Rebirth of
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The French Commercial Vehicle Industry
FRENCH commercial-vehicle manufacturers have had a tough time since the liberation of their country, but order is gradually being evolved out
• of the chaotic situation brought about by four years of enemy rule. Coal shortage and a lack of raw materials put a brake on reconstruction last year, but, in some respects, the situation is easing: There is a little more coal available now, and materials for manufacture are gradually coming back to the market; the process is slow, but is assisted by a number of mergers which has taken place in the industry.
Nearly all the more important commercial-vehicle concerns' have formed themselves into groups for economic purposes. Panhard-Levassor, Somua and Willeme form the Union Francais Automobile, Berliet • and 4, Rochet
Schneider the Isobloe Lyonais, Delahaye, Unic, Laffiy, Simca and Bernard the G.F.R., whilst Hotchkiss-Saurer, Latil and Peugeot form another group. The only concerns still working alone are Citroen, Renault (now nationalized) and the French Ford Company. With regard to the last-mentioned, 30 per cent, of the material, including engines, is imported from the United States and assembled in France.
In the past the French industry suffered from a multiplicity of types, which complicated the supply of spare parts and did not serve the best interests of the user. For this reason, following a decision made by the Comae D'Organisation Automobile last year, new vehicles under construction were to be graded into six categories-2 tons, 3i tons, .5 tons, 7 tons, 10 tons and 15 tons. However, the present trend is towards a specialization in models rather than their division into categories by tonnage.
The 3-31-ton chassis under construction aw largely for passenger-coach service, 5-tonners for goods haulage, and those from 8 tons to 15 tons for longdistance work of all kinds.
Great encouragement has been given to manufacturers of oil-engined vehicles by reason of the fact that oil fuel is unrationed. It is, in fact, one of the few commodities in France which can be bought outside the universal black market Mentioning the black market, large pneumatics for heavy vehicles have, until quite recently, been fetching fantastic prices, but the tyre situation appears to be righting itself now with surprising rapidity.
Tyres are being imported from America, but French manufacture is already going well. The Michelin concern has its big presses working again, as also has the French Dunlop concern, since raw rubber imports are improving. By next autumn, deliveries should" be good, and it is hoped that in January, 1947, all new industrial vehicles will be leaving the works on French tyres.
Average Age of Present Vehicles is 12 Years Looking around at the vehicles now responsible for road transport in France, one finds that the average example, whatever its tonnage, is at least 12 years old. It speaks well for their robust design and the good material put into them that these antiquities continue to serve the country's needs so well.
Omitting light delivery vans, etc., there were circulating in France, at the outbreak of war, some 245,000 commercial vehicles, ranging from 2-tonners upwards. This " fleet " was sadly reduced by the war, some being destroyed by Allied bombing, or lost in other ways; and many being taken out of the country by the Germans. In January of the present year the total stood at 175,000, leaving a deficit of 70,000 to be made up. By far the largest losses suffered were in heavy vehicles, these being most suited to German military needs.
However, despite innumerable diffi culties and troubles which we, in this country, have been spared, the French industry is pulling itself out of the mud. If present deliveries of new chassis can be maintained, and increased, the national deficit in vehicles carrying useful loads of from 2 tons to 15 tons may be reduced to 20,000 by the end of this year. The existing deficit of 70,000 vehicles includes those required for Government or municipal services, as well as those for private haulage.
Unfortunately for French industrt whilst the braking effects of raw material and coal shortages are being partially released, the administrative brake, applied five years ago under enemy occupation, appears still to be hard on. The form-filling mania, which, as we know to our cost in Great Britain, acts like blight upon what should be a flourishing orchard, is raging with even greater virulence across the Channel. Before any order can b3 put in hand, scveral different ministries must be approached, and their consent obtained, with a consequent reduction in output owing to the dilatory methods of officialdom.
A five-year plan for private-car and commercial-chassis construction was, in theory, started last January, but manu. facturers are still in the dark as to boythey will fare individually in the distribution of raw materials. This state of affairs is, naturally, a positive nightmare for directors, designers and, above all, production engineers. One thing at least the French have so far been spared —they are not living under the horrid shadow of nationalization.
Deliveries of rebuilt buses to the Paris Municipal Transport Board are slow, and, of new ones, slower still. In February last there were about 1,000 vehicles running, and a few hundred more have since been added to the fleet,