Passing Comments
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AT this time of the year an appeal ought to be made to pedestrians, preferably by the Pedestrians' Association, to ease the lot of those who Tarn their living by driving motor vehicles. Accidents would be avoided and moments of acute anxiety for drivers would be reduced in frequency if pedestrians would refrain from careless actions. Their duty when about the streets, urban or rural, is childishly facile compared with the ohligatiol of the man at the wheel of a motor vehicle, and they ought to have full sympathy for him. Some pedestrians seem wilfully to endanger their Own lives and those of others. IF every vehicle in a fleet be given a name tr)f its own, does it encourage drivers to take greater pride in the machines entrusted to them? A correspondent holds that it does, and he considers, too, that name-plates have a certain advertising value. The public remembers them, and through them the concern owning the vehicle. The same writer remarks that the pet-names chosen for Commercial vehicles are sometimes more amusing than strictly appropriate. He instances the case of a six-wheeled steam wagon, the name proudly displayed on the front of which is " The Glider "1 THE difficulties of marketing vehicleNtoverseas,
PARADOXICAL although it
may seem, Mr. Herbert Morrison, who was Minister of Transport in the Labour Government, is urging the present Minister to remove, at least experimentally, a number of the restrictions on London coach services. It may be recalled that Mr. Morrison proposed to ban coaches from Central London and that his scheme formed the foundation of the present restrictions.
THIS plea was put forward by
Mr. Morrison In The Evening Standard, but it was applied only to the services of London Transport. He stated : "A consolidated public corporation Is entitled to more freedom than were a host of competitive undertakings whose destructive competition had, in a number of respects, become a public nuisance."
IIAULIERS of sand, ballast, etc., the cost of which material bears so small a ratio to the transport charges, will be at some difficulty to know whether, under the coming -legislation, to apply for A, B or C licences, for it is in some cases only a matter of adjustment to determine whether the goods carried belong to the haulier or not.
SOME surprising factors must be considered in marketing vehicles overseas. For instance, the Singer Co. has received an order for 809 h.p. chassis for use in Java for providing transport for native workers. Each vehicle will be equipped with a sevenseater coach body for conveying the natives to the rubber plantations. The reason so many can be carried is that the average height of the Javanese is under 4 ft. 6 ins.
THE seasonable weather of this November in England has been an object lesson to anyone who cares to study the comparative effectiveness of different mud guard designs on commercial and other motor vehicles. The better the front wheels can be shrouded when the steering gear is out of the central position the cleaner remains the whole vehicle, and this fact is excellently illustrated by different arrangements seen on the road at the present time. There is wide•scope for Improvement.