Bird's Eye View
Page 49
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
All for a Splash
By the Hawk
ATRANSPORT manager who used a 24-ton-gross Scammell, similar to the vehicle tested this week by The Commercial Motor, to carry a 400-1b. payload alight normally expect to be asked some awkward questions. The case is, however, different when the payload is gas contained in two .high-pressure cylinders each weighing about 71 tons.
A vehicle designed for this purpose will be shown at Earls Court by Scammell Lorries, Ltd., who hope to demonstrate the automatic coupling gear electrically. The stand is directly above the Earls Court swimming pool and the semi-trailer legs drop with quite a thump when the tractor is diconnected, so it is not surprising that aluminium cylinders, instead of iron ones, will be used on the Show model. Scammell's are all out to make a splash at the Show, but not by inadvertently opening the swimming pool to the public.
Friendly Rivals- TALKING about splashes, few commercial-vehicle mannfacturers would believe that their prollucts vie in popularity with Miss Diana Dors in 3D, but it is true. I have ' it on the authority of the proprietor of a cafe on the LeekMacclesfield road that the papers provided for customers that disappear first each week are the The Commercial Afotor and a film weekly.
The proprietor, incidentally, is a heavy goods vehicle driver during the day and has the right idea about service, because his is the only cafe on that particular stretch of road which remains open after 6.30 p.m.
The Nelson Touch
IT was worth attending the Slough eliminating round of the Lorry Driver of the Year Competition just to look at the Gardner engine of the Scammell tanker driven by Mr. R. McCormack, of the Crow Carrying Co., Ltd. As befits a power unit with nautical traditions, it had the appearance of the engine-room of a ship made ready for an admiral's inspection. Although the vehicle had covered 52,000 miles, under-chassis components were equally gleaming.
Mr. McCormack's tanker always looks like a new pin, and he showed me two letters from customers to prove it. "Last year at Coventry," he said with injured pride, "they thought I had cleaned it specially for the occasion."
Among the admirers of the vehicle was Mr. George MacAulay, of the Ministry of Works, who is a member of the national organizing committee of the competition and was invigilating at the contest.
Still Driving at 85 lypio is the oldest haulier still in harness? Mr. C. W. VI' Rice, proprietor of C. W. Rice and Co., West Buckland, Barnstaple, is certainly a contender for the title. He will be 85 on January 6 next, and has been an owner-driver of Bedford vehicles for 25 years. He is also the oldest of the 65,000 members of the Bedford Drivers' Club Most days he can be seen driving his 10,12-cwt. Bedford in North Devon. Each year his insurance company gives him a medical examination and he passes with flying colours.
Hot Mr
HAULIERS and C-licensees are turning on the heat— literally. A representative of Smiths Motor Accessories, Ltd., describes the demand for cab heaters as "phenomenal," and output has increased eightfold within three years.
Supplied in kit form, the Smiths 3-kW. cab heater, complete with demister, water pipes, and so on, is easy to fit and is supplied in three versions suitable for 24v., 12v. and 6v. electrical systems. It costs £12 105.—a small price to pay for warmth and safety.
The Half-wit
1-1. A TRADE UNION official visited a haulier and asked about the men's wages and conditions. "The drivers knock up about 110 a week," said the haulier. "Then my garage fitters get about 19. My clerks work from eight in the morning till five in the afternoon, except when we're specially busy, and I pay then, about £7 and give them a lunch allowance of is. 6d."
" That sounds reasonable," concurred the trade union official. "Does that cover everybody?" ' "Well, no," admitted the haulier. "there's a half-wit here who comes in at seven and knocks off when everyone else has gone. He does practically everything. He takes home perhaps £5 a week, but he has the use of a bicycle and sometimes he gets his boots mended." The trade union official nearly exploded. "1 must see this man," he demanded.
" Sec him?" said the haulier. "You're talking to him." B15