Approach to Standardization Too Narrow,
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says Lord Sempill ASUGGESTION that an international group of experts should meet at intervals to discuss standardization matters in the motor industry was made by Lord Sempill, AEC., F.R.Ae.S., president of the Institute of the Motor Industry '(Great Britain), when speaking at the International Automobile Con
gress last .Saturday. These experts should, he said, co-operate with the International Standards Organization, but not duplicate its work.
Lord Sempill pointed out that such a development would enable engineers and technicians to discuss technical improvements, including the question of standardization, in the context of their social implications.
Heconsidered that the use of the term "standardization," both as to the limited fields in which it had been applied and to the products in those fields, had been too narrow. No one, he Said, had yetbeen hold enough to tackle the fundamental question of whether traffic should keep to the righthand or left-hand side ofthe road.
The method of discussion of proposals for standardization had also often been too narrow. Technical considerations alone had been allowed to determine the desirability of such a step.
"it is not unknown that a standard adopted in that way has not necessarily proved in practice to be in the interests of the consumer or the community," Lord Sempill said. "I wantto ask you to-day to discuss the possibility of bringing together ideas on all aspects of the technical, commercial and legal problems that arise in relation to any suggestion of standardization, so that each individual proposal is considered in relation to all the spheres of life it will affect No existing organization. so far as I know, does this."
As an example of interlocking problems in connection with heavy vehicles, Lord SemprIl said that it might be desirable in .he interests of international transport facilities, to standardize the sizes, weights, and carrying capacities of lorries. Questions of the maximum permissible block dimensions and axle weights were, however, not simply matters. for engineers, and manufacturers to determine "at their own technical pleasure." They were bound up with wider social and civic questions, such as the class of road on which specified sizes and weights, of Vehicle were to be permitted to travel...
International plans for economic reconstruction would be of little valUe unless they were backed by machinery to make the ideas, products and technicians of various countries more interchangeable. Discussion of new standards should be aimed at increased economy in production and use and better service.
Speaking on road safety, Lord Sempill said: "Most countries are only just groping towards some standard of what constitutes a roadworthy vehicle. Would it not be a matter of :common sense that before widely v,arying standards of roadworthiness have hardened in different countries, we should try and draw up a khedule of at least the essen fiat qualifications.to which a vehicle must cotifOrm before it can be considered roadworthy?"