OPINIONS
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and
QUERIES
LOAD-WIDTH RESTRICTION IN SCOTLAND , TO BE REMOVED.
[55071 With reference to Mr. Bristow's letter which appeared on page 528 of your issue for last week, it may be of interest to Mr. Bristow and others of your readers to know that on August 2 last, in consequence of representations which I had made to the Minister of Transport, I received a letter on this subject from the Ministry of Transport. This stated that the Minister had consulted with the Secretary of State for Scotland, with the result that that portion of the Roads and Bridges (Scotland) Act, 1878, which prohibits the driving of a load with a lateral overhang of more than 12 ins, beyond the wheels of a vehicle, has been noted for repeal at the earliest convenient opportunity.
HORACE NORMAN LETTS (of Messrs. Mawby, Barrie and Letts, solicitors). London, E.C.2.
THE GLOVES ARE OFF.
[5508] War! The big guns are booming and the poison gas released, the whole £1,100,000,000 are behind them.
What about road transport? What chance has it against such might? Who are our friends? What are our defences? Are we like sheep to be slaughtered? Or are we men and Britons?
We have worked and built up our businesses by the sweat of our brow. What about it? Do we surrender or do we fight?
Some will say "What can we do?" Well, don't wait for somebody to help you. Start on the first traveller who calls on you. Tell him you will not buy his goods unless his concern actively supports road transport. Sympathy is not enough.
Let your wife tell the butcher, baker and candlestick maker that they must give their help and bombard their 1VI.P.s and trade associations. Those who are not for us are against us. The gloves are off; the fight is on.
Clutton. LEWIS PRITCHARD.
THE ROCKET WAS TO BLAME.
[55091 Herewith a semi-facetious and perhaps unprintable reply to J.D.P.'s latest burst of optimism. It is yours to deal with as you please, and even if you do not publish it I shall continue to read your very excellent and enlightening journal.
But How Long to Live ?
Really, Mr. McDowall—light the bonfire and leave us to imagine whose face you will see on the guy and to whose pants you would like to tie a few rockets. Not J.D.P.'s face, obviously, for he thinks we deserve better treatment. "As with all things," he says, "there are only two ways" (I wonder if J.D.P. has ever travelled on a local railway?) "with their attendant diversions" (perhaps lighting bonfires is one of them). "The choice is 'well or ill." A to zero, presumably—change the nature of your business and see what happens to "A."
As for rockets; I am beginning to see the point. It was the Rocket that started to do us out of our legitimate business, the haulage of goods by road. Nowadays, by a peculiar, but not impossible, phonetic development, it has become• racket, which is American for Star Chamber. Not a great change, admitted, but enough to put at least half a dozen flourishing transport concerns out of business.
How quick was the lay Press to realize the value of road transport in emergency. Lord Beaverbrook saw it first and duly praised us. I wonder if he would consider loaning his " Time Van" to the railways. They would be bound to lose it.
Parliament, "our rulers and their masters the electorate," will be impressed by the heights to which we are rising, and resolutions will be tabled to have us decently buried. The little bit about their masters, the electorate, helps to relieve the incipient, nay, permanent gloom in which I labour. It's a grand thought to know that one is allowed to crack, if ever so feebly, the big whip.
" Past-masters in the perverted art of expediency," we, the British public, will understand how vitally important the road-transport industry is and, unless I misunderstand perverted art of expediency, will promptly" knock it for six."
Mr. McDowall is sceptical and J.D.P. the reverse. That, presumably, is• the answer, and since two pessimists equal one optimist and the result is an equation, I feel that J.D.P. should be replied to. Otherwise we hauliers will get into the habit of thinking we are useful and of service to our country.
Once started on these lines, we shall grumble at the dictates of those whose masters we are. Later we shall become even more uppish and object to the expansion of the railways. Finally, we shall ask for subsidies, and even J.D.P. will agree that this would never do. Why, it would mean altering his slogan to something like this : "You want us when you're windy, so keep us when you aren't." Anyhow, it's an idea and I shall now place my hope in the perverted art of expediency or, better still, go out and have one.
R. M. MORGAN, Director, End. End. Ponders Lovell and Co., Ltd.
A WARNING TO SAND AND BALLAST HAULIERS.
[55101 I would like through the medium of your journal to call the attention of those who have had their vehicles calibrated with Board of Trade capacity indicators, to the necessity of submitting such vehicles to an Inspector of Weights and Measures for verification and stamping. The Weights and Measures. Act, 1936, and the Regulations place the responsibility upon the user of the vehicle to submit such vehicle to an Inspector when it is ready for verification, and it is suggested that a letter should be sent immediately to the appropriate inspector, stating that certain calibrated vehicles are awaiting verification.
The Regulations permit vehicles which were constructed and fitted with capacity indicators before July 1, 1938, to be used without being verified, provided' that the vehicle be submitted to an inspector for verification before January I, 1939. Vehicles which were equipped with indicators after July 1 must be verified and stamped before they are used, and it will be an offence to use any vehicle after January 1, 1939, which has not been so verified and stamped.
There are only a few weeks left to have existing vehicles verified, and it will be very unwise to wait until the last few days before submitting vehicles, as inspectors must have reasonable time for verifying. December 31 next is the last day on which an unverified vehicle can be used for the conveyance of sand and ballast by the Cubic yard. E. V. SMITH, Secretary, Ballast, Sand and Allied Trades Association, London, W.4.
TYRE LIFE AND SAFETY.
[5511] I have read in your issue of November 25, a criticism, signed F.J., of the manner in which your contributor, L.V.B., deals with his subject. I think the latter deals with it extremely well and lucidly.
If F.J. gives any attention to the matter he will realize that operators are often ignorant—even those in charge of what he terms "the tyre life of a very large number of vehicles," and that they do not always possess that tidiness of mind and clarity of thought necessary to enable them to avoid making the most glaring of oversights and blunders.
A brain that can use such a sentence as "whereas I had thought, and hoped, that these were less the days of overloading than formerly" and is not alert enough to express itself with simplicity, clarity, and intelligent conformation to the rules of grammar and syntax, is far more likely to reap benefit from modest study of your contributor's articles than from making sententious criticism from a self-appointed and obviously false standpoint of superiority. I would certainly not like to accept figures or recording by F.J.
LOUIS DE SILVA, Transport Engineer,
London, N.1. Raphael Tuck and Sons, Ltd.
[5512] Your correspondent, F.J., suggests that some of my statements are of an elementary and unnecessary nature, and, to prove his point, he quotes from my articles a few picked phrases which, after he has carefully robbed them of their context, do indeed seem to bear out his argument. If he reads the said articles again, however, he will find that the phrases mentioned have a direct bearing on the surrounding text, and are included to make the meaning clearer. I am surprised that such an elementary fact should have escaped his notice.
Does F.J. operate in Utopia? He imagines that overloading is hardly practised nowadays. Furthermore, he suggests that 45,000 miles is a fair figure for tyres working under average conditions. This mileage is by no means exceptional, but it is far above the average of to-day. My own estimate of 20,000 is based on an experience of many hundreds of vehicles, working under all sorts of conditions, and with innumerable makes of tyres—in other words, a real average.
F.J. should know that his own opinion, based on his experience, is not necessarily applicable to the slS
thousands of vehicles outside his own fleet. Nor should he blindly accept the opinion of his very learned friend that "the difference in safety margin between a new tyre tread and one worn to the base of the tread pattern is not more than 5 per cent." If we are to believe the statement of one of the world's largest tyre manufacturers, in preference to that of the learned friend, we shall find that the true difference is nearer 60 per cent.
It is quite obvious that, despite the elementary nature of my statements, your correspondent is incapable of properly understanding them. When I said "a wet road can no longer be considered an ally in the cause of stability," I was endeavouring to show that almost the whole responsibility for safety on wet surfaces rests with the tyre. F.J., in showing thai the remedy for skidding rests with the road makers, helps me to prove my point.
Finally, in hazarding a guess that I am engaged in the tyre business, your correspondent is not straining his powers of deduction overmuch. It is hardly likely that should be studying tyres as a hobby. L.V.B. Brighton.
THIS CONCERNS EVERYONE IN ROAD TRANSPORT.
_ [5513] The urgent attention of every haulier throughout the country must be given to what is now afoot. Last week, the railway companies approached His Majesty's Government with a demand for, what they termed, a square deal. What they really mean is a "new deal" that will strengthen their hand against road transport. In their desperation, they are now wooing public opinion and will spare no expense on lavish propaganda.
Nevertheless, we of the road can reply, and to good effect, belt we must act now and without hesitation.
The road-transport industry has as long a pocket and as stout a heart as anyone else, when it comes to a show-down; so I ask the Editors of the road-transport Press to inaugurate a fund, at once, for the purpose of financing propaganda. To this fund, every owner of a commercial vehicle must subscribe, and I suggest that it be at the rate of 1 s. per ton of unladen weight. Such subscriptions would be augmented by contributions from employees and from those, like myself, who are closely associated with the industry ; for, after all, this is something in which every one of us is concerned.
I advocate the retention of Sir Charles Higham, or some equally renowned expert, in much the same way as one bespeaks the services of eminent counsel, and under his direction a committee of enthusiasts could work miracles. I urge the calling of mass meetings in every large city and town, and not even the possibilities of
soap box" oratory or loud-speaker vans should be despised. Every vehicle of every haulier should carry our slogan. Bear this in mind, here is no question of gaining ground, but a definite risk of losing that for which we have fought long and hard.
This appeal is to every one, from the owner-driver to the fleet owner and from the office boy to the
managing director. E. H. 13. PALMER. London, S.W.1.
[We thank Captain Palmer for his interesting suggestion. We are sure that the editors to whom he refers have quite enough on their hands without actually entering into this sort of activity. It is the type of work which would be better conducted by the British Road Federation, which was to a large extent organized for this particular purpose, and we suggest that this body should work in conjunction with the associations to inaugurate a really formidable fund,—Eo.]