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DO PNEUMATICS PAY?

24th August 1926, Page 47
24th August 1926
Page 47
Page 47, 24th August 1926 — DO PNEUMATICS PAY?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Keywords : Pneumatics, Tires

Some General Observations on Tyre Equipment and Conclusions Arrived At as The Result of Personal Experience.

By A Coach Proprietor.

91HE keener competition of each succeeding year forces all of us in the passenger business to provide the best and to strive to reach the acme of comfort. This costs money, but experience now extending over more than a score of years convinces me that quality pays, In that it earns.

One has only to go on the front—or to other assembling and picking-up areas—at one's own seaside centres or those in adjoining counties, in order to observe the critical powers of patrons. Discrimination against the retention of old-fashioned bodies or solid tyres is three or four times as evident as it was two seasons back. This preference, in my experience, so far as the tyres are concerned, is born of an aversion to bumping about on unimproved rural roads, which type of 'unclassified highway generally forms part of a round trip. If one be running only on modern roads, or up and down the promenade, the solid still has a chance, but how seldom is that the case

Remember the Hansom Cab.

I have known London for a good 30 years, and I recall the early days of rubber tyres on hansoms, introduced thanks to the energy and foresight of the late Earl of Shrewsbury and Talbot. It took a few years for the new vogue to get hold of the public. When it did the iron rim quickly became a back number. No driver or proprietor was able to retain custom, except by fitting the more costly rubber ; but it paid to do so.

I will not give relative costs, as they are out of date. The point is, the additional outlay was recognized to be a necessity dictated and enforced by public opinion.

I agree that the hansom never (or very rarely, if ever) was put on to pneumatics. It might have had these had it not been put out by the taxicab.

I recall the red Renaults being described in The Commercial Motor when they took London's breath away in March, 1907, the public making another stride forward and, incidentally, being ready to pay for it. My point, again, is : Offer an improvement, provide a more comfortable means of travelling, bring greater speed plus greater ease to the service of the public, and it will pay yen every time to move ahead. Once upon a time our railways knew this!

More Expenditure Needed.

I agree with Mr. Shrapnell-Smith, whose article, "On with the Pneus," in The Commercial Motor of December 1st, 1925, is in front of me, that pneumatics. can let one down if they are neglected. My organization needed overhauling when I decided to have pneumatics only, and both wages and tyre costs did go up. For a 32-seater coach I am not surprised to fwd the difference averages fully three-farthings a mile. In a few unlucky Instances it has gone up by an increase of twice that. Yet to go back to solids is to me unthinkable. It would be like throwing money (revenue) away. The public would pass to the other side—to my rivals, who, starting later than me, wisely began on pneumatics and therefore had not to face wheel conversions. They cost a pretty penny, but, despite them, I woo in hand on a fleet of 37 coaches within eight months.

The Dunlop people and other makers of pneumatics do, I have found, make the prices quoted for wheel and hub alterations as low as possible, in order to encourage owners to make the change. The fact that more expenditure is needed counts for little so long as one has the money. Steamships cost more than sailing vessels. The compensation is the same in both cases. The improved plant can earn much more than is required to serve the extra capital. That is the position in a few words as I have realized it.

Lives and Speeds.

The lives of the tyres vary. Twenty thousand miles is commonly attained on steerers, fourteen on drivers. / believe better mileages are obtained by some owners. The rural sections covered by many of my trips are rough, uneven and in a few directions unrolled, so I cannot expect to provide records. As to punctures, they are comparatively not known. There have been three in two seasons. My spare tyres are a luxury. I am thinking of doing away with them, but hesitate to " burn my boats."

I discard covers and tubes according to circumstances, in which matters I act directly myself. This is done well ahead of what I consider to be a danger point. I prefer this "extravagance" of operation to accepting risks of delays, and know that I am always well in hand on my tyre margins. It is this kind of prevision and provision, so I am convinced, that enabled me in 1925 to show a season's trip-work income of more than 2s. 4d. per mile run. Against this, I depreciated at an "all In" figure of 7th per mile on the trip cars. Two men go with every coach. I " carry " my trip drivers and conductors by making their winter nondriving work last from October to March. It is worth while.

Speed Reserve Essential.

It is hypocrisy to pretend that coach parties do not want speed. They may, not want it always, nor like it the way they are treated to it by some drivers. Speed reserve there must be. Parties have a habit of getting late. They do not rejoin the coach as they .promise en route or at the last point of call. They clamour to be "home in time" for tea, the pier, the pavilion, dinner, a concert and what-not. It is the pneumatic tyre alone that permits one to comply, and thus to book the same passengers again.

It is the insistent demand for speed on occasion that has made the pneumatic a sine qua non; this call for speed comes all, too frequently when the road conditions deny it to the solid, except in conjunction with the penalty of discomfort for the passenger and excessive wear and tear in the case of the vehicle.

Taxation.

It has been a disappointment to see that so far our trade leaders have failed in their efforts to secure a rebate on the annual tax for a vehicle with pneumatics on all its wheels. I agree that "there are grounds in both equity and logic for such relative amelioration," to quote the C.M.U.A. president.

I hope the C.M.U.A. will not be downhearted over Mr. Churchill's disregard for the case which they presented to him. He, no doubt, rode off on other issues. It is a policy worthy of adoption and one which should find a continuing place in any programme of taxation reform to press for lower taxes on pneumatics. I shall hope to see this claim won next time. And will it be wise, when "next time" comes for owners of goods and passenger public-service vehicles to join again with private-car owners? I think not. "The game" was not played with them last time, so far as I can judge.

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People: Churchill
Locations: London

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