1936 Promises Well
Page 39
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January 's Registration Returns
IN the matter of the registration of new vehicles, 1936 opened in a decidedly healthy vein, for both goods and hackney-vehicle figures showed a material advance on the Comparable returns for' 1935, the figures for January of this year being 7,962 and 476 respectively, contrasted with 7,080 and 377 for January, 1936. The total of all new vehicles licensed in January last was 39,688, which has to he set against 37,160 for the corresponding period of 1935.
An excellent showing was made by petrol goods vehicles, which were more than 800 up on the 1935 total, the figures for January of both years being 7,568 and 6,753 respectively. In all the classes below 4-tonners, there was only one that showed a fall on last year's statistics, this being the 11-2tonners, which dropped from 1,489 to 1,281. In the other categories up to 4 tons the registrations were as follow, last year' S totals-being given in parentheses:-=-Not exceeding 12 cwt., 1,778 (1,371); 12 cwt.-1 ton, 1,207 (1,044); 1-1,1, togs, 700 (688); 2-21_ tons, 2,110
(1,664); tons, 264(253); 3;4 tons, 161 (142): There were only 67 vehicles licensed in the classes above 4 tons,
which is well below last year's total of 102. No petrol goods vehicles above 8 tons unladen weight were li-;a.nsect in January last.
Once again there is a fall to record in the number of ne-v goods oilers registered, and in January last the licensing of 163 such vehicles contrasted with 191 in the corresponding month of 1935. The main registrations of goods oilers took place in the 3-4-ton (43), 4-5-.ton (35) and 6-7-ton (32) divisions. It is interesting to note that a mild recovery took place in the number of oilers licensed in the classes below 21 tons, although the figure of 17 for this year is well down on last year's total of 40. Included in the goodsvehicle returns are 31 machines licensed for drawing trailers (six below 2/ tons), as compared with 26 in January, 1935.
The progress of the electric continues unabated, and 90 vehicles of this class were registered, as again-at 25 a year earlier: If this monthly figure be maintamed, the total for the whole of 1936 will, be well ahead of that for 1935,
when 632 electric vehicles were regis tered. The chief registrations of this type continue in the divisions for vehicles not exceeding 12 cwt. (33) and 12-cwt.1-tonners (46) .
The total number of six-wheeled vehicles registered was 165, 93 being of the rigid pattern and 62 of the articulated type. Last year the total was 174, made up of 95 rigid six-wheelers and 79 of the articulated pattern. The number of eight-wheelers registered was 27 compared with 12 last year.
In the categories for agricultural vans and lorries 123 vehicles were licensed (all petrol-engined) , contrasted with 104 in January, 1935.
The outstanding feature of the hackney-vehicle returns was the increasing interest shown in the 48-56seater double-decker in both petrol and oil classes. In the former there was a rise from 4 to 47 and in the latter from 74 to 135. The total registration of petrol hackneys was 274, and of oilengmed hackneys, 182, figures which have to be set against 237 and 138 respectively for last year.
There was an irregularity about most categories, outstanding features being the rise in petrol 26-32-seaters (from 16 to 35), the fall in petrol 32-40seaters (from 26 to 7), the rise in 3240-seater oilers (from nil to 27), and the fall in 40-48-seater oilers (from 51 to 17).
So far as trolleybuses are concerned, there were 20 registrations, 14 of them tieing 56-64-seaters, as compared with 2 a year earlier. Included in the hackney-vehicle total were 15 sixwheelers.