OPINIONS FROM OTHERS.
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Organizing the Coach Proprietors:
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
(1747] Sir,-1 have read with interest the views of Mr. Wm. Chapman, of Eastbourne' and your article in regard to a motor coach branch of the 0.M.U.A.
For the past two years,this area of the C.M.U..A. has worked a distinct motor coach section, and the results have been. very successful.
In the first place, the C.M.U.A.' through its organization, is in a position to offer the motor coach proprietor the numerous benefits of membership which a, separate or local body could not offer, particularly in regard to legal advice and the defence of the numerous summonses in the police courts against this class of vehicle, and the fact that several well-organized local associations have linked up with us goes to prove this fact. It is very essential that this class of owner should be thoroughly organized; more so,in fact, than the ordinary commercial vehicle user, as. the various local authorities are repeatedly putting obstacles in the way of this class of traffic.
In each town of this area there exists a local
motor coach executivesccrmmittee, which unofficially arranges its prices and running conditions, and two representatives from each executive committee form a controlling committee, which meets periodically in the various towns interested, in order to unify the workings of these towns.
Model contract forms for private hire are supplied, as also the lists of tours, and considerable expense in printing is thus saved.
The exchange of difficulties and ideas is of immense benefit.
There is undoubtedly need for the co-ordination of by-laws by the various authorities. To give you an instance, motor coaches may unload their passengers at any point, excepting the Promenade, within -the Borough of Blackpool, but must reload at a garage, whereas, in Southport, loading and unloading must only take place at specified places. At St. Anne's, on-Sea, these vehicles must pass through via certain roads only. These local arrangements are bewildering, to drivers from Leeds, Bradford, and other distant towns, as adequate notice is not given by the authorities.
This area of the G.M.U.A. is erecting suitable notice boards at different points for the guidance of motor coach drivers.
Our C.M.U.A. motor coach members, who are numerous, and include all the large firms.in the district, are kept au fait with the varying regulations, which tends to harmonious relations with the authorities cosieerned; but, until every such owner is a member, our difficulties are considerable.
There is a very strong tendency by rural and county councils to keep applying for powers to close roads to these vehiclesaand we have already met the county councils of Lancashire and Westmorland on this matter, and it is very essential that to ensure amicable arrangements and fully protect their interests a strong organization should exist.
Our committee has on several occasions met the authorities in various towns regarding motor coach traffic, and, as a general rule, these conferences have been maintained throughout in a most friendly spirit, and the results have undoubtedly been mutually beneficial.
The C.M.U.A., as a national organization with its various ramifications, is without doubt the body effectively to protect the interests of the motor coach
proprietors, as the detail work of fixing prices, running conditions, preventing undercutting of prices, etc., can be well arranged by executive committees, who are best fitted to appreciate local conditions, and can institute many useful things, such as drivers' cards, which would be endorsed in the case of an unsatisfactory driver, a local clearing house with a register a the ;capacity, etc., a each member's vehicle, for the purpose of interchange, etc., etc.—Yours faithfully,
WALTER ATKINSON,
Preston. Area Secretary.
Commercial Motor Users Association.
Who Should Pay for the Roads ?
The Editor, TIER COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1748] Sir,—I was much interested in reading your editorial last week on taxation as a means to better roads. I note you say that, in this country, we have for a long time past recognized the principle that the proceeds of motor taxation should be devoted to road inaprovement. While that statement is, no doubt, entirely accurate, as a motor user of many years' standing, I personally do not consider that the principle is by any means a sound one. I think that the time has come when the roads should be recognized as being as vital to every member a the cominunity as, say, the Navy was in pre-war days ; that is to say, I see no reason whatever why, at this present time; road users atone, of any class, should be specially taxed for the
rpose of either road inaprovement or road maintenance. What I contend is that, although the majority of people may not be owners or users of motor vehicles, indirectly they benefit by the existence of good roads just as much as those people who actually move upon them, my line of argument being that, just as the Navy was intended for the protection of every inhabitant of. the country and, in consequence, every inhabitant had to bear a proportion of both the initial cost and the cost of maintenance of the Navy, similarly every inhabitant should bear a due proportion of the cost of road making, improvement, and maintenance., It seems to me quite wrong in principle that one class of the community should sustain, by taxation, the burden of a development from which 'every member undoubtedly benefits. Does not the mechanic in the motor factory benefit by the roads on which the vehicles he helps to make are run? Does not the housewife who has the advantage of obtaining really fresh milk, because of the possibility of motor delivery, equally benefit because of good roads? Does not the reader of the motor-delivered evening paper similarly share in the advantages of road improvement?
No steamship owrier is, to my knowledge, taxed. specifically for the maintenance of our island site. Furthermore, overseas trade could not be carried out with safety were-it not for the Navy. Therefore, it might be argued that all vessels sailing under tile British Flag should bear the greater portion of tile cost of the Navy. The answer, of course, would obviously be that the Navy, in addition to protecting shipping, protects the Empire and the people who live .within its boundaries and the trade by which it exists, and, therefore, all must contribute towards it. But roads and motor vehicles are equally for the protection and building-up of our complex modern civilization, and all who live within it should contribute their quota. That is my point of view.— Yours faithfully, A.normEscramE. Bristol