Drivers for Public Services.
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There are signs that motor omnibus companies have been allowing men to drive these valuable machines without sufficient training. It is one thing for a man to get through the examination imposed by Scotland Yard before a license is granted to him : it is quite another to prove his claim to be an expert driver. We commented on the lack of competent men in our issue of March tfith, at a time when several new concerns had recently been launched. What we wrote then has a more pointed application to-day, because public service vehicles are now being delivered at a greater rate each succeeding month. No failure will equal that of false appreciation by managers. The driver question must be apprehended and handled with intelligence. Our editorial cited proceeds—” An efficient organisation of personnel is not conjured up at will, and it is a duty incumbent upon us to point out that drivers are not heaven-sent to meet occasion. It will take time. . . . The necessity for a systematic organisation to train drivers will be apparent when it is remembered that a motor omnibus driver is carrying members of the public through varying traffic, and that the absence of rails, though of assistance to progress, increases his responsibility." We repeal our warning and insistently call for observation of its import. Late delivery of vehicles can advantageously be turned to account for the teaching of more men. It is no waste to spend money in this direction, for the sum total of wages so disbursed is quickly exceeded by the expense of a few smashes and their consequential losses. There is a large supply of suitable labour offerinv. Men of desirable character are eager to be trained ii the proprietors and enoineets of operating companies will make the requisite provision. The comparative dearth of good drivers will only become more and more acute if steps are not taken greatly to extend the existing arrangements to turn new material to account. It is only by this means that the one man in, say, three or four who possesses sufficient nerve and resourcefulness can be selected, and it is evident, already, that not every man who sits behind the steering wheel is a driver in the real sense of the term.
The Royal Traffic Commission.
The second volume of the Royal Traffic Commission (London) Report to be published is that by the advisory board of engineers. Sir John Wolfe-Barry, K.C.B., F.R.S., Sir Benjamin Baker, K.C.B., F.R.S., and Mr. W. B. Parsons, M.Inst.C.E., show that they appreciate the important relieving effects which motor traffic can and will exercise on the great problem of street congestion. We do not discover any condemnation of the motor omnibus in their findings, and it is passing strange to explain why the main report of the Commissioners should have slurred over its claims as was done. We are scarcely in a position to say wl:ether the pointed omission of appreciation for the motor omnibus, which characterised the report proper, was due to accident or design. Possibly the correct explanation is found in an excess of caution on the part of the Commiss:oners where a comparatively new development of road locomotion is concerned. Great Britain is accustomed to copy America or Europe in street passenger transport : the shock of contemplating a lead on her own account seems unsupportable! Yet the views of the advisory board of engineers bring a measure of encouragement which had not been hoped for when we wrote of the principal report—only nine weeks ago— that it was a brief for tramways from start to finish. The second volume of the report makes it clear how great is London's need for improved facilities of all kinds : rail, tube, tramways and motor omnibuses are stated to be equally necessary. But the fact is clearly recognised that motor omnibuses will be on the London streets in thousands before many of the idealistic schemes can be incepted, let alone completed. And the underlying reasons for the sympathetic views of the three great engineers named are not far to seek, although they have not been satisfied to give their imprimatur to these vehicles as exclusively able to furnish a much desired solution.
Mr. j, L. Pound, chairman of the London Omnibus Owners' Federation, expressed himself to the Royal Commission as " hopeful and even confident as to the successful introduction of the motor omnibus in London, and of its being able to compete with the electric tramcar " (vol, VII, page 87). This is the view of the horsed omnibus trade, but how open a question it is felt to be by the three engineers to whom the fuller investigations were entrusted by the Com missioners will be gathered from the following It will be seen that the motor omnibuses, the average speed of which compares favourably with that of tramcars (averages of 8.; to 111 miles an hour) . . . we think they will have an important bearing upon the transport of passengers in London, and may affect the consideration of tramway and railway policy" (page 25). "We are convinced that, generally speaking, the accommodation of the urban traffic for short distances should be by means of surface tramways or (minibuses " (page. 34). " We recommend the careful consideration of the probable future of the motor omnibus and its bearing on railway and tramway policy" (page i ig). Comment is redundant. Nobody. can honestly say that the members of engineering advisory board fail to see the future that lies before the motor omnibus, however skilfully it may have been hidden away in Volume 1 of the Report,