DENNIS DIRECTORS ON THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE INDUSTRY
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THE annual general meeting of Dennis Brothers, Ltd., was held in London on Monday of this week, when Mr. N. P. Andrew, the chairman, presided. Early in his speech he said that certain interests, first in the passengercarrying branch, and then in the railway world, have, over a long period, cleverly sought to create an opinion in the public mind that passenger transport, especially in the Home Counties, is chaotic and lacks co-ordination, and that all competition between road and rail is unfair to the rail.
In his opinion, passenger road transport was not chaotic, and the proof was the ease, expedition and cheapness with which it was possible to get from ona place to another by road and, indeed. still is, although not quite so easy and certainly not so cheap as before the days of the 'Traffic Commissioners.
Referring to the controversy between road and rail, Mr. Andrew said that competition was not considered unfair even by the railways in the early struggling days of road transport. He added that the railways' remedy shbuld not be to say "We are down, so we
mean to pull you down too; and, in doing so, to make your services more expensive to your customers."
!Sir Raymond Dennis, K.B.E., pointed out that the new passenger vehicles registered in Great Britain during the period of September, 1932, were 32 per cent, less than in the previous year. He attributed much of this big drop to the Road Traffic Act, in placing the passenger-carrying industry under the control of Traffic Commissioners.
On the goods-vehicle side, he mentioned that the number of new registrations in September last were as much as 33 per cent. below the figure for 12 months ago, this, in his opinion, being largely due to uneasiness caused by the Salter Report. .
In dealing with overseas trade, he said that, compared with 1930, the total value of commercial vehicles exported during 1932 was just one half.
Ile made reference to certain of the Dennis models, and the success which they are achieving, and to the new easy gear-change mechanism which was described in our issue dated October 28.