A Bus Driver Calls for Freedom IUTAY I, as a
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bus driver for 26 years, support your efforts in to keep the road transport industry, both goods and passenger, free? I have talked to many other bus drivers on this matter of nationalization, and I am sure that nearly 90 per cent, believe that they would be worse off under this so-called planning.
in the case of my company, the time-table issued by it gives a good example of toad-rail co-operation, One part of the service is a 36-mile round trip, the return fare by bus being 2s. 7d. and the single Is. 9d. This fare was in operation before ate railways were taken over but if the buses were treated in the same manner it. is alrhost certain that the fare would have to be raised so as to even it up with that Charged by rail. We run 11 buses per day against five trains, The point concerning the alleged co-operation is that return tickets 'purchased • in •either direction on the buses ire available for the ieturn journey by rail and similarly, rail return tickets fot the return by road, VW passengers desk. ing to use the rail Must exchange the bus tract for a railway ticket at a booking office and pay a supplementary fare of 3s. 2d. before commencing the return journey, which is more than double the bus fare at the return rate.
Stoke-on-Trent. • • Bus. DRIVER.
POLIGE.IN A LEARNER'S VAN A REFERENCE was made in your issue dated Novato ber 24 to a trickY legal point in connection with the
employment • of plain-clothes policemen in police cars. to , . check speed. It Was stated by you that drivers cannot be expected to stop when requested to do so by unknown individuals in cars.
In this connection, I would like to give you a recent experience of my own. I was driving a coach on the Southend Road when I saw behind me a plain Fordson van carrying L plates and manned by two men in civilian clothes. After about a Mile this van came alongside with the horn sounding, and one of the men waving his arms. Thinking something was wrong, I stopped, and the men then alighted and pushed a card in my face, announcing that they were police and that I would be reported for a summons. Twenty-five days later this was received and was contested at Romford. The magistrate's clerk said i hat the police were quite in Order in stopping rne, and as I could not prove that I was not exceeding the limit and had no witness with me, I was fined.
London, S. E. 15. G. EDWARDS.
SHOULD DRIVING EXAMINERS BE EXAMINED?
I READ recently of a case in which a man of 57, who was failed in a driving test, summoned the examiner because, he alleged, the test was a "series of traps." This brings to ;ny mind many examples of this type that have occurred during the past year or so. It is true that the allegations were not always the same, but they gave a similar impression —that many of the examiners are not content to ascertain that a candidate is a reasonable and safe driver. The emphasis is that they do their best to trip up the candidate in some way.
.1 suppose that it is quite reasonable and human for anyone who spends much of his working life testing people as to their ability to: drive, to have "off days" when he does not feel in unison with the world. Those of us who have had experience in teaching drivers know that sometimes the job tends to fray the nerves. This leads to irritability and to the wish to hit back at those with whom we are in contact.
It is also only human to. feel the need to justify ourselves iknd our job. It seems incumbent 'Upon us to put ourselves right in our own eyes and in the eyes of other people, perhaps because we feel that being a driver-tester does not seem to be a terrifically high level of achievement. Hence there
may be a tendency to try to catch out the candidate, just to show him that he is not quite as cleVer as we are. It. is hardly fair that upon such frailties of our individual temperaments a man's future livelihood should depend. • . One young *hose failure cost him his job as a potential butcher's rotindsman, was told that he did not pass because "he changed-down when approaching a corner." In the view of the particular examiner, this was not good driving and warranted failure. The reason given was that a driver cotild not change down and make adequate
hand signals simultaneously.
Although I Would not go so far as to say that changingdown at corners. is My unfailing practice; I know that had I
been a: candidate I would have considered it the best procedure during the test. Presumably I Would then have failed.
Ancither refusal of a pass was because the • candidate. upon two • oecasions. stopped' With .11s wheels "too close to the near-side kerb at halt signs." A heinous error you will doubtless agree!
The only conceivable reason why one could be too close to the kerb at' a halt sign is that, if one were piloting a long vehicle, it might be difficult to turn to the left Without 'mounting the kerb. Even this does not bear close investiga
tion, however, because the vehicle concerned was a light Van, and halt signs are seldom so close to 'turnings as to make the "fault" applieable. • • • One cannot help but think that, in either of these cases, a man could be a reasonably safe driver and still fail because he did not comply with an examiner's individual and tricky requirements. -The serious trouble is that there does not appear to be any readily accessible court of appeal from such irrelevant and arbitrary rulings.
Would it 4ae too much to ask that an examiner should give a candidate a verbal survey of what he proposes to embody in the test, and what he expects him 'to do in particular circumstances? It would be better still if the examiner could give demonstrations of how he expects them to be done. After all, surely it is not the intention of the test to keep the candidate in the dark and to try to trick him into making mistakes?
I am not in favour of the introduction of a rigidly standard test, because it is not always possible to judge the potentialities of a driver by strict rule-of-thumb methods, but I do think that too much arbitrary power is left to individuals.
Portsmouth. H.R.
TOWBARS FOR MOTOR VEHICLES IN "The Commercial Motor," dated April 14, there was a letter concerning tbe best type of towbar for towing vehicles. It was stated that a vehicle may be successfully hauled by means of a V towbar without the towed vehicle requiring a driver. As this Department experiences frequent cases in which it is necessary for long trips to be undertaken with towed vehicles, a towbar similar to that mentioned would be of great benefit, and we would like to have further information regarding it.
Melbourne. E. N. CORLESS, Divisional Engineer, Transport (Postmaster-General's Department). [We are not at all satisfied that a V-type towbar would satisfactorily obviate the need fen a driver on the towed vehicle. Our correspondent suggested that the steering should be centred, but some steering gears are not irreversible, and if this were the case, the wheels might flap over and put a great 'tress on every part. Even if they remained centred, they would drag at the corners as they would want to follow a straight path. The only device which we think would meet your requirements would be a wheeled trolley fitted under the front axle to lift the wheels off the ground. Such a trolley could be towed by a single bar with suitable couplings.—ED.1