Answers to Queries.
Page 19
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Wants to Join the C.M.U.A.
[2719] (Cheshire).—We have requested the C.M.U.A. to send a form of application direct to you. The present is essentially the time to join, as the future of users is very much in the hands of the L.G.B. Committee, before which the C.M.U.A. will present wellconsidered and exhaustive evidence.
"To Read Up Easily About Commercial Motors."
[2720] (E.C.)—There is no technical book dealing with constructional features of which we have knowledge, but you might get a certain amount of useful information from a book -written by Mr. G. W. Watson, and published by Messrs. Cassell, which is called "The Business Motor Handbook." It sells at 2s. 6d.
New Rim Standards for Solid Tires.
[2'721] (Supplies).—Col. H. C. L. Holden, F.R.S., who at present holds an important appointment on the staff of the Director of Supplies and Transport, at the War Office, is chairman of the sub-committee of the Engineering Standards Committee which is responsible for the new standards both for pneumatic tire and solid tire rim diameters. The work in connection with solid tires was more particularly undertaken in detail by a special committee, and in this connection Mr. W. H. Paull, of the Dunlop Rubber Co., Ltd., Major J. Sealy Clarke, of Spencer, Moulton and Co., Ltd., and Mr. W. H. Bond, of St. Helens Cable Co., Ltd., were especially active.
A Five-seater Car on Private Hire.
[2722] (Manchester).—It will be hard to pay with
your car at is. per mile for distance run one way only, unless you get a fair proportion of round trips. An average revenue of qd. per mile is desirable. You are not likely to lose money on the basis of 6d. per mile going and returning, unless your running between the depot and, the points where you pick up and set down parties adds up to a high figure. There will in no event be satisfactory margins of profit to cover contingencies and leave a profit if you do not see an average revenue of as nearly as possible Id. per mile run under hire, because part of this revenue will be absorbed in covering actual cost for the distances which your vehicle must inevitably run, empty, and without any hire payment, between jobs.
Private Hire v. Plying for Hire in Relation to Petrol Tax.
[2723] (Lanes.).—The whole point about private hire is this : if you are prepared to use petrol all the year round on which the full tax of 3d. per gallon has been paid, and to forego the right to claim a rebate of lid. per gallon to which every user of a commercial motor is entitled, no question will arise. It is only when an owner seeks to get the petrol rebate that difficulties are raised by the Excise officials if the vehicle has at any time been used with passengers. As regards the carriage duty of two guineas under the 1896 Motor Car Act, it is so much the better for you if the local authorities have overlooked it—or if your car weighs not more than one ton_, in which case it is exempt from any tax except that of 15s. per annum. Section 8 of that Act reads : "There shall be paid in Great Britain for every light locomotive which is liable to duty either as carriage or as hackney carriage, under Section 4 of the Customs and Inland Revenue Act 1888, an additional duty of excise at the following rate, namely, "If the weight of the locomotive exceeds one ton unladen but does not exceed two tons unladen £2 2s."
If you have the ordinary hackney-carriage licence, costing 158. per annum, if you buy petrol on which the full duty has been paid (i.e., ordinary petrol), and if the ear weighs one ton or less, you can undertake private-hire orders without any risk. Paraffin Carburetter Manufacturers.
[2724] (Bridport).—Probably the Notax carburetter, which is patented, manufactured and sold by The Notax Carburetter Co, 8, Penarth Road, Cardiff, will meet your requirements. The Wolseley Co., Thornarcroft Co., White and Poppe Co., and also the Albion Co., make paraffin carburetters suitable for their own engines, but we do not think it likely that they will be able to supply you at the present time.
Contracting with a Foden. [2725] (Lancs.).—Our free sheet of working costs (mailed) will show you the correct figures, subject to normal treatment, for your Foden wagon. Of course, if you want to earn money as a contractor, you should see at least half as much again in revenue per mile run—say, an average of is. 3d., as a minimum, without a trailer, reckoning all mileage (loaded, unloaded, and between jobs) together. as does an owner who provides his own loads for his own wagon.
One Ton at 40 m.p.h.
[2726] (Laundry).—Our free sheet of working costs (mailed) may be of some help to you. You cannot run any motor commercially at 40 miles an hour. Even those owners of pleasure cars who do not care how much their motoring costs them find it a very costly proceeding. If you get a commercial motor, you had better reckon on not more than 14 m.p.h. on a fair give-and-take road, apart from the time occupied in making calls. Practically no second-hand pleasurecar chassis will give satisfaction when carrying a load of one ton. Such a chassis might cost you anything to run, if so overloaded, between 8(1. and is. a mile. It is impossible to forecast the cost of breakdowns in such a case. Can you not contract with a local garage, at so much per mile, for the hire of a motorvan on certain days ? There may be some garage in Derby at which a commercial vehicle is available