The Commercial Motor in the Ascendant,
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By Sir J. H. A. Macdonald, K.C.B., P.C., Lord Justice-Clerk of Scotland, President of the Scottish A.C., Member of the Road Board.
Exclusive to "The Commercial Motor."
The practical adoption of the power vehicle for daily use, within a decade of time, may be said to be something unprecedented in the history of the world. Its success involved not a change merely, but a revolution.
Three things were natural results of its becoming practicable : first, it brought back much traffic to the road, which had been diverted to the railway ; second, it made long and rapid journeys feasible by road ; and, third, it gave improved road services both in town and country, and that both for passengers and goods. But it could not force its way into public favour without a struggle.
The Briton Likes to Find Faults.
The British tendency to find nothing but faults in any new idea, and to hold that old things and the owners of old things have vested rights which are paramount, led to determined efforts to crush the movement out, as another movement similar, and in degree successful, was crushed out in the early 'thirties of last century by the stupidity of the public, and the self-seeking of existing interests—railway interests, or other supposed interests_
But the pioneers were this time resolute, and they succeeded by indomitable perseverance and exertion in hacking a path through the thickets of prejudice, and asserting successfully the claims of power traction to be accepted as a public benefit and valuable improvement in road haulage.
Naturally enough, it was the work of the sportsman to push the matter forward. It would have been vain in the early days to endeavour to apply the motor vehicle to practical purposes. For some years, it was the sporting enthusiast who kept the movement alive. He had to bear the obloquy of the old-fashioned, the violence of the ignorant, and often the injustice of the magistrate. If violent diatribes, both in private and in public, violent conduct on the road, and violent language from the Bench, could have stopped the progress of the motor vehicle, there was sufficient demonstration of these to have done it, but its inherent merits made success certain.
The Reward of the Pioneer.
Those who were in the ranks of the pioneers never faltered, although they had many difficulties to struggle with in the vehicles themselves, and in the opposition of those who saw nothing but evil in the power carriages. "Engines of Satan "—" Infernal machines "—" Murdering Juggernauts" : these were the names freely bestowed upon them, and the assertion that "they were always breaking down" fell from thousands of mouths daily ; but all opposition and denunciation failed even to check progress. Advance was made with ever-increasing acceleration. Even the pioneers themselves had no conception that the revolutionary speed of the movement would prove to be so rapid. There is no man alive, however far-seeing and sanguine he may have been, who would on Emancipation Day (14th November, 1S9e) have believed that in less than half a generation the power vehicle would be in a majority on the streets and roads. Still less would anyone have ventured on the prediction that in 1912 the passenger traffic on the streets of London would be conducted mainly by power vehicles, that horsed omnibuses and cabs would be reduced to a small fraction of the total, and that the munber of horses in London would fall from half a million to 70,000. The Evolution of the Motorvan.
The triumph of the power vehicle, for carriage, omnibus and cab purposes, is practically complete. This nobody doubts to-day. Those who confidently asserted that the motor movement was a fad of the rich and the sportsman, and would die out very soon, are now silent, and thousands upon thousands, who denounced power traction in no measured terms, are now making use of motor vehicles daily, whether as owners or hirers, and they would resist any movement directed to hamper their use. The prophets who prophesied, and the stalwarts who fought to decry and to crush the movement, have long ago come to the stage of reluctantly admitting that the power vehicle has "come to stay." The struggle is over and the victory is decisive.
But, as was to be expected, the adaptation of the commercial vehicle to motor haulage has not been so rapid: indeed, while the passenger development was advancing withsurprising speed, the progress of commercial motoring u as for years slow and even sluggish. It has been in the department which is of preponderating importance—the business department—that the greatest struggle has been necessary to attain success. The slow progress has been due to many causes. In the case of the pleasure vehicle, the sporting tendency was a stimulus to face difficulties, and, in the early days, there was a competition element to produce the best vehicle, and to possess the best. Racing tended to improve the "breed" ; the luxury of speed tempted many. Manufacturers worked hard to do better than their rivals, and drivers faced all sorts of difficulties and dangers in the desire to excel. In the case of the commercial vehicle, however, things were different.
The manufacturer was held back by the poor prospect of an immediate market, and his wares were often stamped with bad character, caused by unwise designing, overloading, and ignorant and foolish driving, which led to excessive upkeep charges, or even to actual and frequent breakdown.
The Ill-adapted Pleasure Car.
Much evil was also caused by the makers of passenger carriages supplying so-called commercial vehicles to the trade, which consisted of van bodies set on frames and with engines built and geared for the light-load traffic of pleasure cars. This mistake was the cause of numerous failures, and turned countless business people away from the adoption of motor transit for their goods for many years. Even to-day, this very serious evil has not altogether ceased, and prevails in an even more objectionable form.
On the 23rd May, a letter appeared in THE Omit MERC1AL MOTOR which no good friend of the trade vehicle could read without regret. The writer, who had been absent from Scotland for many months, declared that, on his return to the great commercial centre of Glasgow, he found "a number of otherwise up-to-date commercial firms committing the ezror, made some five or seven years ago, of adopting secondhand pleasure cars for commercial purposes. It is Most unfortunate that these firms cannot see the risk they are running, in expecting such a vehicle to give satisfaction with dead loads and under commercial conditions, when it is essentially designed for private work. This is all the more regrettable, as, in a few months, the experience of these firms will be such as to tend to prejudice the commercial vehicle, as
prospective users will doubtless be closely watching the experience of these firms." This is a most timely warning. Nothing could by possibility tend to more injury to progress in the use of motor power vehicles for trade, than such ill-judged proceedings.
Waiting for the Horse to Wear Out.
Another cause which militated against rapid progress of power traction for goods consisted in the fact that the trader, whether in hire-passenger carriages, or the merchant, was already in possession of horses and vehicles, by which he carried out his haulage in a, manner which he found efficient, according to the ideas of efficiency prevailing at the time. He felt he could not afford to scrap his existing plant, and to sell his horses at a loss. He also, naturally, had doubts whether, even if he could obtain good practical power vehicles, he would be Able to find competent men to drive them and take care of them as his horse-drivers took care of their animals.
The owners of fleets of omnibuses and cabs, and the large-scale merchants, such as the Maples, the Shoolbreds, the Harrods, and the Whiteleys, would hesitate to throw their crowd of horse-drivers out of employment by adopting a kind of vehicle which the men had not learned to drive, and which, not being mechanics, they could not well understand without instruction. Even if they were attracted by the power-haulage idea, they would naturally experiment with one or two vehicles, until they were satisfied by a long trial that a general change would not be a cause of extra expense, and would be likely to facilitate and extend their business, and that their men could learn the driving without difficulty.
Watching Others.
Another idea which doubtless operated strongly, and particularly with those whose 1business was not very extensive, was that it would be better to go on using existing horse plant in the meantime, and to allow others to experiment, that so they might learn from the experience of others whether it would be wise to make the change. In the case of the pleasure vehicle, there was room for joint-stock speculation, which tended to push things forward. Little such exploitation was possible in the case of the wagon, the van, or the lorry, and also of the omnibus and the cab. All this accounts for the fact that the first decade of the 20th century, which saw the street and road over-run by passenger vehicles, privately owned, showed but feeble signs of the mechanical motor being applied to commercial passenger or goods traction.
Progress Since 1905.
Till the decade was nearly past, the use of power traction for commerce was infinitesimal, and it was only during the latter half of it that commercial passenger traffic reached success, after many a display of weakness and failure, the mechanical omnibus and cab having to pass through the same period of struggle to efficiency that had marked the early development of the privately-owned autocar, and having a still more severe struggle to obtain public favour for the reasons stated. The progress of the goods-conveying vehicle was even slower, excepting the steam wagon for certain classes of service. The last four years have witnessed a great change. While, in the opening days of the century, the sight of a mechanically-propelled business vehicle was relatively so rare as to attract attention and cause remark, four or five years ago the signs of progress began to be noticeable, and they are now no longer mere indications of progress, but unmistakably mark the beginning of the end of horse transport for all but a few exceptional requirements. Whereas, up to the year 1909, commercial-motor transport was a negligible quantity in our great towns, and a thing unknown in the country, apart from Lancashire and Yorkshire, by 1910 the figure in the towns had risen from five to fen per cent., and continued rising steadily, until now it is practically never less than 10 per cent., and is often 15 or 20 per cent., and at times reaches 30 per cent.
The Adventitious Aid of Labour Unrest.
While this steady progress was being made, events have occurred which tend still further to accelerate the change that is proceeding. Within the last two years, a new and very powerful stimulus has been given to commercial-motor progress, from causes out,side the region of suitability and efficiency. Labour unrest, strikes of workers and of horsedrivers, on a vast scale, stoppage of railway service by desertion of work, and intimidation as a sequence of strikes, have awakened the minds of many to the fact that mechanical road transport will mitigate the dislocation of business caused by such interruptions of commercial work, and this in more than one particular. The citizen who has to move his goods over long distances has keen interests dependent on the railroad, and there was no possibility of using the highway economically for long-distance transit. It was thus in the power of the railway workers, by combination, to paralyse the business of the country, by making railroad traffic impossible, or at least so crippling the railway system that all transfer of goods was reduced to a minimum, and no goods manufactured could be forwarded to their destinations. The evil was further increased when railway employees endeavoured to dictate to their company, and to forbid them to carry goods for particular traders, whose goods the company were bound to carry at rates legally fixed. Such an event as a railway strike, by which the public is harassed, cannot fail to produce a development of motor transit by road, on a scale unprecedented, and so to awaken the minds of the public to the fact that much efficient rapid service can be done by road, such as has never before been developed.
The Harvest.
During the strikes, those who possessed motor lorries or wagons not only learned what could be done on occasion, but also reaped a golden harvest. The natural result of all this was, that the manufacturers of commercial-motor vehicles, who already felt the rising of the tide, and had so many orders that deliveries could not be guaranteed for months, had fresh orders pouring in upon them in a flood, which orders will keep them busy with augmented staffs of workmen for many a long day. The greatest strike of all----the coal strike—was of vast assistance to the progress of commercial-motor transit, not, as in the case of the railway strike, by bringing the value of the road into prominence, but by bringing to view the enormous advantage gained to the trader, by being independent of coal as a power for locomotion, for the coal strike tended to stop longdistance transit, and that not by railroad only, but also by sea. The thought of the business man was naturally turned to a, fast mode of locomotion which was independent of coal, and, during the strike, many hundreds of thousands of miles were run by road vehicles carrying goods which, in ordinary circumstances, would have been conveyed by rail. Those who were fortunate enough to be already in possession of explosion-engine vehicles suffered less inconvenience than others, although few steam-wagon owners, if high prices of coal be admitted, really found their supplies exhausted. It was, however, a question of days.
We read of one great omnibus company, for which parts were lying more than 80 miles from London at the manufacturers, sending one of its vehicles all the way from London to fetch these parts, so that the vehicle-building work might not be delayed. Those who did not possess motor vehicles were led to see how helpless they were, and their thoughts naturally turned with favour to the commercial car, as making such difficulties less injurious to their business.