DELIVERY OF AMERICAN WAR CHASSIS.
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French and British Methods Compared.
Our readers may possibly remember some illustrations which appeared in our issue of three weeks ago, showing American chassis being disembarked at a port in France. They may also recall that a considerable number of the lorries had suffered damage in transit. We believe, as a matter of fact, that several of them were so broken up that it was found necessary to dissemble them completely, utilizing the parts as spares for those others which arrived in a whole condition. Most if not all of the damaged ones were part of the deck load, and at the time we made the perhaps obvious remark that deck loading was hardly the best way of preparing for their transport.
We have since made inquiries as to the methods adopted by our own Government when taking deliveries of the American-manufactured chassis which they are purchasing, and we find that Gaston, Williams and Wigmore, Ltd., of Old Bond Street, is responsible for their safe delivery to the War Office.
The chief point of difference between the methods of the French Govermnent and our own is that whereas our Allies .'take, the lorries over in New York, and then become responsible for their safe' transit across to France, our oven War Department takes delivery in this country.
In the course of an interview with Mr. Robinson, the G., W. and W. representative, we gathered that the system of inspection is most thorough, each machine being carefully examined at the manufacturer's works, on delivery to the shippers at the docks at New York, and again on arrival in dock at Liverpool, where it is passed on to rail by still another inspector, and once more checked over when delivered here in London. An efficient staff of mechanics, testers, and so on, is kept at the company's garage, and each machine is tuned up and several necessary adjustments to the carburetter made in order to compensate for climatic variations as between here and in the States.