Hire-purchase Deposit Excessive
Page 58
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WE are concerned that the Government have retained the 50 percent. deposit on hire-purchase agreements for commercial vehicles of over 30-cwt. carrying capacity, also in the case of those for coaches.
We consider that an injustice is being done to the commercial-vehicle operator, as the private-car user can now obtain a vehicle on hire-purchase for only 20 per cent. deposit.
It is to be noted that the production figures of commercial vehicles for the first three months of this year have dropped 30 per cent. compared with those for the similar period of 1956.
Now is the time to press the Government for a more realistic approach to this problem and our suggestion is that the deposit in the case of hire purchase of goods vehicles and coaches should be reduced to 25 per cent.
It has been suggested to us that the present large deposit may be a political weapon to force more goods and passengers on to the railways. However, we feel that this suggestion is open to considerable argument.
Ormskirk, Lancs. R. PRICE, Managing Director, Ormskirk Motors, Ltd.
Licence Endorsements Can Be Too Punitive
I AM writing in the hope that some help can be given 1 to me and to other drivers who may find themselves in the same difficult position as I am at the moment.
In February I left London and took a position as a bus driver in a large port in the South of England, in the belief that this would be suitable employment until the coaching season began. Unfortunately, while there I was summoned for driving without due care and attention, and my licence was endorsed. As a result, I am still with the same bus company and am tied to the job, as other passenger-transport concerns are shy of offering me employment because of the endorsement which, incidentally, lasts three years.
I feel that this matter of endorsing the licencesof • p.s,v drivers should be taken up with the Commissioner of Police and the Minister of Transport.
Southampton. PUNISHED.
[The difficulty in which this correspondent finds himself is quite understandable, but is not a matter for the Commissioner of Police, but is one of law, the endorsement of the licence being a legal requirement. It would certainly be considered unfair to drivers of other classes of vehicle if only those on coaches and buses were to be exempted by any change. The only method of dealing with this would appear to be to persuade the Government that such endorsements can be exceptionally punitive by affecting employment for a long period, and that they should be abolished as a whole or restricted to more serious offences.—En.] A Good Tip on Tippers HAVE read with considerable interest your article in The Commercial Motor of April 19, on the need for bigger and better tippers.
May I congratulate you on drawing attention to something which has, I know, been the cause of considerable discussion in the building industry. One wonders whether the makers ever let their designing staff visit the sites where some of their customers operate. 1324 One hears continuously of the extensive testing which goes on at the manufacturers' proving grounds and at M.I.R.A., but this, of course, whilst proving units, does not . necessarily produce the right article for any particular industry.
It is, of course, acknowledged in this day and age that to compete successfully abroad there must be a limit to the number of models manufactured, but one has only to look at the United States to see that for tipping work they rely in the main on a normal-co:itrol vehicle.
London, S.W.I. SIMPLIcITAs.
The End of the Road
COGITATING upon a few words with which to
• -." express to "The G.o.M. " my appreciation and thanks, I was turning the pages of The Commercial Motor for May 17 until I came to "529," and then realized that I cannot improve upon the sentiments expressed by "The Hawk" when quoting Mr. George Smart.
I have found the articles contributed by " S.T.R." (Mr. H. Scott Hall) so regularly over many years to be the most interesting and useful of those appearing in the journal. On receipt of each issue I have almost invariably first turned to find out the particular topic with which he has dealt. .
In bidding farewell I wish him a long and happy wellearned retirement. 1 also wish Mr. S. Buckley every success, but I do not envy him his position as a 'follower of " S.T.R."
Nottingham. L. DONSON HOLMES, A.M.Inst.T.
I MUCH appreciate the farewell article by my old
friend Harry Scott Hall (S.T.R.) whom I have known for the past 25 years—ever since we were introduced to each other at the Royal Automobile Club by the present editor of The Commercial Motor.
As a transport -consultant, I have never failed to advise my clients to refer to " ' The Commercial Motor ' Tables of Operating Costs" for which Mr. Scott Hall was responsible, because, in my opinion, they are the most practical source of information.
London, S.W.11. E. H. B. PALMER.
Process to Combat Engine Wear
wE would refer to your brief article "Tests of Antiwear Process" in The Commercial Motor dated May 17, where we are quoted as stating that an oil engine treated with the process had given a tremendously
improved performance." •
We wish to point out that no such staterrient was made by our company. We have recently revealed to the Press certain figures taken from tests on our test bed, of a processed engine, and we did state that the improved performance, justified further experiments.
We have not, however, quoted any results from normal operating conditions, as we consider that the engine must complete at least 100,000 miles of successful service before any useful comment can be made.
Dundee. J. R. MEEK, A.I.R.T.E., Service Department, Allisons' Transport (Contracts), Ltd..