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The Deflection of Passenger Traffic.

3rd August 1920, Page 1
3rd August 1920
Page 1
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Page 1, 3rd August 1920 — The Deflection of Passenger Traffic.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

IT IS evident that, in framing the recommendations contained in their report as to the increase of passenger fares, the Rates Advisory Committee has been considerably perturbed by the possibility of the increase accelerating the deflection, already noticeable, of passenger traffic from the railways to the roads.

Particularly is this likely to happen as regards passengers who wish to make short journeys, and the report refers to the possibility of such people transferring their, custom to various forms of road transport. .

Reference is also made to the growth in the-number of motor vehicles plying for hire, and to the extension of the distances they cover. The position of the railways is indeed difficult at the present time. It would have been so, even had road travelling facilities not developed with the extraordinary rapidity that has been observable of late.

But, though the, increased fares will undoubtedly lead to a greater patronage of the road services, the relative cost of travel will be but a, minor factor in the rising popularity of journeying by road.

" Motoring for the million" has long been a catch word for the unattainable. The "masses" have waited long enough for the time when mote-ring should be as democratic as it has been in America for a long time past. But the prospect of individual motoring for the bulk of our population is as remote as ever it has been, and in the meantime the char-k-banca-or motor coach—has come to solve the problem. . On the road, the journey to a, holiday resort is part of the holiday itself. With a train journey, 'that is never so, and in -reckoning with the growing competition of road-borne passenger services, the railway authorities are faced with other and more elusive factors than the price of fares.

There is the "call of the open road" to he considered Film Propaganda Overseas.

IN BUSINESS generally, a growing use is being made of the cinema as an aid to trade. It has been, said that the language of the film is universal, and in propaganda -work in foreign countries that is a very great advantage.

While, in _this country, trade publicity by cinema has not yet been adopted as extensively as it might have been, some enterprising concerns have found it highly successful, and many more might do so. The great requirement for an attractive picture is that there should be life and movement in it, mere views of stationary objects-do not make a great ap peal. Therefore, in this new branch of business propaganda, the motor industry should be at a great advantage. The motor vehicle lends itself particularly well to the purposes of ocular demonstration. Spectacular pictures can be made, showing the motor vehicle at work in almost every application to which it can be put, under every condition which it is likely ta be called upon to meet. A film of this sort will carry almost as strong an argument, to a prospective buyer in a foreign country, as a demonstration of an actual vehicle, and it is much more easily conveyed.

It is, therefore, instructive to note that in connection with the Dominions Touring Exhibition, which is being organized for 1921, it i.; proposed to enable exhibitors to. advertise their products by means of a demonstration cinema lorry, and a number of portable'projectors.

It is to be hoped that amongst the films which will be exhibited on that tour, there will be a proportion, at any rate, dealing with the products of the British motor industry, showing how they are made, and what they can be made to do.

The Development of the Publicity Sense.

ASALIENT factor in connection with the commercial motor vehicle is that it possesses interest, and compels thought -ancl study, from the time of its conception to the end of its career. Its design, its constructional details, and the method of their manufacture ; its selling, its equipping, and its use, all provide subject matter far the various chapters of its life, and every chapter is of interest to some section or other of the commercial vehicle industry and the transport industry. In other words, there is scope for considerable publicity in connection with the making of the vehicle and its use. Per contra, the interest in a pair of boots ceases' the moment it, in a boxed state, reaches the shelves in the shop of the retailer.

Closely associated as is The Commercial Motor with the two industries named, and in touch with the reading public thereof, this journal becomes a vehicle for all such information, and a close watch haaalwavs been kept upon the development of what may well be termed the publicity sense. In this country the existence of that sense is not, by a very long way, so marked as it is in the United States, but it is much more fully developed than in any other European country. The need for a • strong propaganda, in order to meet ill-advised opposition, caused the development of the sense throughout the motor trade in the early days of that industry, arid it would be difficult to point to more than, perhaps, one other industry where the value of publicity was better understood.

But, even in the motor industry-, some concernshave always stood out from the others by reason of the better use they have made of their publicity. And we well remember a reply made by the editor of a leading paper to the head of •a concern who expressed the opinion that a rival maker, always seemed to get the greater share of the limelight. Said the editor: "The cause is simple. =— possesses

• the knack of providing matter of such a. character that the interest of the public is aroused, and an editor is compelled, solely on that account, to make use of it."

Makers • and users have an identical interest in fostering the development of the commercial motor vehicle.. With the growth of the movement, disabilities and restrictions will he swept away, facilities will be increased, and fairer treatment will be accorded to the -whicle, so that its greater efficiency can be enjoyed. With that growth the service which the commercial motor vehicle can render to the public will be enhanced, and the growth can best be fostered by showing and explaining, to the waverers, the advantages and merits of power transport and locomotion on the roads, as compared

with rival forms of movement.

The makers can do much to secure the necessary material by telling their agents of, and by asking the.

users for, the kind Of matter which is wanted, and as a clue to this, the columns of The Commercial Motor provide a good index. , What's In a Name ? • WHEN A GREAT daily paper becomes perturbed about the nomenclature employed in a certain branch of the motor inditstry, the average man begins to feel that the matter is of some importance. As The Times pointed out last week, the word char-a-banes was originally used to describe a, platform on wheels, provided with benches. on which passengers could sit. It has since become perverted to "-charabanc.," and the vehicle which this word describes has changed considerably. The Commercial Motor has not got so far in its spelling as The Times—we still preserve the hyphens and the accent on the dentral " a."—but, like The .rimes., we are not enamoured of the name, Often we call the char-a-b•anes a motor, coach, and we are inclined to do so in the future.

— It is true ttat the word coach ha.s the fixed connee tation of a vehicle with inside seats., But we feel that this does not matter very much. The motor vehicle 'with inside seats is, in the heavy-vehicle world, a " bus "—and "bus" seems' a good enough description. •

.Why not let it rest at that, and let" coach" denote the modern .char-Iihancs. This type of vehicle is but at the beg-inning of its development. Its resemblance to the original char-k-banes is becoming less in every new design. -In a few years' time its claim to even a family likeness may have disappeared.

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Organisations: Rates Advisory Committee

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