OPINIONS
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QUERIES
MORE ON THE PLATING PROBLEM.
[54351 Your leading article in your issue for July 22 and further correspondence by other writers on the " plating " problem have shown up the difficulties to be overcome. May we go back and see what encouraged this overloading and tax evasion and, incidentally, brought us this problem?
I suggest that it was caused by the enforcement of 12-ton and 19-ton maximum weights, which commenced about 1930.
Will the proposed plating system tend to encourage new methods of overloading? Why not let us face facts now before it is too late. If we want to carry 5 tons let us pay for carrying 5 tons. Surely it does not matter whether the vehicle which carries it weighs 2 tons 10 cwt., 5 tons or even 10 tons (but perhaps somebody will raise the bogy "damage to the roads ") if the tax be on the pay-load carried, rising, say, from 815 for I ton to 8100 for 15 tons.
I cannot see that any objection can be raised (provided the police be satisfied that it is safe to do so) to (a) one operator carrying 12 tons on a 3-tonner with two wheels stuck on (as someone put it) and costing 8500, or (b) another carrying 12 tons on a vehicle constructed for the bigger load and costing 81,500.
What is unfair is the discrepancy in taxation, and as this is apparently soon to be changed let it for once and for all time be fair to everybody—manufacturers, operators and taxation authorities. Let us all start level and
let the best man win. L. PRITCHARD. Clutton.
DEVELOPMENT OF TORQUE CONVERTERS.
[54361 With regard to the paragraph, under the heading "Is This the. Transmission of the Future?" appearing in The Commercial Motor on page 48 of your issue dated August 19, the torque-converter portion of this transmission is identical with the one which we have had on the market for six years and of which we have upwards of 1,800 in service to-day. In fact, it may 'interest you to know that in the production of the General Motors transmission very close co-operation has been maintained between them and ourselves, and they have had not only the benefit of our experience, but they have actually carried out a certain amount of their preliminary work using torque converters built and supplied by us.
The G.M.C. torque converter is built by the Spicer Manufacturing Corporation of Toledo, Ohio, under licence from the Ljtingstroms Co. of Sweden. The torque converter, which we supply is also built under licence from this same Swedish company.
The main difference in the two transmissions lies in the clutch mechanism and in the control. They have adopted an automatic gear shift from torque-converter drive to top, and vice versa, whereas we prefer a manual control.
In vjew of the somewhat sensational nature of your headline, we think that it is only fair to the British commercial-motor manufacturer to make some reference to the work which we have done in this connection, and we hope that you will he able to see your way to do LEYLAND MOTORS, LTD. Leyland.
THE ROADS ARE FOR ALL
[5437] Evidently, from the publication of the sketch " Well, they've crowded out my road so I'm using theirs " in your issue dated August 5, The Commercial Motor approves the view of the lorry driver who says that the King's Highway is his road.
It is not without humour that the sketch clearly suggests that the unfortunate cyclist is to have only one track for " two-way " traffic I Otherwise the lorry could not have been delineated in the position in which . it is shown.
May I remind lorry owners—who use the roads for direct profit—that the King's Highway is for all users— rich transport company and the poor cyclist alike.
If the commercial interests really wish to assist in the reduction of road accidents, they can insist that their drivers (a) observe the 20-mile or 30-mile speed limiti as the case may be, (b) keep the front illumination of the vehicles in order, (c) dip the front lights as occasion requires, and reduce speed, and (d) whatever may be the fuel and oil they use, to prevent emission of smoke or visible vapour; in this connection Regulation No. 20 of ' the Motor Vehicles (Use and Construction) Regulations is being broken in wholesale fashion by goods
vehicles. H. R. WATLING, Chairman. London, W.C.2. National Committee on Cycling.
WORRIES OF AN IRISH TAXI OWNER.
1-54381 As a readeroof The Commercial Motor for some time past I am writing to tell you of the position regarding the business of car hiring and the evasion of laws regarding this.
I am the owner of a public-service vehicle (a taxi) licensed to carry six passengers for hire or reward, restricted to that purpose and excluding private use of any kind; I am paying the highest rate of thirdparty insurance. The vehicle must be kept clean and is subject to inspection by the p.s.v. inspector at any time; it must be kept in perfect mechanical condition, otherwise I am liable to lose my licence until any slight defect is repaired, no matter how small.
This is all very good and I am not saying anything against the enforcing of such laws, for I agree that they are to our ultimate good, as customers know that publicservice vehicles are always in sound condition and that they will be carried in safety wherever they may wish to go.
The point I wish to put before you, however, is worse than any law which any authority could force on us. I am surrounded here by a large country district and the majority of the people does not think of safety or laws of any kind, but of cheapness. The result is that people in small businesses of their own have visited scrap-yards and bought -old cars at about, £9 or 410 each, which they are using in their businesses and, as a sideline, do hiring work.
This is the kind of opposition we have to fight. These people do the work very cheaply, as any kind of car will do for private work and the vehicles are not liable to a test of any type. Such operators evade the law by telling their passengers that if they are asked by the police if they have paid any fare, to say that they have not.
In case an accident may happen no fares are collected until the end of each journey, and if they should happen to be stopped by the police, or have an accident, no fare is collected. The police say that they cannot take proceedings until a fare has been paid and a statement to that effect has been given by a passenger.
The owners of p.s.v. vehicles are unable to do anything to stop these people from running the car-hiring business, and they are unable to maintain their vehicles in the condition expected by the licensing authority while nothing is done to protect them. Within a distance of four miles from here are seven cars which I, personally, know to be carrying passengers for hire or reward, yet they are classed as private vehicles.
I would ask you to give me some advice on this matter and if there is any society known to you which would help us tofight for a revision of the law. I
would thank you for their address. P.S.V. Annalong, Co. Down, Northern Ireland.
Pis was announced recently in this journal, the Home Secretary and the Minister of Transport have appointed a Joint Committee to review the legal provisions apply-. big to hackney carriages licensed to ply for hire and those cars not so licensed. You could, of course, write to the Secretary of this Committee, addressing your letter to the Ministry of Transport and stating your views.
We are, however, publishing your letter in order to obtain opinionsfrom other readers who may raise other points in connection with this matter.—En.)
ACCURACY ESSENTIAL IN WHEEL ALIGNMENT.
[54391 I must thank you for the very able way in which you have substantiated my statement re the effects of misalignment, despite the slight discrepancies in our individual figures.
The primary object of my article on checking wheel alignment (The Commercial Molar, July 29) was to bring home to operators the fact that enormous losses of mileage result from insignificant amounts of misalignment, and to point out the need for a very careful alignment check. Elabmation of these two points took up the entire available space, and left me no opportunity of explaining the said statement in detail. The explanation of those few words, as we have seen, took up almost a page and a half to itself.
However, if my somewhat-bald statement served to illustrate the colossal strains of misalignment, it has served its purpose, and certainly the admirable article which it provoked has caused me to have no regret.for my omission. L.V.B. Brighton.
INTEREST IN GAS PRODUCERS.
[5440] I should be obliged if you could furnish me with the addresses of the different makers of producergas plants for commercial vehicles.
Brassington. J. HODGKINSON.
[We have pleasure in giving you the names and addresses of concerns supplying gas-producer plants especially built for commercial vehicles:—Gilfords (f-1.S.G.), Ltd., 74, Victoria Street, London, S.W.1; Lath l Industrial Vehicles, Ltd., II, Albert Embankment, London, S.E.11; Koela Producer Gas Plant Co., Ltd., Aldwych House, London, W.C.2; British Gazogenes, Ltd., 48, Broadway, Westminster, London, S.W.1.—En.]