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Passing Comments
Page 48
Page 49
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Money For Jam
DURING the past nine years, drivers employed by A and B licensees have been granted 16 increases in wages or improvements in working conditions. The last advance was as recent as January and the latest claim is therefore surprising.
Concurrently with these inducements to loyal service, vehicles have become easier and more comfortable to drive and the cab is now almost the most important. part. The cabs of some of the newest heavy vehicles are equipped as lavishly as expensive private cars. The E.R.F. 8-tonner is a notable example.
Employers are therefore entitled to expect that higher pay and better conditions of work all round will be accompanied by a greater output. They would be fully justified in refusing to entertain the latest application if the trade unions continued to refuse to compromise on the, question of a 30 m.p.h. speed limit for heavy goods vehicles.
Indelible Painting On Uneven Surfaces
A METHOD of marking or painting at high speed on products with irregular surfaces and made in various materials has been developed in the shape of a machine known as the Rejafix, made by Rejafix, Ltd., 81-83 Fulham High Si., London, S.W.6.. It can print on articles' made of metal, glass, rubber, plastics, nylon, felt, rubber, wood, etc., the printing being r22
taken off a resilient rubber pad to which an inked impression of the type or block is automatically transferred. In the marking of vehicle components, this machine can attain a speed of 5,000 articles an hour, despite the fact that the successive products may have different contours.
One of the uses to which it has already been put is the indelible marking of sparking plugs.
Q.E.D.
COURT proceedings and Government reports are sometimes distinguished by a certain dry humour. A gem of drollness appears in the Annual Report of the Chief Inspector of Factories for 1952.
As an "example of the lack of thought for the safety of others," the report describes how a Moulder, asked by his foreman to demonstrate the circumstances in which he had succeeded in dropping a box on his neighbour's foot, forthwith proceeded to drop another box on the foreman's foot.
The report does not record what the foreman said, but no doubt the moulder's defence was, in the classic words of a defendant in a Devon magistrate's court, "'Er told us to dun 'un, so us dun 'un."
Germany To Improve Road System
THE German Federal. Cabinet has approved the first two Bills of a series intended to bring into action a new policy for German transport. This scheme involves imposing heavy additional taxation
on long-distance road transport to raise funds for the improvement of the road system. Some of the money will be used for ordinary roads, but large amounts will be spent on extensions to the autobahnen.
It is planned to set up a public corporation to build about 370 additional miles of these within six or seven years, at a cost of about £100tp. On the other hand, to assist the railways, it is proposed to prohibit the conveyance by road of certain goods over distances of more than about 32 miles. The Government is also to lend £43.6m. to the Federal railways to cover their deficit for 1953.
An Old Idea Revived
THE old idea of the road railcar was revived by a A group of Conservative Members of Parliament, last ,week. Worried about the drift of population from remote areas where unremunerative bus and rail services are being withdrawn, the M.P.s suggested to the Minister of Transport that buses should have their tyres removed and be allowed to run on railway lines in such districts.
Among other ideas suggested were that tax on fuel used by rural operators be cut, and that contracts for carrying mail be given to bus operators. It is reported that the Minister promised to get to work quickly on these proposals, and to report to the committee later.
Publicity given by bus companies to the fuel tax is apparently having good effect. A number of the Members quoted their local operators as saying that even 6d. off the duty would assist them.
Making Magic Work for Safety
A FORMER stage magician is being sponsored 4--/ nationally by American Trucking Associations to tour widely with his " safety " magic show_ He abandoned his stage career to become a police safety officer, using his knowledge of tricks to impress upon student groups the importance of safety rules and the employment of good judgment. He always uses the words " Safety First" before producing his magical effects.
This scheme is said to have had an encouraging effect on some 200,000 high-school students in 19 States.
No doubt this is a good Move to attract good audiences to the meetings, but it is presumed that something more than magic is employed to impress the need for safety upon them.