Tloading of Hackney Vehicles Becomes illegal!
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NE OF THE sections of the Roads Bill (Section I 11, Sub-section 2) is going to alter the practices of owners of hackney vehicles materially ; for it may (if allowed) involve an unduly heavy .cc fee, and for many we are afraid it will ins endless annoyance and expense in the way of e court proceedings and fines.
Le sub-section says, 'in effect, that a vehicle sed to carry a certain number of persons shall arry any more than that number without renderhe person who keeps the vehicle liable on sum r Conviction to a penalty amounting to three times Inference between the duty paid and that which d be payable on a vehicle seating the number of oils carried, or £20—whichever amount is the ter. And we must,not forget that the whole ✓ of the revision of motor legislation is fewer e categories, but heavier penalties!
therto it has been permissible to squeeze in extra angers on hackney vehicles; motor Coaches and s being the types of vehicles in which this pracon busy days or popular routes, has been general. 'a seats would be put in the passage ways, and , as many as eight or nine extra passengers d be accommodated in a motor coach. In tramand buses the 'permission for extra passengers to I in. the body, of the vehicle has been a matter Ktreme utility to the public. On. crush days, in y weather, and in some circumstances, it has unaviodable and a necessary procedure unless le are to be left stranded with along walk before r, 'der the new scheme of taxation, however, the ring of a single excess passenger becomes an .ce against the Exchequer—as serious as smug; of dutiable goods, or rendering a false income -eturn, or refraining from taking out a licence for meservant, or a dog, or armorial bearings.
are is 'only one class of hackney vehicle which :empt from the operation of this clause, and that e bus, motor coach, or tramcar accommodating r than. 32 passengers. In respect of such, the at lisence fee (Z70 in country districts and £84 .e Metropolitan Area) is paid, and on the licence taximum number of passengers would be stated. suggestion in respect of an other vehicles is that, le temporary seats in excess of the actual seating city of the vehicle are provided, or where standpassengers 'are, in practice, accommodated on occasions; a licence should have been taken out higher category, involving, however, an addition Le'annual duty of -212 in the coentry, districts or to '215 in the London area. But the question s as to whether it will be permitted, for duty to be paid on a higher seating capacity than that for which the vehicle is approved by the local authorities.
Whether the section of the Bill can be revised is open to grave doubt, but, as it stands, buses end motor coaches seating 32 passengers or less may not carry on a single occasion a single extra passenger, whilst those seating 33 or more passengers may be overloaded without offending the Excise authorities, which Euclid would have described as absurd.
Ruinous Taxation on Country Bus Services.
11-4 HE TROUBLE foreseen, explained, argued, and discussed when it was first learned that the .
Minister of Transport was determined in future to base motor vehicle taxation on horse-power for private vehicles, and on capacity for goods and passenger vehicles, is now cropping up in all its hideousness.
There are some trades in the pursuit of which the goods-carrying vehicles are only employed a few days per week: there are many country bus services which only run on two days a week, such as market days, the vehicles for the remainder of the week standing idle. These vehicles are all to be taxed on exactly the same basis as if they were running every, day of the week, or (as do the London omnibuses) 350 days per year. In many of the country districts around the provincial centres, there are bus services, the vehicles performing which do not average more than 211`miles per week. Let their annual total of a thousand miles per annum be compared with the 30,000 miles covered in a, year by a London bus, and it can be seen that injustice arises out of the fact that taxation is no longer to be approximately proportionate to user (as was effected by the petrol tax), and that there is some ground for the assertion that the big bus companies have got by far the best of the bargain.
We have received communications from a xnunber of concerns running bus services in the provinces and from a certain number of country carriers, in which it is roundly asserted that, on the new basis of taxation, they are simply faced with ruin. The aiternative,• however, is to increase the fares arid the charges for carrying goods, because, although we have advised our correspondents to place the case before the Ministry of Transport, we have no faith in the possibility of any improvement in. the tion. We know that the increases must result in a falling off of traffic, just as has happened in London on the tramcars and buses, but it is difficult to suggest any other practical course. Owners and users mainly have themselves to blame for this state of things. The Press put up a big fight at the time, but beyond that the Government heard very little in the way of protest from the owners of vehicles, and thus were encouraged te pursue the policy that. their advisers had outlined,
,Civil Aviation Progress.
HILE WE do not feel that the stage of development of civil aviation, in view of the treatment accorded to the aircraft industry since the war, has yet reached a point which justifies us in giving space frequently to the subject, we must still recognize that to an ever increasing extent both passengers and goods will be conveyed through the air.
The report of the Civil Aviation Department for the six months ending September 30th last shows on the whole very satisfactory progress. The department has not found useful employment for the whole of the million pounds allocated to it forthe present year. The estimates provided for work along specific lines, and without leaving these lines the money could not be efficiently expended, mainly because, for the time 'being, internal services within Great Britain showed few signs of materializing, and disturbances in the East have postponed the opening of the route from Egypt to India.
As regards Continental seryiees,, good progress haa been made. These run regularly from London to Paris, 'Brussels and Amsterdam, carrying passengers, mails, and goods. The machines of these regular services have covered nearly 700,000 miles during the six months and have carried over 32,000 passengers. The tonnage of goods handled is still small, but is increasing, the value of air-carried imports having risen from £131,000 to £376,000. The use of the aerial mail is rapidly becoming more general.
A fair proportion of recent expenditure has gone to improvement of ground organization. A number of 'experimental lighthouses are being installed, though regular night flying for commercial purposes has not yet been attempted. The wireless direction finder apparatus at Croydon has proved useful, and the equipment of aircraft with wireless telephones is extending. The installation of wireless stations for telephony and telegraphy has been continued, and five such stations are now open in the British Isles. New distributive stations have been opened in connection with the Meteorological Department and upper air investigations have been conducted. A large number of new licences have been issued to pilots, and the number of aircraft registered for civil flying has' increased. The Department of Civil Aviation is taking over the Government's airships in order to carry out practical experimental work, while the ,Research Department is investigating technical details affecting the possible future operation of airships in dry climates. On the route from England to Egypt, a site for a new aerodrome has been secured at Malta and arrangements are being made for the maintenance of the aerodromes on the Cairo-Cape route to be borne by local Governments. In Australia, civil air routes have been surveyed, while in Canada a Government civil aerodrome has been opened at Ottawa, and the seaplane station at Vancouver is nearly complete. In India, the Air Board has decided on the provision of a number of aerodromes along the principal routes.
A point of very distinct interest in the recently published report is the result of a medical investigation as to the effects of continual civil flying upon those engaged in the regular Continental services. It is found that the physical condition of the pilot employed on continuous air Work compares, on the average, favourably with that of the selected University athlete or of the candidate for a commission in the Royal Air Force. As a result of medical reexaminations, 98 per cent. of the pilots examined have been again accepted for service, the majority of the remainder merely representing cases deferred owing to temporary ailments. It would he difficult to exaggerate the importance of the results of this medical investigation on the probable development of civil aeronautics.
Lord Montagu on Better Roads.
IN THE COURSE of his recent -paper read hef the Institute of Transport, Lord Montagu Beaulieu made a number of interesting prop cies as to the future. As regards some of these propose to offer it the moment merely a brief pass comment.
' For instance, he looks forward to seeing our ro shortly constructed of concrete or some equally f manent material. He points out that this would 1 to a great decrease in the annual cost of dpkeep. must, however, remember the difficulty of provid against damage wherever it is necessary to ha wheeled traffic on to such roads from soft surfaa as, for example, in the case of carts bringing fs produce out of the fields.
There is also the question of first cost as well maintenance cost. The general attitude of the po lation at the moment is by no means favourable any scheme which, however beneficial in the long r would involve early heavy expenditure. From I point of view it is rather surprising to find The Tr.; commenting in such favourable terms on L Montagu's proposals. The cry for cutting down penditure in all directions must in itself 'tend towa the policy which Tire Times now describes as " niei tinkering at the problem from year to year:"
Again, we have the suggestion that the railw themselves May build motor roads and run fast mc vehicles upon them. One evident difficulty in way of this development appears to be that, if country as a whole—the railways being included taxpayers—provides roads for public use, therc little encouragement to corporations such as railw to build other roads for their own special use. Ms over, to reserve these roads as strictly private it ' be necessary to carry them above or below the pu; highways in very many places, and from the natic standpoint we should have a system lacking in t efficiency through lack of adequate connections.
The Extended Use of Trailers.
THE PROPHECY to which we wish to refer I ticulady is, however, the view that trai will come more and more into use, partly a result of the very high taxation on the power of vehicle itself and partly to save expensive lab(
The latter argument is a very strong one. L Montagu might also have added that the extern employment of trailers in effect increases the i of the unit, and for that reason reduces the operat cost per ton mile, and increases the percentage total load upon the road represented by useful lo His other point—that connected with high ta tion—is less convincing. There may certainly something in it some time, but; we must .remeni that taxation is the result of arbitrary legislati The commercial vehicle is not taxed on its pov but on its weight, so that, for the moment at lei his argument loses strength. The real question whether the law will continue to differentiate tween. the speeds permitted to vehicles draw trailers and those not doing so and, if se, w degree of differentiation will be perpetuated, The economy resulting from the use of the tra is due .to the fact that it allowii of a comb] tion which can do a larger amount of work in miles in a given time than a single vehicle. If speed of the combination be unduly restricted by I then what we gain in tons may be lost in miles, ; the resulting ton mileage may not be improved at
If free .development untrammelled by law he / sible, Lord Montagu's forecasts would rapidly cc true. As things are, the whole matter is in the of the gods at the Ministry of Transport, and, for we know, the useful employment of trailers may c tinue to be artificially restricted to just the ss extent as has been the case in the past.