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The Boom in Motor Haulage. •

2nd December 1915
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Page 1, 2nd December 1915 — The Boom in Motor Haulage. •
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

There is at the present time an undoubted boom in the motor-haulage business. A state of exceptional activity has ruled ever since the outbreak of war, and the prevailing rates have been unusually remunerative. We can write, from experience, that motor-haulage contracting had not previously been a business which gave more than the barest returns, if any, on thecapital which had been embarked in it. We refer to goods haulage. A spell of relative prosperity, however brief, has therefore been well deserved, and especially is this the case where some of tha, pioneers of heavy-motor traffic have benefited.

There is but one serious. uncertainty, and that must be with Us, we fear, for sorne,time to come: we must agaiii introduce the driver question. Cases have been put before us where drivers, although. specifically employed upon the conveyance Of muni-• lions, have themselves not only claimed to be permitted to enlist, but have straightaway enlisted without reference to :their employers. Some control must be established; steps are being taken to shape matters in that direction. The appropriate remedies will in nowise clash with the national call.

Once the driver difficulty is overcome, we believe that all will be plain sailing, for years ahead, in connection with motor contracting. The settlement el conditions for the use of the highways of the country will not prove, we are convinced, hampering or restrictive, although it i a foregone conclusion that Changes will occur in relation to the altered character of the traffic of the day. Users must be reasonable, if they demand reasonable treatment.

The boom in motor-haulage is primarily to be aacribed, apart .frem the influences of the war and numerous " fat " contracts which have been secured with the military authorities in various parts of the country (the rates for some of Which are absurdly high), to a gradual appreciation of the fundamental advantages which road transport by motor vehicle can alone give. It was a common practice, so few as six years ago, and .a universal practice in earlier years, for a motor-haulage contractor to seek his business by cutting the railway rates. He had at least to give away, in order to induce patronage, the equivalent of the cartage at one or both ends of the journey. This was in part necessary as a set-off to the customer against risk of breakdown and delay. It has become clear, of late years, and is now an established fact', that motor delivery is reliable. Breakdowns no longer interfere with performance, except in CaS65 of gross neglect, or unavoidable mishap. This state of affairs has put the motorhaulage contractor in a very strong position. He can guarantee point-to-point delivery, without having to incur excessive intermediate speeds on the road, in a period of time which may be anything between one-fourth and one-twentieth of that re nuked by any competitive system. The railway is practically put out of competition, by reason of termired and marshalling delays at each end. of the journey, which disabilities are now strikingly increased by shortage of labour, local congestion, and compulsory preference for Government supplies.

Happy, indeed, is the case of the. motor-haulage contractor, compared with his state when we addressed to the haulage world our special issue. of the 15th October, 1908, dealing with the profits that were to be obtained from haulage by road motors. We are glad to feel, however, that the examples • and Warnings \I;IliCh we then published, providing summary of the conditions which are essential to the successful establishment of a business in motor hiring, have proved during the intervening years of great assistance in contributing to the successful issue to their labours which we are now able to record for many of our oldest supporters.

We believe that there will be, within two years of the conclusion of hostilities, on the roads of this conntry, three commercial motors for each one that is now so running. It will be interestine-'' to observe, in the years which follow, whether developments on the passenger side, or On the goods side, will become the more noteworthy. Motor-contracting in the conveyance of passengers is in sonne aspects the .simpler: it is a cash business, and the rates which are obtainable per vehicle-mile are usually. well in excess of these which can be derived from the conveyance of any inanimatefloacis, unless the latter be in the highest railway elas,sifications, or of exceptional value or fragility. Tramway extensions have Virtually been stopped for some years, and new tramway. projects have practically ceased to be brought forward. Developments of motorbus services, in extension of existing :tramway services; and for the opening-up of areas which at the moment are devoid of public services, will probably tend, in the aggregate, to give the advantage to contracting on the, passenger-carrying side, and that is our forecast. There will beno sudden " breaking out " of these services on bad-prospectts lines: An. ri.repressible public demand will bring theinagradually.

Our Christmas Cards.

The suggestion, conveyed by our posters and front covers this week, that we should like to send Christmas cards to a number of people, is explained in the courSo of an article which appears on page 264. We hat' been able, for the past nine weeks, to average 220 a week. of .receipts for our Fund... We want a lot. of friends•,• new and 61d,to take acard; • and thereby lend a hand, in helping us further in their names to look after the A.S.C. motor men who are overseas. The Balkans loom large in our recent and .current consignments.

More Women Drivers

and Other Alternatives.

Our sister journal " The Motor " has this week made the suggestion that women might be increasingly used to drive private motorcars, thus releasing men, who are ineligible for Military service, to take on the heavier work of driving vans. We hope that this suggestion will bring about valuable results.

One of our suggestions of last week, that youths between 17 and 19 years of age might be temporarily employed for motorvan .driVing, requires modifies.tion to the extent of limiting the age to 18, as recruits are now being officially accepted of an age one year less than was the rule at the outbreak of war.. There is, apparently, to be real stringency in the exercise of the 18-year 'rule, so we have, as the law now stands, youths in their 18th year, but not yet 18 years of age, who may be generally used in civilian work, without risk of their being taken away at no notice, upon whom to draw.

We learn that it is the intention of our sister journal" The Motor" to urge a reduction of the age at which. a motorcar driving licence can be issued. Active steps are already being taken, on the suggestion of ". The Motor," to endeavour to obtain Governmental sanction for this change in the Motor Car Act. The ltditor of that journal has the matter. in hand, through Members of the House of Commons, and by direct representation to the President of the 'Local Government Board. It is obvious, by the wording of Section III (5). of the Motor Car Act of 1903 that a short enabling Act will have to be passed, before this change can become. effective, if the proposal be, as we hope it may, duly approved. .

We wish to reiterate the other alternatives, which alternatives are additional to the wider employment of women' on. the lighter types of vehicles and the employment of youths who are. below military age. We urge .'all -possible arrangenients in addition, both by manufacturers and owners, tti..train men above militaryage, or men who are foi'one reason or another:ineligibleTfOr:any class of military service. Tighterl'fighter will the strings be drawn, on instructions from the War Office, during the next few months, in order to provide the "necessary additional 17,000 motor drivers for the Ariny. Gaps will be left, as a result, in the already-depleted ranks of civilian drivers, bat provision can be Made in advanee,ibyindividnal effort only, and hot in any other way. .There is no golden rule for the creation of finithed:..:.drivers;" time is an essential factor; and therii Is th5:Vc., but little opportunity to " take time by the :forelock. ' ' .

Punishing Both Owners and Drivers for the Same Offence.

There are numerous points of difficulty, which have come to be a worry under the working of the Heavy Motor Car Order of 1904-1907, in connection with the use of commercial motors which draw trailers. We wish to refer, at the moment, to matters arising from the fitting and'application of trailer brakes. We find, in conversation with users, and most of all with users of steam wagons, that they labour under a sense of hardship and unfair treatment, because, after they have been to the expense of providing the necessary tackle and couplings, their drivers often fail to use them, and both parties are summoned as a consequence of the men's oversights and omissions. This is not as it should be, and the writer had pleasure in directing the attention of the L.G.B. Committee to the anomaly.

The Motor Cars (Use and Construction) Order provides, by Article III (3), as follows :— " The vehicle drawn by a motorcar shall. . .

carry upon the vehicle a person competent to apply efficiently the brake: provided that it shall not be necessary to comply with this condition if the brakes upon the motorcar by which the vehicle is drawn are so constructed and arranged that neither of such brakes can be used without bringing into action simultaneously the brake attached to the vehicle drawn, or if the brake of the vehicle drawn can be applied from the motorcar."

This requirement is known in detail to all manufacturers, and they provide constructionally, both in wagons and tractors which are to haul trailers after delivery, the necessary levers and attachments to render practicable cor-^I nee with one or other of the foregoing provisions. t is necessary, however, in the course of commercial working, to disconnect trailers at various times, and the driver must obviously on such occasions uncouple the trailer-brake connections which run to the wagon or tractor.. On re-coupling the trailer bar, not a few drivers, in SOMA cases no doubt under stress of conditions, forget to re-couple the brake connections. We contend that, provided the necessary fittings have been supplied and are intact, to which point the responsibility of the owner must extend, the driver alone should he called to account for any failure to use those fittings. Instances of grievances were put before the L.G.B. Committee, on the occasion of the presentation of the C.M.U...k. evidence by the writer, to-the end that this modification of the law should be approved.

Drivers owe it to their employers, under the exist ing state of the law, to be particularly careful to recouple the trailer-brake connections on each and every occasion that the trailer, after temporary separation from the power unit which pulls it, is itself re-attached. The police, at the present time, can find very little to which to take exception in the Working of steam wagons and tractors which haul trailers, and anything which catches their eye readily, such as a loose coupling, chain., cable or rod, between the wagon or tractor and the trailer, is at once made the occasion for a prosecution—not everywhere, we gladly admit, as some policemen are content to warn the drivers.


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