P.S.V. or Not a P.S.V.?
Page 43
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S I see it, Mr. T. Walkerley, in his reply to Mr. John 1 Birch and Mr. C. Blackie regarding the Commer perinnel carrier, merely repeats in different words the contraction to which they take exception.
Any vehicle adapted to carry eight or more passengers ir hire is a public-service vehicle. lf, as Mr. Walkerley Links, this Commer does not qualify for a certificate of tness, it cannot be said to be "tailor-made to the requireents of the private-hire operator."
The coach and hire-car operators who read your journal e doubtless aware of the legal position, but, as a motor surance underwriter, I have had to enlighten quite a numer of unfortunate individuals who have bought earlier :.rsonnel carriers of various makes with a view to using Lem for the carriage of passengers for hire or reward. Inc of our policy-holders, who escaped my attention, was, fact, convicted of using his 11-seater without a P.S.V. zence.
Gidea Park, Essex. F. G. SAPSTED.
First 11-seater Operators
R. T. WALKERLEY'S reply to the letters of Mr. John VI Birch and Mr. C. Blackie does not answer the main oint raised by both, which is that the opening sentence
f his article was a direct statement that the Commer under eview was tailor-made for private hire, and therefore ould be very misleading to those ignorant of the law. We believe we were the first operators to place an 11eater in service (June 1, 1958), since which date the vehicle as covered some 65,000 miles, and from our experience uring this period we estimate that the cost of operating ne of these vehicles within the law is at least 25 per cent. -Lore than it would be to purchase and run one privately.
In view of the increasing numbers of these vehicles .eing used illegally, we feel that such a statement in a eputable journal such as The Commercial Motor should .ot be allowed to go unchallenged, and it should be clearly tated that no vehicle with more than seven seats may e operated for hire or reward unless a certificate of fitness as been issued.
Bishop's Stortford. N. J. HALE, Don's Coaches.
Vehicles That Do Comply
VHILE I, of course, am fully 'aware " that the Commer 12-seater personnel arrier to which Mr. Walkerley's article eferred, was not of our manufacture nd that it does not in fact comply as a passenger service vehicle, I would like to • oint out that our own Utilabus P.S.V. 2-seater (11 passengers and driver) on he Commer :}-ton does in fact fully onform with the Public Service Vehicle --Conditions of Fitness .— Regulations 958 and the Public Service Vehicles and 7rolley Vehicles —Carrying Capacity— Amendment) Regulations 1958,
There is no difficulty whatever in thtaining a P.S.V. certificate of fitness for either of these, which we usually procure and charge the cost of so doing to the customer,
Folkestone. J. ROWLAND-ROUSE,
Public Relations Officer, Martin Walter, Ltd.
Demountable Body With Own Conveyor
I N the paper he read at a meeting of the institute of Materials Handling, Mr. A. H. Carter, then of Abelson and Co. (Engineers), Ltd., Birmingham, spoke of using vehicles carrying demountable bodies. We are pioneers of this method in which we mount a container on to a flatbodied vehicle and the container has its own conveyor mounted in the body, which in turn is driven from the power take-off. To discharge, the material is fed into the rear of the vehicle where it is blown into the farmer's bin.
We designed this equipment (a photograph is below) for the purpose of a bulk vehicle for animal foods to enable a client to utilize existing wagons. The most interesting development of this method is at the provender mills where this system is operated economically. It is necessary to install bins to store the production before filling the vehicles.
Overnight Loading
One of the larger compounders, however, is installing a number of these demountable containers and filling them during the night, or as required, and the vehicle is away delivering one load while the other load is being manufactured and ready loaded into the demountable container, ready for the next visit of the lorry.
When the lorry with the empty container arrives at the mill, it is off-loaded quickly and the already full container dropped back on to the vehicle.
Liverpool.
F. E. CALLOW,
Chairman and Managing Director, F. E. Callow (Engineers). Ltd.