Bird's eye view
Page 22
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* Hop on a bus!
There's a moral about the travelling public's view of bus design in the happenings which accompanied Ron 'Cater's test of the AEC 1922 S-type double-decker, reported in this issue. On no fewer than eight occasions during the test, when covering the LGOC's old route No. 12, people tried to board the bus at stops and were obviously unaware that there was anything unusual about it! In one case there was a protracted argument before a couple looking for a No. 12 bus were finally persuaded to get off—they were adamant that they had run for a number 12 and a number 12 they were darned well going to get.
At Shepherd's Bush a very chatty Irishman seriously inquired when this obviously newpainted vehicle was going into service.
Quite apart from the people who tried to get on at the simulated journey stops, Ron was almost (not quite) reduced to blushing at the remarks which he lip-read from people at stops who saw the bus go sailing past their outstretched hands.
It goes to prove the point of those who say that all this talk about modern bus designs is irrelevant: people just want a bus—at the right place at the right time. Sad, really.
* Helping hands
At this time of year one tends to hear a lot about charitable organizations, and I was interested to learn the other day of the activities of two leading members of the motor and transport industry in relation to charity work.
Harry Cressman, chairman and managing director of the Bristol Street Group Ltd., and Peter Pointer, chairman of the Pointer Group, are both on the national executive of Action Against Crippling Diseases. This is the support organization of the National Fund for Research into Crippling Diseases.
The charity has shown foresight in involving these men in their plan for the Seventies, particularly as some of their fund-raising plans are likely to involve the road transport industry.
* Breaking free
When Herbert Jones transferred from the managership of Leigh (Lanes) Corporation Transport Department 16+ years ago and took charge of the Lincoln undertaking the change failed to register with a number of people. The reason was that in the lists of municipal departments Lincoln immediately follows Leigh (and incidentally has a fleet of almost the same size) so it was easy to miss the alteration or to assume that a slip had occurred. Mr. Jones was due to retire from the Lincoln post in the summer of 1968 but the transport committee persuaded him to keep his hands on the wheel. Then 12 months later they again asked him to continue to steer the undertaking. Now he tells me that much as he enjoys life in the great Cathedral city, he has requested the committee to find him a successor at the end of his present term.
* 12 not out
He made it. Remember the article on Speedy Delivery Services Ltd in CM on July 11, when managing director Bill Strath said: "We will have 12 vans on this business before Christmas?" Well he has; 12 months ago there were two. Each month the fleet has grown. How many will Bill have by December 1970? "Who knows?" he asks. "This smalls business is never-ending. We can get the traffic, we can get the vans but it looks as if we'll soon run out of drivers."
* Unloved
When George Blackball, an official at Felixstowe dock, addressed the Felixstowe Port Users Association recently, he opened by saying: "1 have never really felt I was an object of love." Poor George Blackball had surely just read our article on the port's inadequate facilities because he then went on to say "This country is not prepared for containerization. We are ill-equipped." Then he blamed the equipment manufacturers. Maybe someone will give him a new weighbridge for Christmas. What about the hauliers having a whip round?
* Unpopular
The least popular name at the recent TMC meeting in London, I'm told, was that of Peter Bessell, Liberal transport spokesman and MP for Bodmin, who that very day had let loose what some described as an irresponsible outburst against commercial vehicles, following a number of tragic accidents on fogbound motorways.
Mr. Bessell not only made some very emotional and sweeping remarks about trucks; be also said: "Much of the traffic carried by vehicles of this kind is better suited for transportation by rail." Was this really the MP who claimed to have laid more amendments to the Transport Bill than anyone else, and who told the TMC in September about the failings of the Freightliner system and the deterioration of services?
He had expounded his philosophy to the transport managers when he said that something so vital as the nation's transport system should not be in the hands of politicians but in the hands of a committee of transport experts. Comment at the TMC last week was that it was a pity that he wasn't following his own advice.
Or is he perhaps setting himself up as a transport expert pending his departure from the Commons at the next General Election? Whichever way you look at it, Mr. Bes sell has given one particular group of transport managers a very odd impression of his philosophy.