direction.
The period of antagonism between horse and motor interests is happily over. The latter have struggled successfully through some 18 years of opposition, but their place is now acknowledged on all hands, and certainly not sparingly in horse-haulage circles.
We have consistently expended a large portion of our missionary efforts, ever since No. 1 of THE COMMERCiAL MOTOR made its appearance in March, 1905, in the direction of converting horseowners, large and small. We have, too, fought the battle in the Press at large. It is satisfactory to find that the position is now largely one of addressing the converted. CommerciaIquotor vehicles may not be exactly blessed, amoegst haulage contractors and allied interests in the transport world, but they are now most assuredly regarded as a necessity. We steadily and unswervingly continue to carry out our plans and campaign in detail.
Welcome Cost Sheets : Arrangements for Further Supplies.
We have often found, in conversation with owners and intending-owners of conmiercial motors of all types, that they look with no small amount of suspicion upon any sets of costs which are advanced on behalf of motor manufacturers by their salesmen. This disability, we may point out, does not attach to the sheet of average working costs which is published by ourselves, and that fact has been brought home to us of late by the demand for supplies on the part of makers and agents. It has afforded us pleasure thus to step into the breach, and to fill a void, practically free of charge, which can be satisfied in no other way.
These tables of working costs, in respect of both petrol-driven and steam-driven vehicles, have now been circulated in thousands. They are the condensed summaries of many hundreds of records, and they refer to long years of working, although we decided, in the early part of last summer, to eliminate the -whole of the costs data which reached us ea-slier than the 1st January, 1908, except in so far as experience with the older machines justifies our current figures in respect of depreciation.
The tables under notice were published, we may recall, shortly before the Olympia Show of July last, in connection with our "" Trades Campaign" issues, and they were more particularly addressed, on those occasions, as references back to the issues of the 29th May and 12th June will confirm, to the brewing and allied trades and to every grade concerned with contracting work in the furniture-removal, warehousing, dockside-carrying, and general-haulage trades of the country. Those trades, of course, are more directly interested in loads of two tons and upwards, but the tables, none the less, go right down below that useful load, and deal in detail with costs for one-ton, 10ewt., and 7-cwt. vans, and for 5-ewt. parcelcars.
The costs are set out in pence per mile run, and in total expenditure per week of six daysl and they are analysed under the following heads in each ease : weekly mileage ; driver's wages; fuel; lubricants ; maintenance (material and wages, including sundry stores); rent and rates ; insurance; depreciation ; and interest..
We do not fail to point out, at the foot of this concise guide to intending purchasers, that buyers of commercial motors who intend to use the machines for contracting purposes, and not solely to convey their own loads in the course of their own work, must of necessity charge more to safeguard themselves against particular contingencies. This is a feature as to which we ,shall be happy to give fuller information on application.
It only remains -to add, here, that we have arranged to furnish reprints of these tables, for the assistance of our supporters throughout the industry, at little above cost price, and we desire to reiterate the fact that they have already been found of the greatest possible value in satisfying the queries of would-be purchasers who had hitherto been allowing " I dare not" to wait upon "I would."
Four-wheel-drive Systems.
Current and recent reports in our pages, with reference to the four-wheel-drive trials under the auspices of the French War Office, again serve to direct attention to a class of design and construction which promises soon to become both characteristic and standard. America and France have taken the lead in this branch of self-propulsion, and manufacturers in each of these countries have been prompted to tackle the subject—if from different motives—with the common object of securing efficiency where any two-wheel drive must fail. It is quite wrong to suppose, t1a. we fear many British manufacturers do, that the only demand for a four-wheel-drive system will arise by reason of necessary use upon bad roads or on cross-country work. We wish to invite consideration for the four-wheel drive, both on the part of users and makers in the United Kingdom, on different grounds altogether.
The day is coming, and it will certainly not be mm a than three years from now at the outside, when thero will be still further differential treatment of several classes of heavy motors in this country. We refer to permissible speeds, total loads, and graduated scales of taxation.
It is already common ground that rubber-tired vehicles will receive preferential treatment, following the precedents which have been established in France and Germany, and other than in respect of speed.
.Nobody fails to subscribe to this view, either in official or other well-informed circles. A variety of other factors will, however, undoubtedly be taken into .ticeount qua loads and taxation. 'file use of rubber tires ensures concessions as to speed.
The advocates of multiple axles may succeed in getting their claims recognized in statutory foi iiij that will mean a higher total weight, but more than two 41xles per vehicle. Another sanctioned expi Csskin of the multiple axle idea may prove to be along the lines of the Renard train, probably with electrical propulsion, but with the essential of distributed driving effort. Increasing attention is clearly being paid by road surveyors, and by the engineering officials of the Local Goveinment BoaNd, to the point of tangential stresses at the lines of contact—in short, to the work done on the road by each wheel. It is for these reasons that we anticipate greater interest in the four-wheel-drive system. Existing practie.e, taking the whole range of petrol-driven and steam-driven vehicles, is for the back axle-weight to vary, when loaded, between 63 per cent. and 77 per cent. of the gross weight of the motor unit. The area of contact that is provided between road and tire, at most by the two back wheels and under extreme conditions practically by only one of them, has to respond to the demand for the propulsion of the weight of the complete unit, and sometimes, in addition, to that which represents a loaded trailer.
Evidence is meagre that any material damage is done to average roads under the provisions of the Heavy Motor Car Order, but we are not satisfied with the limitations which that Order imposes, and the four-wheel drive is one of the devices to which we look for still further advances in the scope of selfpropelled traffic on common roads. Heavier total loads than those which are now usual can be conveyed, without doing harm to weak highways of the country as they exist, if the four-wheel-drive system of propulsion be included in any programme of extension. It ensures; of course., better load-distribution, as well as grip-distribution.
Motor-borne Petrol.
It was in November, 1912, that the Editor gave evidence before the Petroleum Committee of the Home Office in favour of a reversal of the earlier decision of that Committee not to allow petrol to be transported in bulk by road in tank-wagons. The War Office and the petrol companies supported the change, and the final report of the Home Office Committee, which was published in March of last year, contained a recommendation to remove the restriction, much to the satisfaction of all parties concerned.
The petrol-importing companies cannot be accused of any remarkable display of alacrity in turning to account the legitimate demand of motor delivery upon them, hut they are now moving with some sense of proportion. We were ourselves called in to advise one of the big groups representing the interests of Shell *spirit, before that company's initial purchases were made, for the purpose of our reporting specifically upon the economies that were to be effected by the substitution of motor delivery for horse delivery in certain areas and classes of work. It is no breach of confidence for us to state, after the considerable interval that has elapsed, that we were able to advise, after exhaustive investigation of the affected transport accounts which were submitted to us, that economies in the neighbourhood of 30 per cent. were assured. We are, now, glad to observe that the British Petroleum Co., Ltd., amongst others, is pine • ing many additional orders. Some appropriate illustrations will be found on page 82 of this issue. It has to be noted that eonsiderable purchases of bodies have been made to accommodate tins and eases. These, however, can readily be changed, when the all-tank age comes, for the single-unit metal shells, and the sooner the better.
B2
Breakdowns on Tramway Tracks.
The Secretary of State at the Home Office has intimated that the representations which were made to him with regard to the L.C.C. by-law, on the subject of the breakdown of vehicles in the streets, did not
constitute, in his opinion, sufficient reason to justify him in refusing to allow the by-law to come into force. We are sorry to hear that this is the case, and we feel sure that many owners of horse-drawn and motor vehicles will feel equally dissatisfied that the desired safeguards against L.C.C. bullying were not added. The by-law, which presumably is now invested with statutory force, and which was originally submitted by the L.C.C. in November last, reaAls "In any case where a vehicle breaks down and causes obstruction to traffic in any street or public place and the breakdown of such vehicle is due to its defective condition or to its being overloaded, the owner of such vehicle or any other person who caused or permitted it to be used and the driver thereof shall be guilty of an offence, and be liable on conviction to a penalty not exceeding 40s., provided that no person Shall be convicted under this by-law if he satisfies the court that he has taken all reasonable means to put or maintain the vehicle in proper condition or to prevent its being overloaded or being the driver of the vehicle that he was unaware of its defective or overloaded condition."
The proposal for which the C.M.U.A., the London Omnibus Owners Federation, the United Horse Owners and. Allied Trades Protection Association, and other kindred associations were responsible, was that the following words should be added :— " —or that the accident was due to a projecting or defective tramway rail, conduit, or inspectionhole cover."
Parties who are prosecuted, after a breakdown of an ordinary vehicle in the streets, will now have to rely, when their vehicles are not obviously faulty in construction nor badly maintained, upon ascribing any such breakdown to the causes which we desired to see specifically added to the wording. The by-law as framed does not hinder the entering of such a plea, buts of course, it will be less easy to secure the judicial result that the owner will wish to see.