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EXPERIENCED FLEET MANAGER REQUIRED FOR INDIA.
riA HAULAGE concern in Calcutta operating 22 lorries and trailers requires a man to manage its fleet. There is a capable staff of foremen, drivers, coolies and Indian mechanics.
Applicants should be unmarried, not over 35, with technical and working knowledge of heavy and light-vehicle repairs and, preferably, with shop experience with a leading maker. He will be required to undertake repairs not purely as a supervisor. He must know modern costing methods, be of good appearance, able to deal satisfactorily with • customers, and possess ability to pick up Hindustani.
The salary will be about £500 per year, with free car, passage to India and home leave at stated periods. The right man would receive a commission on profits. Letters should be addressed "Indian Transport," care of the Editor.
Unladen Weight for Taxation Purposes.
STJGGESTIONS have been made to the Minister of Transport by the C.M.U.A, and the B.R.F. to the effect that where there have been no structural alterations in a vehicle, the weight admitted and certified at the time of registration should be accepted thereafter for taxation or other purposes.
The Minister would not fully agree to these, but has gone so far as to state that he has indicated t'o local-taxation officers that, in his opinion, in cases 26 where the increase of unladen weight is considered to be due to the accumulation of dirt, grease, moisture, etc., the licence holder should be given an opportunity of having his vehicle reweighed after it has been cleaned and dried. If the weight then continues to exceed the originally declared weight, arrears of duty should be collected only as from the date on which the vehicle was reweighed and the liability to additional duty found.
Southampton's New Bridge Project.
carry, in safety, the 17,000 tons of traffic that pass daily over the River Itchen on the SouthamptonPortsmouth Road, Southampton Corporation proposes to rebuild Northam Bridge and approaches at an estimated cost of £146,000, towards which the Minister of Transport has now made a grant from the Road Fund. The existing bridge was built just over 50 years ago by a private undertaking and was bought by the corporation with the assistance of a grant from the Road Fund in 1929, when it was freed from tolls. Since the tolls were abolished, traffic has increased fivefold. Vehicles are Subject to a weight restriction of 19i tons and a speed limit of 15 m.p.h. LICENCE VALIDITY IN NORTHERN IRELAND.
TT is apparent from the many inquiries 'received that vehicle owners in the United Kingdom and elsewhere are not clear as to the validity in Northern Ireland of driving and Road Fund licences issued in Great Britain and vice versa.
An inter-availability arrangement exists and has been given statutory effect in both areas, so that the driving licence will cover a stay in both places.
The Ulster Ministry points out that to obtain a driving licence a person is required to apply to the council of the county or county borough in which he resides, and he must indicate the postal address of his residence, a heavy penalty being prescribed for misleading information in connection with such an application. In respect of Road Fund licences, a vehicle user with a licence current in one area may pay a temporary visit to the other without taking out a further licence. • If the visit be prolonged after the date of expiration, the licence must be renewed in the usual manner, but where a visitor from Great Britain takes up permanent residence in Northern Ireland, the Road Fund licence must be taken out there. I.M.E. TO HOLD GAS MEETING AT SWANSEA.
ON March 27 six technical papers on the use of producer gas as a fuel for road vehicles will be read at the Hotel Metropole, Swansea. The occasion is the Swansea Spring Meeting of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. On the following day the employment of town gas is the subject of three papers to be read at the Guildhall, and there will be a rally of coal-fuel vehicles cutside the building.
The papers dealing directly with the application of gas to road vehicles are by H. L. Pine, M.I.Mech.E., Chief Engineer, Coal Utilization Council; W. H. Fowke, Director and Manager, Highland Transport Co., Ltd., Bosworth Monck, Director, Koela Producer-Gas Plant Co., Ltd.; A. R. Griggs, British Gasogenes, Ltd.; Major J. A. Macdonald, D.S.O., MC.; C. M. Walter, D.Sc., Engineer-in-Charge, Industrial Research Laboratories, City of Birmingham Gas Department; and R. A. Erren.
Careers in Removals.
inUR younger readers and parents Vshould be interested in a recent publication of the Institute of the Furniture Warehousing and Removing Industry, Albany Buildings, 39, Victoria Street, London, S.W.1, entitled " Careers in the Furniture Warehousing and Removing Industry." This is a neat, stiffly bound booklet which gives a concise review of the various classes of work which have to be undertaken and the procedure to be followed by ambitious youths.
International Transport Conference in Switzerland.
THE 26th Congress of the International Union of Tramways, Light Railways and Motor Omnibuses, 18, Avenue de la Toison d'Or, Brussels, opens at Zurich, Switzerland, on July
16. On July 20 the delegates will proceed to Bern, on the next day to Montreux and, finally, on July 22, to Geneva, where the Conference will end.
Decline in American Trade.
OFFICIAL returns for 1938 show that the past year was a lean one for the American commercial-vehicle industry. In the first place, the sales of new vans and lorries in the United States itself, amounted, during the twelve months, to 365,349 units, as compared with 618,249 in 1937, a drop of over 44) per cent. Secondly, the exports of such vehicles reached a total of 115,595 machines, valued at £14,423,386, as against 165,710 (£20,021,094) in 1937. The 1938 shipments comprised 17,152 vehicles for loads up to 1 ton and 79,908 between 1 and 1f tons.
£1,200,000 CLYDE-BRIDGE INQUIRY.
IN connection with the scheme for a £1,200,000 bridge over the River Clyde, between Finnieston and Plantation, Glasgow, Councilor Hector McNeil, convener of the streets and bridges committee of Glasgow Corporation, stated, last week, that the experts had completed their investigations into the objections of the Fine Arts Commission and were now preparing the report for publication. Parliament approved the bridge in 1927, but, after offers for the structure were received, architectural objections were put forward by the Fine Arts Commission, the approval of which is a condition of grant from the Ministry of Transport.
Heavy Penalty For Overworking Drivers.
VINES amounting to £62 us. 6d. U were imposed by the Southend magistrates, last week, when Davy and Armitage, Ltd., timber merchant, Elmer Avenue, Southend, appeared on charges alleging that drivers in its employ had worked excessive periods.
Bolton Loses Transport Official.
THE death occurred on Monday of Mr. Clement Ormerod, general manager of Bolton (Lams) Transport Department. It was only in September last that Mr. Ormerod succeeded the late Mr. John Barnard in the position of transport manager. The whole of Mr. Ormerod's working life was spent in the transport department.
Fewer Lorry Models in Germany.
I N accordance with the recent decision
of the German Government authorities. to bring about a reduction in the number of different models of lorry manufactured in Germany, the Bussing-N.A.G. Co., of Brunswick, announces that it is now concentrating its products on two sizes of oiler—one for 4f-ton useful loads and the other a 61-tanner.