AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

Out and Home.—By "The Extractor."

26th June 1913, Page 12
26th June 1913
Page 12
Page 12, 26th June 1913 — Out and Home.—By "The Extractor."
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

And Very Nice Too.

Is there anything, I wonder, more solidly satisfactory than a real good balance sheet. Fleeting triumphs are stimulating, of course, artistic successes are perhaps consoling, but when the end of the year comes and everything is piled up into the two sides of the scale it gives one a very hollow feeling inside, even if you have broken all records and yet failed to make a substantial balance on the right side. Year in, year out Brown Bros., Ltd., of Great Eastern Street, seems to submit to its shareholders the right sort of account. The report for 1912 has just reached my hands, and "the profit for the year after making provision for the depreciation of leaseholds and freeholds" comes out at the substantial figure of £30,070 us. id. In addition there is an amount brought forward from last account, and then some deductions for income tax and directors' remuneration, which, however, leaves a net balance of 237,939 18s. id. for disposal.

Steam Wagon Demonstrations.

Steam wagon people who have most excellent vehicles but who are not universally established have a trying time with the unconverted, and are treated with unreason. After great preliminary confabs a trial is conceded, probably in some Yorkshire or Lancashire town a journey is mapped out ; goods have to be taken from, we will say, Z to W. Then other goods to be picked up at Y, a tiny place difficult to find, and the return journey made with them to Z. The chances are that neither the driver nor his mate knows the country, and constant stops have to be made for inquiries. Direction posts are not designed really to assist motor transport, as I have pointed out before on this page, a sign being needed a short distance before you reach the fork in the road. Anyhow, much time is thus wasted. Then there is, for steam wagons, the question of picking up water ; the strangers to the district are at a disadvantage. If the concern for whom the trial is arranged would only send a representative who knows the dis trict a fairer trial would be the result. As it is the gross time for the out-and-home journey is compared with that of local wagoners with horses, and the result is not so favourable as it should be. Will users who are becoming interested in motor transport kindly bear these points in mind ?

Everywhere but Britain.

" Let observation with extensive view Survey mankind from China to Peru."

When aman has been four times round the world he can fairly claim to be a traveller, and nobody realizes more than Mr. A. W. Roslington how essential it is for a man, even for a principal, to go out in order to get the business, and in consequence there is Roslington planning, as soon as the November shows a-re over, to encircle the globe in the interests of his vast

shipping business once again. It will be seen how complete are his ramifications when I say that every part of the world has been, and is being, visited by Mr. Roslington or one of his representatives in automobile interests solely. So far as commercial vehicles are concerned he holds the agency for the Belsize for everywhere out of Britain. A glance at his private code book, which has taken years of careful compilation, is most interesting.

A.B.C. and other codes are insufficient for the motor business, except for general instructions, but by his own code his representatives or agents can order a lorry with many variations from standard in two words at the outside, mostly in one string of ten letters, which is the limit allowed. It will be readily surmised that a talk on foreign trades with A.W.R. is full of interest. He shows how the bulk of the trade is for vehicles for feeding the railways ; formerly they had to go to much trouble to teach the Oriental the why and the wherefore of the internal-combustion engine, but they can be now sent practically anywhere without qualms. The Oriental is an excellent copyist, but it is noticeable that he never originates an idea for improvement. With Australasia it is, of course, another matter.

Personally Mr. Roslington, like most well-travelled people, is a delightful companion. He can talk to you interestingly for hours about the world's customs and its peoples. If you touch upon another species of customs and customs officers he can be very illuminating and, as occasion warrants, very terse. He is a Leeds Loiner, by which is meant, of course, that he is a native of that town. He married a Yorkshire lady, took to motoring in the early days, long before his connection with the business side, and played a prominent part in the development of the Yorkshire Automobile Club. He still finds motoring his chief relaxation, although when the stress of the day is over he loves to join in a game at billiards, at which diversion. I hereby testify, and I can produce other sufferers, that he is extremely useful.

Tags

Organisations: Yorkshire Automobile Club

comments powered by Disqus