Who Earns What
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/X S the rewards for public service are se much smaller than in industry, road rA transport is fortunate in having such an outstanding Minister of Transport. Lord Mancroft, who, as Minister Without Portfolio, represented transport in the House of Lords, gave up the post because he could not keep himself and his family of six on his salary of £3,750 a year. By taking a seat on the hoard of Great Universal Stores he is likely to earn more than £10,000 a year. Underlining the disparity between emoluments in Government and industrial posts, The Financial Times last week published the average amounts drawn by directors of 25 large companies. For instance, directors of the British Motor Cor
poration average £17,633 a yeat. In the British Ford Motor Co„ Ltd., they draw £11,043, whereas the chairman of the American Ford company is paid £132,000 a year. Esso directors are credited with an average of £10,619 and B.E.T. directors with £10,572. It is perhaps significant that B.E.T. were 24th in the list. There is no money in buses:
Do-it-yourself
A RE you ever worried about making ends meet? Then take a tip from Mr. J. L. Brighton, a haulier operating around Newton Flotman, near Norwich. He recently acquired al firstclass machine for turning out counterfeit coins. He can now join the ranks of hauliers who are popularly believed to be " making ".money galore.
But let me hasten to explain that Mr. Brighton had the gadget wished on him. He was hired to clear out a village blacksmith's shop and, being a thorough chap, explored dark, cobwebbed corners that had not seen a light for many generations: Before long, his lorry was a veritable museum of longforgotten tools, though why a centuries-old counterfeiting machine should have been part of a smithy's stock-in-trade is still a mystery. However, if any reader urgently needs a tool for fixing the spokes firmly into the wheels of penny-farthing bicycles.. . .
New Uniform
("HANGING times for the Service officer were neatly summed up by Lt.-Gen, Sir Richard Goodbody, G.O.C.-in-Chief, at a Northern Command Press conference. Said Gen. Goodbody: " In former days a General tried to sell his life dearly on the battlefield. Today he does just that same thing immediately his career is ended."
A colleague who was present remains convinced that the General's eye twinkled in his direction as he made that neat appraisal of the situation. But former senior officers now fill so many niches in industry that perhaps my colleague's belief may have been imagination.
Getting Together
S0 far Southampton, the home town of Mr. W. J. Irons, national secretary of the Transport Managers' Club and Southampton district manager of British Road Services, has been without a branch of the Club. But the omission is to be rectified and an inaugural meeting of the local Club will be held after Christmas. Its sphere of influence will extend from Poole to Portsmouth.
' Mr. Irons told me he hoped that a club being formed in Oxford would also become affiliated to the national organization.
Brewers' Saviour
IN "Seventy Rolling Years," just published (Faber and
Faber, 25s.). Sir John Thornycroft appears as the saviour of Whitbread's, the brewers, during the 1921 coal strike. It was his advice and active help which enabled Sir Sydney 0. Nevile, the author, to improvise oil-burning equipment at short notice and thus -keep up the brewery's production.
The book recalls 70 years' experience in the brewing industry and includes sketchy references to Whitbread's transport. Sir Sydney pioneered bulk tankers at the beginning of the century with a horse-drawn 360-gal. outfit. The company now run eight-wheelers.
General Confusion
ANYONE who attempts a statistical survey of road haulage is inviting argument. Maj.-Gen. G. N. Russell, genera! manager of British Road Services, disagrees with a finding of the Road Haulage Association, in analysing long-distance transport, that free-enterprise operators travel twice as far and carry twice as much as B.R.S.
The R.H.A. are wisely refraining from publishing the results of two surveys which they have conducted .ahd, as the basis of calculation is unknown, no one can say what the relative positions .of the State-owned and free-enterprise sectors of the industry are. Any argument on the subject is profitless.
Butter on the Bread
DURING recent weeks there have been some furrowed brows among hauliers who work _substantially for the building trade, for the full effects of credit restrictions imposed some time ago are now being felt. But, as a result of the new Government policy on investment, brighter times lie ahead for both private and local authority building. There are some projects which can be brought out of the pigeon-holes for early action, but building experts do not expect the enlarged programme to reach its full impetus for another year.
Good news for hauliers is contained also in the Prime Minister's announcement of the construction of new steel strip mills in Newport, Mon, and in Lanarkshire, each with an initial production capacity of about 500,000 tons of -sheet and light plate.
Pictures Talk
AWELCOME visitor last Friday was Mr. Bram G. Smits,. owner of West-Friesland Beige, one of the leading European international haulage concerns with offices in Belgium and Holland. He owns 40 lorries and his vehicles are to he seen every week on the Transport Ferry Service to Britain. He has had a semi-trailer built specially for British traffic.
He was on a week's visit to England, looking up old friends and making new ones. As an international hockey player, his repute extends far beyond the realms of road transport.
Mr. Smits is a keen photographer and laid out on my desk a large sheaf of photographs of his vehicles in action in various parts of the Continent. "People can talk much, but when there arc photos they can see," he said simply.
Conversation Piece
I ONDON TRANSPORT: "Hop ,on a bus."
Passenger: "I have been waiting for this bus for half an hour."
Conductress: "It wouldn't worry me if you had been waiting 21hours."
This, 1. may say, is not a figment of my imagination.