The Difficulty of Avoiding 'Undercutting of Rates.
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T_HERE IS one aspect. of the development of central motor traffic exchanges which may, 'quite possibly, lead to unexpected difficulties. The use of a traffic exchange by any motor owner converts him, to an extent, into a motor carrier, since, through the exchange, he arranges to trans.port other people's goods as well as his own.
Presumably, the people responsible for organizing the exchange must agree as to the rates to be charged when the vehicles of one trader carrr the goods of another, but it is difficult to see how such rates can be strictly maintained. It is to be presumed that, if, of necessity, a firm has, hitherto, run its vehicles empty on their return journey, this firm would be glad to get return loads even at very low rates. The journey has to be made in any case, and the carriage of a return load only adds materially to its cost in respect of the time occupied in taking up and setting down such loads. The motor carrier, on the other hand, must charge paying rates for all the transport for which he is responsible.
Supposing that he carries loads from X to Y for a firm A, it will not do for him to quote much lower rates to a firm B for carrying a return load from Y to X. If, at. the same time, a motor owner is carrying his own stuff from X to Y, he may be 'willing enough to take B's stuff at something approaching nominal rates in order to avoid the alternative of making the return journey empty. Thus B, having got into touch with a motor owner through a local exchange, might decline to continue the arrangement except at reduced rates, on the grounds that it did not pay him. It is, by no means, improbable that these reduced rates would be accepted, and thus the regular motor carriers on the same route .would be undercut and driven out of the business.
Once the people owning vehicles and those needing transport had been put into touch with one another, it would seem almost impossible for the exchange to control their subsequent negotiations. The difficulty might, perhaps, be overcome, if all payments were made to the exchange and if the vehicle owner employing the exchange gave, in the first instance, a written undertaking not to carry the goods of any firm introduced to him by the exchange except at pre-deternained rates, the whole of the payment being made to the central organization, which would retain its fair percentage and forward the remainder.
Even so, it would be difficult, to ensure that a part of the amount forwarded would not, in fact, be returned to its original owner under a private arrangement of which the exchange might not be aware. One thing which is quite clear is that it is most undesirable that the establishment of exchanges should have the effect of spoiling the business of recognized motor carriers.
The L.C.C. Entrance Into the Bus Business.
ON ONE of our article pages, we are able to give the views of Mr. H. ,H. Gordon, B.A., A ..M. Inst. C. E. , :VI. Inst. T. , the member of the London County Council who figures so prominently in connection with the tramway undertakings of the Council. He is the great protagonist of the tram way system and, in inviting him to give his views to the readers of The Commercial Motor upon the new and (in all the circumstances) startling project of linking up the, tramway terminals in the central area, of London by means of omnibuses, we knew that we should be giving the hospitality of our columns to the most extreme views and, therefore, it would be made clear what would be the probable extent of the competition between the Council and the London General Omnibus Co. and other omnibus undertakings.
The needs of London's passenger traffic are simply enormous. No fewer than 1,350,000,000 journeys are made in a year in the small central area. Besides these, there is a vast volume of traffic in the suburban area that does not gravitate into the centre and a great deal which is conducted afoot from. the railway terminals.
The organization which essays to handle any part of this central area traffic must be large and com plete, and recent history shows that no small independent undertaking can secure the necessary efficiency and be so well and apcurately manipulated as to make its fleet remunerative. The L.G.O.C. has, with its associated concerns (to all intents and purposes they are one organization) and with the very few concerns with which it has running arrangements, a monopoly of railkss passenger transport in London. That it does its work well and with full consideration for the public—passenger or not—goes absolutely without saying. At the same time, it must be agreed that the passenger services of London are inadequate, and not even merely at the peak hours, and, now that the London County Council has discarded its long held idea that the tramway system is suitable for all London's needs and only requires to be extended and linked up in order to fulfil those needs, and, in place of this view, admits that it is necessary to take a broader view of the means at our disposal for moving the traffic, every, effort must be put forward to assist the Counbil to do the right thing by the public.
In these days of super-men and machinery, we are apt to forget that they have their limits and that those limits axe, after all, not much higher than the limits of mere men and mere machinery. The most highly developed tramway system can never fill the needs of London. The vulnerability of the mechanism is enormously greater than that of the omnibus system, and this could only be overcome (and then not wholly) by doubling the most important-lines at outrageous cost. The breakdown of one omnibus on a service where Se are employed can only reduce the efficiency of that service by 2 per cent. The stoppage of a single tramcar (or its mere obstruction by a broken-down lorry) can break down the whole of two or three services. With the eiPerience and knowledge gained from the running of buses, we foresee a possibility of the eventual supersession by them of the tramcars.
We also see that the L.C.C. will quickly want to break away e front the limits set by the proposed new Act. They will not want to run empty between garage and tramway terminus. They will want to extend their routes and amplify their services, taking advantage of the new demand which the new supply must inevitably create.
As, therefore, the services at present contemplated by the L.C.C. will eventually prove to be the thin edge of the wedge, it behoves all interested in the development of mator transport to see that the • Council starts on the right lines.
The L.C.C. Bus and Its Specification. _
AMATTER of considerable interest to thecommercial vehicle industry is the supply of the chassis, if not tlre complete vehicle, for the projected bus service of the London County Council. The omnibus for use an the streets of the Metropolis must conform to the requirements of the Commissioner of Police, and the number of concerns with sufficient recent experience of building to these requirement is particularly small. But there should be no .difficulty about this. Almost any concern or concerns, offered a satisfactory contract, would be able to produce just what is required.
It is true that the L.G.O.C. have now, by far, the greatest experience cif building the type of vehicle most suited to the London streets, and there is no short cut to obtaining experience which has been accumulated, in this way.
The real difficulty in connection with this new scheme of services will probably lie in the drafting of the specification of the type of bus required. The tendency of London bus development is towards an increased carrying capacity. Just. as in the case of the electric tramcar, passenger-carrying capacity has grown far beyond that of the horse-drawn tramcar. Apart from the need for coping with the greatly increased traffic, passenger-carrying capacity has a direct bearing upon economy. Art important factor in the running costs of the bus is the wages of the driver and the conductor, and it is obvious that if those charges can be spread over a passenger 04 carrying capacity of from l times upwards, a big step towards economical running will have been effected. But, just as the -14.0.0. find that it is economical to have three sizes of tramcar in order suitably to cater for the various requirements of the services, so it will be found necessary to have, say, two types of omnibus, because there must be a point where the service is insufficient to justify the ernployment of a vehicle above a certain size. This can depend on the day, the hour, the weather, and many other circumstances of local or general application.
On the whole, we favour the employment of the largest possible vehicle which the service is likely to justify. In making a decision on a matter of this kind it is always advisable to look well ahead. It is generally found that the provision of travelling facilities is in itself an inducement to people to travel, so that the initial patronage given to a particular service of vehicles is not necessarily an indication of the traffio which it eventually will have to sustain. This must be borne in mind in deciding upon the specification of the bus.
The Market for Quality.
E BRITISH are still apt to be somewhat conservative in our ideas, and the majority of us are not over-keen on the foreign principle of manufacturing cheap articles which can be replaced at a ffiirly low cost after a short life. Most of our mar.ufacturers still produce articles which will wear for an almost unlimited number of years, and, that this policy is a good one, at least so far as its suitability for the British temperament is concerned, is proved by the fact that many people prefer to purchase a second-hand article bearing the name of maker of good repute, rather than to trust to new articles produced by manufacturers who have not yet won their spurs.
This applies particularly -to the purchase of motor vehicles. Many used chassis, produced by some of our hest known makers, have been, and are being, disposed of at prices which rule above those charged for many foreign vehicles, built to carry the same loads. When a user buys a good lorry of British make, he knows that he has obtained an article which will give many years' reliable service, and the upkeep of which will not be very much greater then than the upkeep during the first few years, and thisis where the Britisher's conservatism is displayed to a censide:ra,ble extent.
When a user has a satisfactory lorry, he will run it as long as he possibly can, and even regard it with a certain amount of affection; any little weaknesses which it may develop he will understand and take means to rectify ; in fact, he will be more apt to treat the whole mechanism as if it were A, human being, rather than mere metal.
On .the other hand, a cheaper vehicle built for a comparatively short, if strenuous, life will probably not receive the same consideratidn, and will be treated merely as the means to an end, and, perhaps, in extreme eases, run to destruction.
Our opinion is that our manufacturers would be well advised to maintain the fine quality of their productions, rather than to produce a. bigger output by sacrificing quality. There will shortly be plenty of mediocre vehicles, but quality will tell in the end.