Opinions from Others.
Page 18
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:Shrapnel Splashguards.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
.3017 Sir,--This company xvishes it to be known that Messrs. H. J. Shrapnel and W. II. Lane are no longer in its service, and that the registered office is now at 4. Lloyds Avenue, Isundon, KC. Art angements have been made whereby the Ariel and (;eneral Repairs, Ltd., of Camberwell New Road, London, SE., is appointed manufacturing agent to the company. and the late address of the company, at 266a. Soutlt Lambeth Road, London, SSE.. is no longer being used fin. -the manufacture of the Shrapnel splashguard. There is no connection with any party operating a similar business from that address.— Yews faithfully, For TH K SHRAPNEL SPLASHGUARD Co., LTD.,
Wattsa .1. WEBB, Secretary.
"The Circus Tricks of Taxi-drivers."
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL 21i1OTOR.
_1.302i Sir,—In reply to Mr. Williams. in your last issue, let us say we do not. as his letter would appear to imply. eon tend that Scetland Yard should have pot no limitation on lock. The 10-15 ft, of the average touring ear would of eourse be out ot place in the city. but what we do say is that. for all practiced purposes, 30 ft. would have given the sante facility for handling as 25 ft. It would not have imposed so heavy stresses on wheels. bearings and tires, nor stould it have restricted design to the point of spoiling the car. both as a car and a mechanical construction, as does the 25 ft. requirement. Of course. Scotland Yard is all powerful within the confines of its control, and. if it required that all taxidrivers should wear a blue wafer on the ends of their noses. they would have to do it—lit' stop away.
In regard to our initial grievance. Mr. Williams thinks the 32 in. requirement used not have kept Lotis cabs
out ef the Leitrim' taxi-rah trade. Quite true. hut our grievance is this. that, after specifying for the combination of a 25 ft. turning circle with 32 in. spring measurement. and insistino that the totter was necessary to !tic,' stobility in fht interests of the in:Hie, when Messrs. Humber and ourselves rand we believe one or two other British firms) had spent a considerable 811111 of money in building to this design. the Renaults were not only allowed to nut. but the measurement regulation altered to correspond with their spring width. Now, we do not know who the sapient genius was who was responsible for the 32 in. requirement. and who insisted upon its being necessary to secure needed stability in a eals but he was either right or wrong. If he was right, then the safety of the publie has been jeopardized since in an alarmins degree, and if, as we believe is the case, the Renaults proved to the authorities that they possessed all the stability requisite to secure the safety of the piddle. Then it is manifest that the said sapient wiseacre-
hoever be was—knew nothing at all about it. aml we, in common with all other British manufacturers, tinctiv had a grievance at the time, in that, owing to the way in which S-etland Yard was then being gnided.
op, s,s., tIift rex tr■ !ph in first, and we do not hesitate se say that the advertisement to the foreign huilders haying a big flee:. operatiug in London was of enormous value to them, and has meant the sale of thousands ef ti us in other markets. indeed, even in itself, it is only within the last two years or so that c British (ell) was recognized as even a possibility. Our present grievance is the fact that, although a firm may build to the letter of the regulations in every particular. the department may reject a cab for ony reason it f or no TP(IS1111 at On ! We know, of course, that several thousand cabs have been passed—of some 'half-dozen makes. but the public does not know, as we in —the trade know, of the cabs which have been rejected,
apparently only because Scotland 'Yard did not understand the mechanism because it was unconventional, and of the enormous amount of red tape which has had to be unwound by many which have got through. As the matter stands to-day, whilst a ntanufacturer could undertake to build a cab which would comply with the Scotland Yard regulations and fulfil his contract, no manufacturer not already "on the list " could undertake to build a cab which would pass the Yard officials, and that is not a lousiness proposition at all. For ourselves, " once bit, twice shy." We were the first to build a cab to meet Scotland Yard's requirements and were punished for it, so use now build Lotis cabs to comply with the practical requirements of service, and do not spoil them as meehanical constructions. Buyers get the benefit of it in S. America, in Russia, in India, and other places, where hampering regulations do not apply.—Yours faithfully, Lot is Works, Coventry. STUR MEI: MOTORS, LTD.
Users Experiences: Roads and Claims.
The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[1,303] Sirs—There have recently been so many interesting topics under dismission in your " Opinions from Others " pages. that I have refrained from submitting the usual weekly amount of the " Users' Experiences." Thanks to the mild weather, we have, so far, experienced this winter. the work has proceeded with much the same regularity that we are accustomed to experience during the summer months, and the earnings of the machines have this winter approximated. more nearly than before, to those of other parts of the year. what difference there is being due to the usual winter overhauls, and to the fact that, owing to the softness of the roads during winter, it is not advisable to load the machines to their full capacity. Until road surveyors discover how to keep the winter weather from sinking into their roads, the road problem will remain unsolved. The tar spraying of macadam roads undoubtedly adds to their greasiness during the winter months. and makes the work of both steel-tired and rubber-tired motor vehicles difficult, and at times even dangerous.
There are certain definite signs which indicate the progress of motor haulage, and these are worthy of note itt our businese. I believe they are to be found in others of a similar kind. Breakdowns on the road are becoming the exception, rather than the rule: this is probably due, in the first place, to more-careful attention on the part of the driver, both in the manner in which he drives and watches over his machine. The working hours of drivers, although they can hardly he represented as idaal as yet, are nevertheless not to be compared for severity with those of even a few years ago, and the driver is rarely to he met with to-day who boasts that he can work a week without going to bed. There is, however, an in(Teasing tendency, on the part of a certain section of the community, to make claims, against owners of motor vehicles, of a preposterous nature. I have three or four on hand at the moment. The most serious of these refers to a sheep which has been run over. The owner &dares that the sheep had five legs, that it was kept for advertising purposes. and that we cannot replace the loss he lnisi sustained. Fancy allowing such a priceless possession as a five-legged sheep to run about the streets unattended! I intend to plead that it was the fifth leg which was run over, and that my driver, having skilfully avoided running over four legs, could not reasonably he expected to know that there was still a further leg emitting rotund the corner! " To return to our muttons," I append our average log sheet for the past few weeks:—Earnings, £98; mileage, 1,026; tonnage, 210: percentage of work done, 95; coke used, 14 tons; gear oil, 20 gallons; cylinder, 10 gallons.Yours faithfully,
"MOTOR-WAGON-CARRIER,"