REQUISITIONING OF GARAGES
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THE Southern Scotland Regional Commissioner requests that proprietom of all important garages used for the garaging, servicing, repairing or maintenance of goods or public-service vehicles, should in no case consent to hand over any of the accommodation to Government Departments without first consulting the Regional Transport Commissioner.
NOVEMBER'S EXPORT TOTALS
DUalliNG November last, the value of new commercial vehicles exported from this country amounted to 215,442. In the same month, the value of commercial-vehicle chassis exported totalled 222,275, whilst tractors, not including those of the agricultural type, had a value of 216,992.
OLD COPIES SOUGHT
AREADER is anxious to ...btain copies of The Commercial Motor for the years 1930-34 inclusive, and t'iose who have issues available covering this period should write to the Editor, who will forward . their names to the inquirer.
STABILIZING COAL-HAULAGE RATES
AMOVE for statutory stabilization of coal road-haulage rates in Yorkshire has been made by the county's Road-Rail Regional Conference. It has submitted a schedule of suggested_ rates to the Road-Rail Central Conference with a request that they be made statutory. Pending the Central body's decision, details of the rates are not being issued.
The schedule was drawn up by the coal-haulage sub-committee of the Yorkshire Conference after a study of respective rail and road rates between given points. The full Conference unanimously agreed to forward the schedule to the Central Conference and to ask that the rates be made statutory. BETTER SUPPLY OF SPARE PARTS PROMISED
ra question addressed, in " the House," to the President of the Board of Trade, relating to the difficulty of obtaining spare parts for commercial and other vehicles, Lieut.Colonel Moore-Bra.bazon said that he was taking steps to improve the position.
TRAFFIC AVAILABLE AND HOW TO OBTAIN IT VEHICLES are still required for the V conveyance of sugar from Ipswich to Burton-on-Trent, Kidderminster, and Leicester, as well as to haul timber from Leicester and Wisbech to Hoddesdon. Operators who can tackle some of this work should write to Mr. G. W. Irwin, secretary, Eastern Area A.R.O., 17, Hills Road, Cambridge.
There is also a considerable tonnage of sugar required to be conveyed from Cantley Factory to Caxton, Cambridge. Loading orders for this traffic are to be obtained from Eastern Roadways, Ltd., Norwich.
LORRY DRIVERS "GOING INTO MUNITIONS"
AS the result of discussions with the Ministry of Labour about the difficulty which has arisen because drivers in the road-transport industry are leaving their occupations and going into factories, the following statement has been made by the Ministry:—
"The Department has been in touch with the Ministry of Transport, and an instruction has now been issued to the local offices of the Department that a person employed, or last employed, by a road-transport undertaking should not be placed by the Exchange in other employment, except with the consent of the employer, or, failing that, on the recommendation of the Regional Transport Commissioner."
ARE MANY DRIVERS UNEMPLOYED?
RECENTLY, we published a paragraph referring to unemployment figures in road-transport personnel, quoted in the September issue of the Ministry of Labour "Gazette," the actual figure given being 4,596. Many inquiries reached us concerning the accuracy of this number, and we have now received a letter from the Ministry of Labour and National Service pointing out that it did not relate only to drivers, but to all wholly unemployed insured persons normally engaged in goods transport by road.
It is also mentioned that it has been necessary, in certain cases, to arrange the transfer of drivers and conductors from one district to another, where urgent work of national importance is involved, and the Ministry is working in close collaboration with the Regional Transport Commissioners of the Ministry of Transport, in order to ensure that the best use is made of the labour available. It appears that one difficulty is that applicants are not willing to take employment unless the work be' of a permanent nature. In some cases where they have been found employment as drivers, the men have teen "stood off" for a half or full day. EFFORTS TO MEET DEMANDS ON ROAD TRANSPORT
THE Parliamentary Secretaryto the Ministry of Transport, replying to Mr. Graham White in the House of Commons, said the urgent requirements of Service Departments for vehicles had resulted in a reduced production of new vehicles for civil work. At the smile time new demands were being made
upon road-transport resources. The situation thus created was difficult, but steps were being taken which should enable road transport to meet all reasonable demands made upon it.
Mr. Neil Maclean suggested that many operators had ordered new vehicles which Were now ready for them and had been refused permission, by the Ministry of Transport, to take them from thefactory. Mr.. Montague answered that
whateverwas made could be judiFed y' the circumstances.
To7this Me: alacle'an. questioned any
j usf,Wationi fOr :pew" vehicles to •11e; :4391-narrufacturers•• hands for months and not be used at all.
A request then came from Mr. Davidson to the effect that the Minister would investigate the statement made by experts that much of our road transport was lying -unusable owing to lack of mechanics for repair work, SCOTTISH ROAD-RAIL COMMITTEE IN ACTION
WE learn that the Southern Scotland Road-Rail Regional Committee has met to consider instructions from the Central Conference and that progress is being made in stabilizing rates for the carriage of cement, sugar and other commodities.
DEATH OF R. JAMES H. RANDALL .
WE learn with regret of the sudden death, in his 70th . year, of Mr. James H. Randall, of James H. Randall and Son, Ltd., Paddington Green-Works London W.2: He was assciciated with thedevelopment the. company froni..18.85 arid .was this one of the pioneers-. in the: induStrY, with which the concern is connected,
"THE AEROPLANE SPOTTER " •• AND, WHAT 'IT WILL PROVIDE
THE new Temple. Press weekly pubitation entitled: The Aeroplane Spotter is both supplementary and complementary to the information on aircraft recognition, which is published each week in The Aeroplane. The subject of aircraft recognition has grown to such an extent that the latter . has not now the sPace available to deal with. it in the Way which its national importance demands. Hence the .ounding, with official support arid recognition, of The Aeroplane Spotter, It is intended to supply, in compact and useful form, that information which is required by aircraft spotters,' . without it being essential for them to buy The Aeroplane at three times the. price. It will also contain exclusive features of its own and will provide a •
sound news service on the latest developments in aircraft recognition and its problems. The exceptional facilities enjoyed by The Aeroplane, which are now also available for The Aeroplane Spotter, will make possible the dissemination of the most up-to date and precise information 'obtain able, officially or unofficially.
No. I of The Aeroplane Spotter appeared on January 2, and it will 'be published every Thursday, price 3d .
INNOCENT, SUFFERERS THROUGH INVALID THIRD-PARTY POLICIES
ANSWERING a question from Mr. Sexton in Parliament recently, relating to the position of persons who had suffered misfortune as a result of road accidents and could obtain no redress because the drivers' third-party insurance was repudiated by the insurers on grounds of misrepresentation or rion-disclosure, the Minister. of Transport said it had been proposed to establish a fund contributed by insurers to meet such claims, and legislation to implement' the proposal had been under consideration when war broke Out. Under present conditions it could not be undertaken. Insurers; he added; could not be expected to meet claims under policies which were invalid, but the number of such cases. was small.
NOVELTY IN TECHNICAL LITERATURE
MASQUERADING as a licence to authorize Newman electric motors to drive all types-of machinery, a little booklet—in appearance a replica of an ordinary driving licence, but containing useful information about these power units—has just been produced by Messrs. Newman Motors, Yate, 13ris-. tol, and 32, Vittoria Street, London, S.W.1.
Machine tools of many kinds, tra,Velling cranes, farm -machinery, garage lifts, etc., figure in a list included of apparatus for which these motors are suitable, and in it the horselowers required are also given. On the remaining pages there are tables of • current consumption,-.. cable sizes, wiring capacity of conduits, fusing. cur• rents of 'copper, -wires, 'and running ' costs, Whilsttnovel and intriguing in forthi. the publication is bandy and useful.