OPINIONS and QUERIES MORE RECOGNITION REQUIRED FOR ROAD TRANSPORT IT has been very refreshing reading to go through all
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the interesting matter which has recently been appearing-in the editorial, correspondence and other columns of " The Commercal Motor" regarding the formation of local and national grouping movements, the pros and cons of these, and the attitude taken by hauliers in what, it is to be sincerely hoped, will be their final and successful achieving of lasting and fairly representative
unity. • One notes with interest the tactics used and arguments advanced by the railway companies in their hopes of complete transport monopoly.. As a counter and corn.petitive method of propaganda, would not-the issue and sale of coloured postcards . of various types of road vehicle be of assistance? It would also be reassuring to bear of a road-haulage company applying for a licence to operate an air line.
In all this arranging and reorganizing of associations and bodies it is to be hoped that due thought and recognition will be accorded to the steam vehicle. The sooner it is generally realized that there are as many clever minds in the road-haulage' industry, not wishing to be obliterated, as there are amongst the railway, concerns, both employer and employee, the better.
When it is individuality that has played a leading and all-important part in the original political and engineering projects of the country, it seems surprising that a group of professional and energetic men who carry goods and passengers by road should have to put up such a stiff fight to carry on their business with types of vehicle which prove most satisfactory and practical for the many and different kinds of work so ably performed. This is the more so when it is the personal supervision and attention which count, and any, neglect or oversight is not blamed on "the company."
s. Regarding passenger-vehicle undertakings, one can discern when the railways have made an incursion into their financial arrangements by noting that vehicles owned by such concerns are alloyved to draw up as near station platforms as possible. ROAD SYMPATHIZER. Saltdean.
SIR MILES THOMAS ON RESETTLING DISABLED EX-SERVICEMEN DEPORTS have recently been appearing in the Press "dealing with the training and resettlement of disabled ex-Servicemen.
This is a task which should be regarded by all employers not so much as a problem but as a privilege.
The State, through the agency of the Ministry of Labour, helps to discharge some of its eternal debt to these men through the varions training schemes it has instituted. Many of these schemes are achieving astonishing results in assisting incapacitated men to acquire new skill and once more become wage earners.
Where the State leaves off, we employers must try to take over. We must see that disabled ex-Servicemen are given, whenever possible, jobs in which their new skill will be afforded the fullest liberty to' develop.
The whole question of rehabilitation, whether the men ..concerned be incapacitated or not, is one on which there should be the fullest interchange of ideas between employers, so that all can benefit from the .experiences of individual firms. To that end, I invite any employer either to write to our personnel and welfare manager at the headquarters of the Nuffield Organization, Cowley, Oxford, or to make contact through a representative so that plans and ideas can be exchanged.
In the Nuffield Organization we are determined to try to give every possible help to the returning men and women of the Services. We are neither too proud to learn from others,' nor do we wish to keep to ourselves our own ideas on this vitally important question.
Cowley, Oxford. Miens THOMAS.
WHY .-NOT MORE TRAILERS?
RECENTLY I saw in your journal, under "Passing Comments," a paragraph headed "Semi-trailers Would Add Much Load Capacity," suggesting that if trailers could have been used on all lorries during the critical stages of the war, the loads carried might have been doubled for the fuel used.
The writer is certainly correct in his statements.
AS regards articulated vehicles, there is on the market a 2-tonner for local work. If articulation be used the load Cal] be increased to 5 tons, which is not far off trebling the original capacity-, and no doubt in some circumstances this could be achieved. What were the objections raised against the use of more trailers and
semi-trailers when the war started? A. ENGLAND. Uppingham..
[We have ourselves been surprised that greater use was not made in this way of the power available in many vehicles, particularly daring the war,. when the increasing of load capacity has been so vitally necessary. The Government and the Ministries concerned have probably taken the view that it was impossible to build a large number of trailers or semi-trailers for civilian use, owing to the diffiCulty of obtaining sufficient suitable material. During the war very few new vehicles have been supplied except to the Forces, and for war purposes, where vehicles limy have to work under. the most arduous conditions, it was probably not considered advisable to employ these additions, save in cases where they were particularly"
applicable. Such instances are the use of articulated vehicles for carrying Tanks and aeroplanes.—En.]
ARE PAPER VANS DRIVEN RECKLESSLY?
• A LL of us from time to time read and hear much about 1-1-road accidents which could be avoided. All kinds of solution seem to be forthcoming, but they appear to have little effect.
To me, from my observations in London and in other big cities, one class of speed offender is the " crash " driver of the various " panic-stricken " evening-paper vans, which seem to have special liberties to travel at any speed, irrespective of anyone and of how they may endanger other road users.
If I were concerned with this class of delivery I would compel the driving position to be in front of the radiator, so as to be sure that the driver was well into any accident he caused, such as by driving his vehicle at break-neck speed right up to the last split-second before a stop. By giving him this forward position, we should, in a very short time, be free from this 'kind of road abuse.
Ewell. FRANK GARDNER.