Bird's Eye View
Page 38
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Leeches for Anxmia
By The Hawk
MR. J. S. WILLS excelled himself last week in his address to shareholders of East Yorkshire Motor Services, Ltd., whose general manager he was at the age of 22. One of his best analogies concerned the Government's attitude towards rural bus services and taxation. " It would," he said, "be a curious kind of doctor today who prescribed leeches for a patient who was suffering from pernicious anxmia, but that is the Government's treatment for the country's rural scrvicest they are bleeding them to death. Before the last Budget operators once again begged the Government to remove this leech-like tax. And what was the response? Apply bigger and better leeches l I refer, of course, to the increase in the rate of profits tax applicable to utility undertakings (such as ours), whose charges to the public are subject to statutory control."
Customer Lost •
MOT long ago a couple of dozen little boys were mown -41 down by a bus being driven on side lights in a dark street in Chatham. Yet many drivers still follow the maniacal practice of not using dipped headlights in badly illuminated town roads. The other night I was roundly abused by an ambulance driver because I refused to switch off my dipped headlights in a dark narrow street with several side turnings and littered with unlit parked cars. He probably resented being robbed of a customer,
One of the Few
By coincidence, the first driver of Maidstone and District Motor Services, Ltd., to win the Road Operators' Safety Council's cross for 35 years' freedom from accident comes from the company's Chatham (Luton) depot. He is Mr. F. J. Butler and he is one of only 14 out of 82,000 drivers in the Rosco competition to hold this distinction.
£100 for Antique
FOLLOWING the current fashion, Simms Motor and
Electronics Corporation, Ltd., are trying to set up a museum to commemorate the great work of their founder, the late F. R. Simms, who was also responsible for the birth of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and the Royal Automobile Club.
He was alniost the father of the British motor industry, for in 1891, at the age of 28, he concluded an agreement with Gottlieb Daimler by which he acquired the selling rights of Daimler patents for all countries except Canada. The interest in motor vehicles in Britain sprang from this arrangement, and in 1901 Mr. Simms began to make Simms-Welbeck commercial vehicles and cars. The company are now trying to find one of these historic vehicles and are offering £100 to anyone who can lead them to it. Even a bare chassis will do.
Drivers Like It
A LREADY accustomed to Daimlers, Nottingham Corpor ation's bus drivers have accorded a warm reception to a new Daimler 30-ft.-long, 8-ft.-wide 74-seater which has been on trial on .the Clifton Estate routes for just over a week. They particularly like the two-pedal control, air-operated brakes and power-assisted steering, but passengers have not taken so kindly to the rearward-facing seat against the front bulkhead in the lower saloon. They apparently prefer to see where they are going, rather than where they have been.
Look You!
!AR. J. R. LINDSAY, North Western Deputy Licensing LVI Authority, was hard pressed last week to keep up with the Joneses. He was hearing an application by Mr. •Jones, who was represented by Mr. Jones, and opposed by Mr. Jones. Need I mention he was sitting in North Wales?
The Acrobat
" I HAVE never known the company more alive, more
I constructive and with its feet right in the future than itis at the present time."—Lord Tedder, chairman of the Standard Motor Co., Ltd., at the company's annual meeting last iveek. This kind of gymnastic feat is quite beyond me.
Not That! THE affinity between General Motors of America and
Vauxhall Motors, Ltd., is stretched a little too far by the use of the word "fender" for "wing" in a Bedford brochure. I shudder to think what may ensue from this incursion into American terminology.
Backing Out
I HEAR that the Road Haulage Association have been
successful in several cases in preventing insurers from deducting income tax from compensation claims. A serious offer by the Association to test the question in court has been sufficient to produce the desired result.
Fine Point
VUITH an emphatic nod of the head, a transport manager VV told me, "I never pay drivers' fines . . never . . . except when they're in the right"