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Bird's Eye
Page 69
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.V I ew BY THE HAWK
More than Hot Air
THE next time you bemoan the fact that your heater is not doing its job properly, spare a thought for the chaps at the laboratories of Smiths Industries. After paying a visit to their lab at Witney, Oxon, last week, Ron Cater of our technical staff vowed that he would never again accuse component makers of being slapdash in their methods of producing ancillary equipment for vehicles—well not Smiths, at any rate! Many new developments are coming along, all of them designed to make driving simpler and safer, and many of them will apply equally to the commercial vehicle as to the private car.
Two things seen were thought to have particular application— a new type of instrument panel from which all the components can be removed from the front—they are simply plugged in; and vacuum motors which are being applied to operate heater controls, in place of the troublesome cable. •
Fine Speeches
IHEAR that there were some particularly fine speeches this year at Leyland Motors' apprentices prize distribution, held at Leyland last week, Sir Donald Stokes reported on a year of "tremendous expansion in all branches of the Company's activities. You can see the new large factory extensions going up at Farington, the new office block . . new test branch and proving department and we are in the process of planning a new engine factory at the Spurrier works which will be on 190 acres of land that we have just purchased north of the works".
The test track, which will be similar to that at MIRA, is to be opened in April. Sir Donald added that it was hoped to open sections of the works for visits later this year, as part of the company's 70th anniversary celebrations.
Financial expert Mr. L. G. Whyte, a director of the corporation, presented prizes to 55 apprentices.
Not Honorary Consultants
AFTER years as area mechanical engineer in the Northern
I-1 Traffic Area, Col. H. M. V. N. Smith has been promoted to become the Ministry's senior mechanical engineer, based in London. Speaking in Carlisle recently, Col. Smith told hauliers that they should not look upon vehicle examiners as honorary consultants. There was a tendency amongst some hauliers, he said, to ask for an examiner to call and inspect a vehicle, and then ask for his advice on how to effect a repair. "You must not look upon them as cheap and easy ways of getting technical advice on what to do about your maintenance," he told hauliers.
LA's Ripping Time
IT was at the same meeting—there were 94 hauliers there, I. gather that the Northern LA., John Hanlon, had a ripping time. Clifford Jones (J. and W. Watt Ltd., Carlisle) asked the LA if he would like to see one of the old commercial vehicle driver's licences which Mr. Jones had treasured since March, 1938. Mr. Hanlon opened the folded sheet; zealously held it up for all to see—and tore a large piece of the licence away! C'est la vie!
Beware the Politician/
BUS operators, were you aware that the Government, in all its great and benevolent wisdom, is giving you a grant towards the cost of running your stage services? No—neither was I, but the Treasury's Parliamentary Secretary, asked last week in the Commons about abolishing fuel tax for buses, said that 'the grant of 6d. a gallon had to be looked at against our economic situation.. ."
What grant? I thought to myself, in all innocence. Then the penny (or 6d.) dropped, and I realized that he meant the rebate on the extra tax slapped on fuel.
So now a rebate on a thumping great tax increase has become a "grant". Just shows how politicians' minds work.
For Long Service
rr HIRTY—EIGHT years as a trade association secretary is a rare achievement by any standard. It was just that which the furniture removal industry recognized at a lunch held in London last week to mark the retirement of Edwin Harris as secretary of the National Association of Furniture Warehousemen and Removers and allied organizations.
Following the presentation of a silver salver, tea set and cheque this expert on conditions of carriage and the like jokingly revealed that when he himself recently moved into his Sussex bungalow the customer signed no forms. And the remover who did the job also seemed lax in rendering his account!
George Skelton, senior vice-president and Pickfords chief, (deputising as chairman for Roy Walker, NAFWR president unfortunately down with flu) acknowledged the guiding influence of Edwin in the happy relationship which exists within the Association between the private and public sectors of the industry.
Pitch forked President
AMONG the many tributes paid, including that of Alex Samuels of the Ministry of Transport, I liked the wry comments of Freddie Winwood (president in 1931). Pitchforkedhis own term—into an early presidency he never ceased to marvel at the clarity of the minutes the retiring secretary consistently produced after meetings which had seemed to the then president to be attended by a forest of people all barking up the wrong trees.
Since his appointment in 1927 Edwin Harris has seen come and go—or stay—the Salter Report, the many Road Traffic Acts, nationalization, denationalization and a host of transport inquiries and reports. Removal-wise a revolution in standards of living has brought vast changes in the industry.