Motorcab Topics.
Page 12
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More " stands " are wanted for motorcabs in London. Is it too MUCh to ask that the number should be doubled forthwith ? 'We discuss the altered circumstances of to-day on page 249.
In Palace Yard.
Mr. Herbert Samuel, in the House of Commons on the 25th ultimo, in reply to Mr. Rupert Guinness, stated that there was no differentiation between horse-cabs and tnotorcabs, as regards ranking in Palace Yard ; they were on an equal footing in this respect.
Cardiff Licenses.
Fifteen motorcab licenses were granted at the last meeting of the Cardiff Watch Committee to Mr. Frederick Gowing, of Tresillian Terrace. The applications of Hill's Garage Company (three licenses) and Mr. J. W. Courtis (ten licenses) were deferred until the next meeting, in order that inspection might beimade.
Birmingham Cab Stands.
Birmingham appears to be wide awake to the advantages of motorcabs, and quite unwilling to accept dictation from local horse-cab or other societies. The Lord Mayor has drawn attention to the necessity for the more-convenient location of taxicab ranks, and the chairman of the subcommittee has undertaken to give the matter early attention.
Taxicab as a Patrol Wagon.
A dangerous character, who resisted arrest in Cambridge one day last week, succeeded in offering so stout a resistance that it required the united efforts of six men to overpower him before he could be handcuffed. In the scuffle a policeman's jawbone was broken and several people who went to the officer's assistance were more or less damaged. In order to convey the prisoner to the police station, it was necessary to place him in a taxicab and there to keep him quiet by the simple process of sitting cm him. At the subsequent policecourt proceedings, when the prisoner was charged with sleeping out, with stealing and with causing grievous bodily harm, he was committed for trial. The Chairman of the Bench, the Town Clerk and the Chief Constable publicly thanked Mr. W. A. Cocking, the local manager of the Provincial Motor Cab Company, for the plucky manner in which he had assisted the police. A twenty-four-hour public service of taxicabs is about to be inaugurated in Pittsburg. The time schedule indicates a charge of 5 dollars for the first hour or fraction thereof and 4 dollars for each succeeding hour.
Liverpool's Conversion.
Says "The Liverpool Daily Courier" : " The ordinary cabby is doomed. Taxicabs are running their slower competitors off the streets. Eighteen months ago the experiment of one taxi was tried in the city ; to-day, there are about 100 licensed to ply for hire, and so popular have they become that the demand far exceeds the supply. It is quite within the bounds of possibility that in the ensuing twelve months the number of this class of vehicle available for hire will be doubled." Our contemporary probably does not know how much of the change is due to our "Motorcab Special " of the 30th April, 1908.
General Motorcab Company.
The current traffic returns of the General Motor Cab Company are:— Week ending Saturday, 29th May, £20,437.
Previous week, E18,715.
Corresponding week, 1908, E14,406. Increase on previous week, £1,722. Increase on corresponding week, 1908, £6,032.
Total receipts from 1st August, 1908, £610,057.
Increase on previous corresponding period, E252,334.
It should be noted that the above figures take no account of the average numbers of cabs in service.
Whitsuntide Hirings.
The Whitsuntide holidays have witnessed an enormous demand for motorcabs, both in the Metropolis and the Provinces. Reports to hand indicate that there was a real shortage in nearly every case. The popularity of the motorcab promises to be sufficient to allow the high earnings of the fine weather to cover the undoubted losses which will in so many cases be experienced during the coming and successive winters. The tendency to hire for country trips is becoming more general, hut this, at least in the case of London, merely means that people who are obliged to remain in town, and who no longer have the excessive number of horse-cabs at their disposal, frequently look round in vain for a private conveyance of any kind. The General Motorcab Company's Second Financial Year.
The General Motorcab Company's financial year will end on the 31st proximo, and rumours are already in circulation about its trading results. 'We are obliged to regard the.non-payment of an interim dividend as a distinct " bear" point. The company is bound to go through the sequence of experiences which have attended the corresponding stages of development in the steam-lorry and omnibus branches. These include: cost of training drivers and securing organisation ; heavy compensation payments during first two years; rapid depreciation of unsatisfactory models ; lack of adequate reserve funds.
Motorcab Topics in U.S.A.
Negotiations have been proceeding, for the past twelve months, to bring about a: consolidation of the interests of the taxicab proprietors in Chicago. Although a good deal of trumpet-blowing has been taking place locally over the deal, the consolidated undertaking will not be one of any very great magnitude. The amalgamation, which has at last been engineered, will control the fleets of four separate owners —120 cabs in all. It is stated, however, that a large number of chassis is still on order. The capital of the combination is two million dollars. The underwriters went bankrupt on the day following the public announcement of the fusion. It is not anticipated that the failure will have any adverse effect on the business of the amalgamation.
A typical example of American taxicab law is quoted by the " Motor Age " of Chicago, as follows :—
" An interesting decision has been handed down by Judge Kimball in the police court at Washington, D.C., in granting a motion to quash the information against A. L. Kline, manager of 'the Federal Taxicab Co. and the Auto Livery Co., charged with violating the hack regulations in permitting his hotel. leased taxicabs to carry persons other than guests of the hotel to which they were leased. The question is an important one defining whom hotel taxicabs are permitted to carry. Judge Kimball ruled that a person is a guest of a hotel so long as he places himself under its protection and pays for the privileges offered by it, such as procuring a meal or utilising a bath. Under such circumstances, ruled the judge, a man may be just as much of a guest as those persons regularly entered on the hotel register."