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What the Budget Imposes on the Industry.

27th July 1926, Page 1
27th July 1926
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Page 1, 27th July 1926 — What the Budget Imposes on the Industry.
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A FTER the report stage of a Finance Bill in the -Li-lengthy discussions that always follow upon the presentation of the nation's Budget, no alteration may be made in the proposals, and as that stage in the Finance Bill of 1926 has now been reached, it is possible to examine the effects on motorvehicle taxation, and to begin the overhauling of schedules and charges in readiness for the increases that have to be faced from January 1st, 1927. In a special article on page 634 of the issue of The Commercial Motor' for July 6th we showed that Mr. Churchill had already virtually succeeded with his proposals to amend the scale of motor taxation, and made a cOmparison of the existing and new scales, with the percentages of increase, and we also showed for comparison the existing scale of taxation in Northern Ireland and the proposed new scale for the Irish Free State.

. For sixty.year 8 there has been discrimination in our legislative enactments between private and commercial vehicles, and this principle has again been laid down in the new Budget, which appro:priates for the national exchequer one-sixth of the duty imposed on private vehicles, the remaining five-sixths being credited to the Road • Fund, whereas in the case of commercial vehicles the whole of the proceeds of taxation go to the roads.

In the case of hackney motor vehicles; there is an increase in the metropolitan area Only upon the higher capacities, applicable therefore only to buses of more than 40 seats, the small vehicle seating not more than eight passengers being actually given a 50 per cent. rebate by the extension of the lowest category, so that it now embraces the eight-passenger vehicle. In the provinces the scale of taxation is now the same as that which applies to the metropolitan area, so that, except in the one class referred to, there is an increase in the duty of from 25 per cent. to 71j per cent., the largest buses now .being charged £120 per, annum instead of £70. In goods carriers, electric vehicles are given really substantial rebates in all the middle load categories, but steam and petrol-driven vehicles suffer increases up to 100 per cent., whilst for the vehicle drawing a trailer a fee of £6 instead of £2 must be paid. The showman has benefited by the persistence with which his claims to rebate were pursued during the second reading and in the committee stage. His mileage is low, but the damage done to road surfaces by his heavy train of vehicles Is great, so that the Minister of Transport has been able to impose upon him the same doubled duty to be paid by other hauliers unless he will comply with certain restrictions as to his hours of travel and will adopt rubber tyres. This certainly introduces the principle of concession in the case of resilient tyres, and raises the hope that discrimination between solid and pneumatic-tyred vehicles may ultimately be effected.

The Value of Mechanical Traction to the Territorial Army.

ONE is apt, in making the comparison between the motor and the horse, to consider the results given by the finished article and to form one's judgment upon one's observations of the relative speed, capacity, efficiency and adaptability of each form of traction. It is evident, however, from the experiences of the brigades of artillery which are engaged in the training exercises in the southern counties that one may gO much farther back than the work as presented by the troops when all the rough edges have been ground off, for it is found that much greater efficiency of the personnel is attainable in the fourteen days available for training if motdrs are used, and, per contra, that about one-half of the training period must inevitably be lost and wasted if horses have first to be trained.

The Territorial Army has not the supply of suitable, well-trained animals that are available to the Regular Army. The Territorial gunners are provided with horses drawn from civilian service, and for the first few days their own training must wait until the horses have learned something of what is expected of them. When the tractor takes the place of animal power and lorries displace the horse-drawn supply wagons, the work of training the staffs and the non-commissioned officers and men in the special branches of the work can begin immediately, because the motor tractor and vehicle leave their garages in a tractable, tuned-up state.

Quite apart from the fact that horses suitable for the haulage of guns and limbers and supply wagons are becoming hard to obtain, the value of mechanicalization of the Territorial divisions is palpable, because in the case of an invasion much greater mobility and much increased efficiency can at once be brought to bear to meet the emergency. Because some of the brigades of divisional artillery taking part are equipped with horses and others are equipped with petrol-driven power units. considerable interest attaches to the manceuvres noir in progress in Sussex.

Should Makers Compete in Parades ?

AN unusual feature of the Birmingham Parade of commercial motor vehicles held a fortnight ago was the entry of a team of three lorries by one of the well-known manufacturers of vehicles. We cannot remember any similar entry at any of the numerous parades which, since this type of contest was inaugurated in London with The Commercial Motor Cup as the principal " guerdon of a noble deed," have been held in many parts of the country.

On consideration, we feel that the innovation Is, with certain safeguards, one to be approved on the ground that it would add zest to the contests. It was found that the entry of three users, two for the London Parade and one in the Liverpool Parade, whose vehicles were turned out on a very high level of cleanliness, good order and brilliance, set an entirely new standard for the parades, and there was an immediate all-round exercise of the practice of "spit and polish" which has always been found to be of advantage among the personnel of the fighting services in creating and maintaining interest in equipment.

An entry from a manufacturer should essentially be limited to vehicles used by him in the course of his business for the collection and delivery of raw materials and finished products. This would make the manufacturer, in respect of those vehicles, a user, thus qualifying him for competition with other users. It would seem desirable, however, to stipulate that no component of the chassis should, prior to the parade, have had less than three months' association with the chassis. It could not be laid down that no component should have been changed in the year, because it is the practice of fleet engineers to maintain a stock of engines, gearboxes, steering gear and axles which, being interchangeable throughout the fleet, are available as ready substitutes for any components that exhibit defects or call for overhaul or adjustment. The competing manufacturer should, therefore, not be deprived of a like facility for component exchange.

There is no reason to suppose that a manufacturer-user would have an unfair advantage over a non-manufacturing user in the matter of securing cleanliness or polish in his competing vehicles, because the average fleet garage is exceedingly well equipped, and the works manager in a large factory would rarely be found willing to grant facilities for buffing parts of used vehicles, so that the balance would, if anything, be in favour of the non-manufacturing user, whose fleet manager would be directly interested in the presentation on parade in excellent order of any vehicle of the fleet under his control.

Tags

Organisations: Territorial Army, Regular Army
People: Churchill
Locations: London

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