OPINIONS and QUERIES
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WILL THE RAILWAYS THEMSELVES GIVE A SQUARE DEAL?
I AM watching with interest the great fight you are putting up for the road transport of this country against the railways. These are making great play with their slogan "A Square Deal," but if they get what they want the public will be even in greater need of a s"quare deal from them.
' I will give you one instance of their treatment of me scone years ago. I had about 1.000 tons of pitwood in a wood in the 'West of England (not served by the G.W.R.), and ray customer said he would buy it if I "cOuld put it on rail for a certain figure.. Together we looked up, the distance. from this point to the colliery and we found it to be the same distance as another point on the G.W.R. from which my customer was consigning timber. This worked out at 14s. per ton, so on this assumption we .commenced loading.
After a few weeks we were charged by the railway 16s. 7d. per ton. On inquiry we found that this was at the 2-ton rate. My customer was not 'alarmed as the 4-ton rate would apply, which would work out at the lower figure.
We went on loading for several months, but we could not get this particular railway company to reduce. In fact, on the appointed day, so called, the rate went up to 18s. per ton. The result, was that the timber was left in the wood; there it is to-day, amounting to several hundreds of tons. Of course, it has now become rotten and useless.
Besides this instance I could quote many others. It will be a sorry day for traders if road transport and the public are left to the mercy of the railway companies.
,Pontrilas. ENGLISH TIMBER.
LIFE AND COST OF A VEHICLE RUNNING 84,000 MILES A YEAR.
I N offering you my sincere thanks for the great assistance you gave me some time ago, may I once again enlist your aid in solving a few problems? First, what would be the cost per mile for a trip of some 1,680 miles, that is, from Leicester to Glasgow and back three times a week, with a 3-ton lorry carrying a 5-ton load, working off the vehicle in 24 years? Secondly, do you think 7s. 6d. each adequate for a night's lodging for the two drivers? Thirdly, from your own knowledge and experience, do you think this vehicle, a 1938 model, is good enough for the work?
Nottingham. T.A.T.
[The cost of a week's work, including some provision for establishment costs and for lodging, will approximate to £48 10s. In making this calculation 1 have ignored your suggestion that the vehicle concerned should be operated for 24 years. I am of opinion that a vehicle covering this weekly mileage will not stand up for 21 years. You had better be prepared to replace it in 14 years. Seven and sixpence each night is a fair allowance for lodging for each driver.—S.T.R.)
THE " RITZY " CAFE SERVICEFOR .EMPLOYERS AND DRIVERS. _
WE thank you for the mention that you gave us in your issue Of December 9, and no doubt you will be interested to learn that the " Ritzy" café as been greatly appreciated by transport men from all over the country, and there is no doubt that we haire set an entirely new standard of transport catering.
We have inaugurated a service for taking messages from employers to their drivers, which are put up in a prominent position in the café, and any 'employer wish, mg to get in touch with his driver can telephone or wire to us and provided the drives Calls at the cafe, the message will be given. This should prove very useful should the employer receive an order for a return load and wish to get in touch with his driver.
We would be very pleased if you could mention this in your paper, as we are not in a position to notify all those whom we feel would like to take advantage of this service.
May we point out that in your write-up you did not mention that we have the largest parking accommodation in the country. In London, where land is so expensive, this is a particularly strong attraction from the driver's point of view.
H. R. EDENBOROUGH, Director, London, N.W.10. for Ace Café, Ltd.
IS IT COMPULSORY TO FIT AUTOMATIC DIRECTION INDICATORS?
WE have been given to understand that it is corn" pulsory, as front January I, 1939, for all motor vehicles on the road to have automatic traffic indicators. As we cannot trace any mention of this in the Traffic Acts, we should be glad if you could inform us whether this is correct or not. E.B. Bolton.
[It is quite definitely not compulsory for motor vehicles to be fitted with automatic traffic indicators. They are, and will remain—unless further legislation be made–.optional. Otherwise, the whole idea of hand signalling would he futile.—ED.1
COMMENTS ON THE HAULAGE OF CATTLE BY ROAD.
THE facts and figures on cattle haulage given by S.T.R. are very interesting, but, so far as I can see, he is assuming that cattle are largely lifted in lorry loads. I am sure he is aware th'at, in the average market, a load may be made up of half a dozen different deliveries taken from various farmers, and I should be very interested to know how, and on what basis, S.T.R. would interpret operating and running costs, in terms of a head rate, in order to accommodate the small man.
After all, most farmers these days are small men.
Would S.T.R. be good enough to continue his article and let us have his views on this very important side of the problem? There is one other point on which he would, perhaps, give advice. How is he going to differentiate between store cattle and fat cattle? So far as I can see, a separate rate for stores would mean that, with the best intentions in the world, all cattle would ultimately be carried at the lower store rate.
There is one slight correction which I would like to make. My experience of the weeght of a pig is not 80 lb. to 90 lb., but 1 cwt. to 2 cwt. In fact, a Wiltshire pig, as used by the Pigs Marketing Board factories, averages somewhere about 1 cwt. 3 qrs.
Greenisland, W. E. MACVE. County Antrim.
[We appreciate the remarks made by Mr. Macve and his useful reference to the average weight of pigs. We are taking up this matter with S.T.R., and hope that he will be able to continue his article as suggested.—En.]
A LORRY DRIVER GIVES HIS VIEWS ON ROAD SAFETY.
L'XCESSIVE speeds and blind overtaking by a certain 1-4 type of private-car driver are becoming a danger from which drivers of commercial vehicles should be protected. Time after time, these offenders, when they are caught, get away with no fine or a very small one. It is often the skill of commercial-vehicle drivers and the manner in which they give way to them that save serious accidents and lives.
Some of these motorists achieve 100 m.p.h., which, on most of our roads, is not a safe speed. A 60 m.p.h. limit and prompt suspension of a licence for blind and dangerous overtaking would cure the evil.
The associations for commercial-vehicle and privatecar operators should take up this matter.
It is not clever for a man to boast that he has driven from Scotland to London in seven hours.
Hartfield. J. CHAPMAN.
[We are inclined to agree with what our correspondent says. The average motorist is well conducted and drives with, at least, a moderate degree of care, but there are admittedly speed fiends, mostly youngsters in powerful cars, who, without any great need for getting from place to place extremely rapidly, do bring discredit on the safe-driving fraternity. We ourselves were driving a few days ago on the Kingston By-pass, at about 60 m.p.h., When we were overtaken, without warning, by a powerful car, which must have been doing at least 90 m.p.h. There were traffic lights ahead, and the driver had not observed these, with the result that he had to brake suddenly, then swung broadside across the road, jumped over the kerb and grass verge, swung around in the service road (which was luckily there), pulled a flagstone completely out of the footpath and flung it several feet, and hit the fence of a house. Fortunately, the car missed pedestrians, and little damage was done, but if anybody had been killed it should certainly have been a case of prosecution for manslaughter. Yet the driver escaped scot-free, except for a remonstrance from us and, incidentally, from his passenger.—ED.]
AN OPERATOR WHO WISHES TO BUILD HIS OWN GAS PRODUCER.
AS a constant reader of your journal I shall be obliged if you can advise me on some technical points.
I am interested in experimenting with this newly revived producer gas made from coke; the system was on the go when I was a boy, but only with stationary engines.
I am thinking of building a plant to fit a Bedford and constructing it in the usual way with an enclosed fire, a water-cooled tuyere and a cloth filter; should I be in the wrong through infringing anyone's patents?
The enclosed controlled draught seems to be the main
thing, and that patent, if ever taken out, would have fallen through. long ago.
I like the Gohin idea, but the price is heavy owing to import duties, etc., and some of the parts are, in my opinion, far weightier than need be.
I would not have ventured to trouble you, but you yourselves are partly to blame, for I have received many of my ideas or dreams via The Commercial Motor.
Ampleforth. NOEL G. APPLEBY.
{There is no reason why you should not build a producergas plant, as there is nothing coverable in the principle. What you will have to avoid is in making or applying any fittings which are covered by patents. As to individual features of any existing plants which are so covered, we can refer you only to the various patent specifications, as we have no such knowledge available in this office_ You may not, of course, copy an existing producer, even for your own use, unless the purpose of making it is with the object of improving upon it. You will have found an article of extreme interest to you in a recent issue of The Commercial Motor.—ED.]
LIFE OF TYRES AFTER SUBJECTING TO REGROOVING PROCESS.
A S the first dealer to regroove tyres in this district, I am very interested in your remarks about regrooving not increasing the life of the tyre, and you may be interested in the following experience.
One of my customers purchased an articulated vehicle and after MON miles the tyres wore quite smooth, the
driver complaining of wheelspin when starting. I therefore cut these tyres with grooves, 11. ins, apart, across the tread, with no grooves round. These eliminated the wheelspin.and the tyres were taken off at 35,000 miles.
Generally speaking, I agree that regrooving does not increase mileage, but you will see that it is possiblc to cut a tread which is most suitable for the purpose and lower the cost per mileage in this way.
W. LITTLEWOOD, Liverpool, 5. For Commercial Tyre Services.
THE CONSTRUCTION OF PITS FOR VEHICLE MAINTENANCE.
I SHALL be obliged if you can help us in the matter of the construction of a pit for our fleet-maintenance department.
(1) Have you a publication giving points of recommendation in the construction of a garage pit?
(2) Can you recommend a firm specializing in the manufacture of pit coverings. The writer saw a very good grating in a Somersetlbus garage which was made by a firm in the Midlands.
If you can send us any information likely to be useful in this connection we shall be obliged.
F. H. HAYWARD, Director, for Highfield Model Laundry Co., Ltd. London, N.W,10.
[The subject of pit construction does not appear to have received much attention in handbooks on garage management. The present tendency, and one we would advise in cases where fleet maintenance is involved, is to use a pit constructed to serve as an underground workshop. The sunken area, provided. with a suitable work bench and illuminated by flush-fitting electric lamps, has steel channels set to fit the vehicle wheel tracks_ By this means, under-chassis work can be performed with far greater convenience than is possible when the conventional pit is used. With regard to the pit grating you mention, we believe that the Expanded Metal Co., Ltd., Burwood House, Caxton Street, London, S.W.1, can supply the kind of covering you have in mind.—En.]