HINTS FOR HAULIERS.
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An Occasional Chat on Subjects and Problems of interest to Those Who are Engaged, or About to be Engaged, in Running Commercial Vehicles for a Living.
Pickings in Passenger Transport.
THE week of the Darlington Show was an eyeopener, even to me, as showing the enormous business which can be done on such occasions by almost anyone who has four wheels beneath an engine and a few boards. No doubt, the Darlington authorities .are particularly broadminded, and did their best to encourage .enterprise on diepart of each or any of their townspeople, for which reason they were not too exactingI might say that they were not exacting at all—in their demands as to the condition of any machines to which, for the time being, they granted licences.to ply for hire. The Most amazing vehicles were engaged in carrying visitorc. to and from the Show, from an old De :Dion chassis, -which must have been at least 15 years old, and possiblrmore, to a brand new char.a-banes of the most up-to-date type and design. All, apparently, were given, for the period of the Show, the,freedom of the town, at least as regards the use of its reads, subject only to one small cohdition,,in the imposition of whiCh the. Darlington council showed that,-in..addition to, broad mindedness, they had foresight. They agreed and imposed armaximum fare of one .shilling per passen...ger, and, so .far as I couldsee, that maximum immediately became, as ie usual, the minimum. As the distance frearthe town to theground was-much less than a mile, the return was a reasonable one.
. Sucteshows as this, agricultural shows, horse-races, motort•ar trials and races, tractor trials, horticultural exhibitions. any sort of entertainnie,nt, educational or otherwise, which is likely to attraeta crawd, is at once a source of extra business for, the haulage contractor. If he has-a char-a banes body for his vehicle, well and good, let-him have it ready for the occasion. Ti he has not, then he should seewhat he can do in. the way of fitting the, maehine up with temporary seating accommodation. People are not inclined to be critical on such occasions, •particularly if the ricle is a long one. The fares permissible are usually much higher than those which can ordinarily be charged, and the extra profit thus earned may go far towards meeting the overhead charges for a year. The great trouble, in many caees, is to overcome the lethargy of the local bigwigs. Those at Darlington had none, I am sure. Others are not usuallY so wide awake. The .man who intends to got busy should approach the -authorities early and, if there is anysign of opposition, or, at the least, lack of realization of the possibilities of the affair,. from the town's point of view, in the way-of making money hem the visitors, then steps should be takeei to. get the information circulated. Get interested people to take it up, and if. thereare -sufficient haulage contractors in the town, they Should combine and press for the business to be causidered at council meetings, etc.
Complaints Against the Char-a-bancs.
Occasionally, very occaeiTmally, I find time to read
• the daily papers. Of late, we who are interested in the haulage-industry, and .partieularly that side of it which iieconcerned with the conveyance of passengers from place to place, have been the recipients of a good deal • of undesired . and totally unmerited . publicity. An 6coaSional motorist, and a disgruntled cyclist or two, .•.have been delayed somewhat on account of the paeiage of a char-h-bancs along a narrow road. Had it been a hay wagon, or a ploughing. engine and tackle, the complaints of these shortwaisted gentlemen would have passed unheeded.
As the offending vehicle was a motor, however, the n26
matter immediately became one of oonsiderable—nay, transcendental—important*, and the dogs of Fleet Street were let loose at once. An important and , growing industry, in sooth, is to be burned to make a Press stunt. Loud and windy cries went up concereing the unwieldy width, the enormous speed, and the terrible weight of these vehicles, and the scribes of Fleet Street waxed wroth in their outcry against them, and cal4d upon the most high Lloyd George, and the mighty Geddes, to make laws which should forbid' these monsters the use of all but those roads along which no pleasure loving holiday maker would scare to wend his way. None of these wordy worthies, apparently, to-ok the trouble to ascertain the most elementary. facts 'about the machines which he so eagerly traduced, or, to discover what was the stateof the law-eoencerning them. . If he had, he would have discovered that the law limits the width of comraercial•motor vehicles of all kinds to 7 ft. 6 in. that -the weight of such a vehicle is,' for all practical purposes, also limited, as is its speed. Moreover, .did . any local authority come to the conclusion that certain roads 'aught to be closed to such traffic, they are_ perfectly at liberty to take steps to close them.
The' troahle4,-from. our-point of view, that many of • the, local., authorities., stirred into, unwonted and unnecessary activity by' the excited and unbalaneed arguments of the knowledgeable (!) Pressman, are taking steps to obey the behest of those gentlemen without making pro-per inquiry asto the facts of the ease. The' resultis, that, in addition to 'having to contend with difficulties which have already arisen on account of the 1916 Act; owners of chars-h-bancs are meeting with special inconveniences in regard to passage along special roads.
Refusals of Licences to Ply for Hire.
A (ASO of this kind has been brought to my notice, in which a man who has been running a service of buses in a town for someenonths' now wishes to add to them by opening up fresh routes. His request for the necessary licences to ply for hire has been sum.marily turned down, a procedure which is, unfortunately, well within the rights of the authorities and from which, appayiently, there is no appeal. It should be pointed out that all the vehicles in question have already been passed as suitable for hackney carriages, and are licensed as such. There is, therefore, no question of any mechanical defects, or of unsuitability of the machines themselves for the work.
The disappointed applicant has suggested to me that he might get over this impasseby picking up his passengers at some point in the town, but not charging fares until he gets beyond the boundaries, or, alternatively, making the payments into contracts With the passengers beforehand, -selling them tickets before they board the bus, and picking up or setting down at a certain spot as before. I am aorry to have to inform him .that neither of these alternative-s is Practicable. The law in this matter is determined,. not by its actual letter, but as a result of decisions on eases which have been fought. Those decisions have been boiled down to the following. " . . . carriages which can be hired, even by a limited section of the public, -and are expo.s. ed for hire, even though not on a public highway or place, must be lieented." Moreover, • the expedients which have been suggested by my correspondent are so obviously meant to cirednvent the law that, if any case came to be fought on them, the judgment would be almost certain to go against the defendant on that account • alone. TICE SKOTCH.