OPINIONS
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and
QUERIES
COMBAT PRESS CAMPAIGNS AGAINST ROAD TRANSPORT.
15502] In its issue of November 14 The Daily Mail printed a highly coloured and misleading article about road transport. The writer of it was supposed to have stood at a busy point with a mechanical hand-counter• and recorded the passage of various classes of commercial vehicle speeding on their way with loads of freight wrested from the defenceless railways.
The old canard of a Rail v. Road war was fully exploited, although the truth must be admitted that nearly all inaccuracies in the report were of omission rather than deliberate mis-statement.
Altogether the glowing picture painted inferred that all the newcomer to road transport needed was the wherewithal to purchase a vehicle before joining other road users in bringing about the utter disintegration of the railways.
I wrote to the Editor of that newspaper and objected, and, to give him his due, my letter was published, albeit in a diluted and emaciated form, Before doing so it seemed to me to be a waste of time, but I am glad to have had at least a restricted say on behalf of road transport.
The daily and Sunday papers must be made to realize that a large proportion of their readers depends on road transport for a living. Commercial motor manufacturers (especially those who are also in the private-car market) must threaten to withdraw their advertising revenue. Even if it be a bad principle for commercial interests to attempt to dictate editorial policy, surely they may justifiably do so where the propaganda disseminated is wholly wrong and against the public interest.
As I say, I wrote to the paper mentioned without any hope that my letter would be published. Would that all your readers were keen enough to do the same when they see attacks on road transport in the Press.
A huge volume of protest against this partisanship would speedily cause them to cease their attacks. Properly, the doings of road and rail transport are not " news" so far as the lay Press is concerned, and the sooner it is warned off trying to sway the public towards sympathy for the railways the better.
In conclusion, I would like to voice the opinion of what, I am sure, is in the minds of all hauliers when I say how much appreciated is the Sane and helpful attitude. of The Commercial Moto,' to these fresh evils
which confront the industry. J.D.P. Bournemouth.
• FIDDLING WHILE ROME BURNS.
[550..3] Two years ago you published the above article and added an Editorial invitation to the associations to take up the challenge. They failed to do so to any marked degree and I once more challenge them to show what they have achieved for the independent hau:ier.
Railway propaganda is rampant again and this time it may be "to some effect. The railways intend to compel revised legislation that will strengthen their attack against the road. They would, if they could,drive from his privileged position the ancillary user. Failing this, the full force of their onslaught will continue to be directed against the independent haulier.
What association can claim to represent the haulage industry and that industry only?
There is the London and Home Counties Haulage Contractors Association, the performance of which is excellent, within a limited scope ; for it is a conservative organization. There may be similar associations in the Provinces, but of them we hear practically nothing. So far as the two much-advertised associations are concerned, I contend that they represent anyone and no one and that they still mix fish v.-th fowl indis
criminately. E. H. B. PALMER. London, S.W.1.
[We think that Mr. Palmer is somewhat hard on the associations. They have done a great deal of excellent work, to not all of which has publicity been given. Mr. Palmer, in a further note, which we have deleted from his letter. suggests also the formation of another national association to cover haulage interests only, but we are not in accord with the idea of increasing the number of such bodies. We believe that the reverse should be the case. It may be, however, that-eventually, if several associations continue to exist, there might be some arrangement by which one represented the purely haulage interests. and the other, operators not confined to these. There could, of course, be concerted action when occasion. demanded, as happened during the crisis.—En.]
TYRE LIFE AND SAFETY.
[5504] I have from time to time read with interest articles on tyre maintenance appearing in your journal over the signature, L.V.B.
Here and there—for credit should be rendered where due—I have found matter for thought, and here and there, again, matter for question, but how these people who write of elementary things do harp on the "ignorant operator." Are they so ignorant ? Do they really benefit by being told that "when a tyre fails and is replaced at a special price by the maker, the average cost is not affected " ; or that "It is necessary to treat each vehicle separately, unless they are all of the same type, for there are great variations between different lorries, not only in tyre mileage, but also in tyre cost " ; or, again, " If a tyre costing M bursts when only a quarter worn, the operator has had only 30s. worth of wear from it" ?
He goes on to say: "In these days of overloading," whereas I had thought, and hoped, that these were less the days of overloading than formerly.
Again, he holds that the normal life of a 32 x 6 heavyduty cover, costing about £7, is 20,000, and invites us all to consider this a fair figure. "How many small operators realize that on a journey of 220 miles on a 3-tonner a tyre cost of Os, 3d. is involved."
I wondered here how large an operator had to be before he arrived at this remarkable conclusion.
Being responsible for the tyre life of a very large number of vehicles using this size of tyre, neither under nor overloaded, and running under normal conditions, I would.state it as my definite experience that 45,000 miles may be expected as an average performance, and this reduces the figure of 9s. 3d. to 4s. lid. I would add that if I obtained appreciably less than this mileage I would consider it a matter that demanded investigation.
Next I will touch on his ideas of tyre-road adhesion. Here he seeks to impress upon us that "a wet road can no longer be cOnsidered an ally in the cause of stability, and the whole responsibility now falls on the tyres."
The chief engineer of a firm which devotes time and money to experimentation and lectures in the cause of road safety expresses the opinion that "the difference in safety margin between a new tyre tread and one worn to the base of the tread pattern is not more than 5 per cent."
Statistics give us the following tyre-road adhesion figures.
Coefficient of adhesion.
Concrete .., Dry .9 ... 1,0 Wet .8 ... .9 Wood blocks ... Dry .8 ... .9 Wet .4 ... .9 I give these two extremes to indicate clearly that the remedy for skidding lies about 90 per cent, in the hands of the road authorities.
I would be glad to know that the articles of L.V.B are written with the altruistic motive of helping the poor and ignorant operator, and not because, as I suspect, that L.V.B. is commercially interested in the promotion of tyre sales, and actually makes capital of the unfortunate operator who is unfairly convicted for having dangerous tyres the only defect of which is
smoothness, F.J. London.
THE DEPRECIATION OF BATTERY VEHICLES.
[55051 In the answer S.T.R. gives to letter No. 5490 in your issue dated November 4, I do not think that he makes the point quite so clear as is possible. The life of the battery vehicle is at least 10 years, and hundreds are at work in mechanical condition as good as new after 20 years' life.
The confusing of the battery hie with that of the vehicle is, I think, a fair matter for complaint against S.T.R.'s Tables and I hope that he will try to adjust the matter in future sets.
Some sellers of batteries and electric vehicles try to hide the fact that battery wear and electrical energy together are the fuel of electrics ; and battery wear is the larger part of the total cost. There is no need to do this; because, although the fuel of electrics, at equal speed, costs a little more per mile than on I.C.-engined vehicles; the electric's inherent freedom from repairs (if robustly built), its great saving of oil and its remarkably low depreciation, easily offset the extra and leave a big margin.
Batteries do not, as might be inferred, have to he replaced every three years.
The reason is that traction batteries contain enough consumable material to give 1,000 to 1,200 charges and discharges at full cycle, as we call it, that is, right up n38 to right down, at least, so far down that the vehicle will not run.
It is, however, quite impossible in practice, for obvious reasons, to use batteries that go right down every day, so about 30 per cent. extra capacity is usually carried.
This means that (although the battery is charged up to top every night) only two cycles are used in three days, so 1,500 to 1,600 days' use may be expected from the available material. The point is that one gets • 1,000 to 1,200 full cycles even it these take 10 years. Batteries in our own hands have run for periods of over
seven years. H. N. OUTRAM,
Burscough Bridge, For Victor Electrics, Ltd. .Ormskirk.
[I am obliged to Mr. Outram for his criticisms and suggestions. I accept his figure of 10 years for the life of the chassis of an electric vehicle: that is the basis I have myself used in arriving at the figure for depreciation quoted in the Tables. That does not, however, necessarily apply to the bodywork, in connection with which some allowance must be made, either for extra maintenance cost or more rapid depreciation. I have preferred the latter. I do not, as yet, accept his recommendation that I should separate battery depreciation from that of the rest of the vehicle any more than I should deal separately, as 'regards depreciation, with the engine and gearbox of a petrol chassis. I will, however, keep the matter in mind during the ensuing year while I am collecting data for the next edition of the Tables. I am well aware of all the possibilities inherent in the electric vehicle and its battery, and, in that, I include the not-too-practical method of calculating the life of a battery which Mr. Outram describes, In compiling the Tables, however, I am not concerned with possibilities but with performances. Operators do have trouble with the chassis of electric vehicles, their batteries do not invariably last six years or even three and, in effect, the figures I give relate to users' experiences up to the time of compiling each edition of the Tables. It is to he expected that the performanees of electric vehicles will still further improve. They have undoubtedly .done so during the past few years. When that improvement is reflected in economy of operating cost the results will be apparent in " The Commercial Motor Tables of Operating Costs."—S.T . R .
RESTRICTIONS ON WIDTH OF LOAD.
[55061 I notice that under the heading "Passing Comments" on page 465 of last week's issue of The Commercial Motor, you state that there are no legal restrictions on the width of a load: There is, of course, a provision in the Road and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, which does not permit of a lateral overhang of more than 12 ins, beyond the Wheels of a vehicle, and in some towns in this country the width of a load is limited.
I believe that there is still a by-law in force in the City of London which provides that the width of a load must not exceed 8 ft. or some dimensions in the neighbourhood of that figure.
F. G. Baisrow, General Secretary, The Commercial Motor Users Association. London, S.W.I.
[We thank Mr. Bristow for kindly supplementing our note on this matter. Our remarks referred to what we ,may term general legislation. It is unfortunate that Scottish law often deviates considerably from that covering the remainder of the British Isles, although it is gradually being placed on the same basis. Local restrictions are always a difficulty, and are met in a number of our bigger cities, not only in respect of this particular matter, and if a load of unusual width is to he carried through big centres it is always advisable to consult the police chief concerned.—En.]