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Correspondence.

6th June 1907, Page 16
6th June 1907
Page 16
Page 16, 6th June 1907 — Correspondence.
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Cartage Rebates.

The Editor, " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."

Sir :—We are very much interested in the question of cartage rebates, and have read your two articles (pages 286, 287 and 334 ante) with much interest.

We are situated at a station where the railway company makes no provision for either cartage or delivery of goods and, on our attempting to obtain cartage rebate, we are met with every possible difficulty, and they now propose only to allow us the rebate from the 1st of last month. They further say that on all goods carriage paid we must apply to the sending company for the cartage rebate at this end. Can you please tell us whether this is legal—any information to help us in the matter will be very much appreciated. We think we have heard of an Association of Traders on this matter and railway rates, and if you can give us the address we shall be very much obliged.—Yours faithfully, "EYES Now OPEN.

'Where goods are carriage paid and sent under a " Carted and delivered rate," it rests with the consignors to deal with the railway company. The Mansion House Association on Railway and Canal Traffic, 41 and 42, Parliament Street, S.W., is the name and address for which you ask.—ED.] The Seating Capacity of Motorbuses.

Sir :—Allow me to congratulate you on the leader in your issue of the i6th ultimo under the above title. It is full of commonsense and puts the whole matter in a nutshell; namely, that, whether the motorbus ultimately to be adopted seats 26 or 34 passengers, the question of speed is the controlling factor; and that the companies themselves, in order to prevent any attack, however well justified, on their present rolling stock, or the enforcement of any restrictions such as would practically complete their ruin, must take effective steps to check the pace at which their vehicles are driven.

I recently wrote to the Chairman of one of the largest companies, pointing this out in the most emphatic manner, and adding that there can only be one end to the present motorbus companies if their vehicles are not run more nearly in accordance with the conditions dictated by law, the state of the roads, the imperfections of their machinery, and the absence of a shock-absorbing wheel. It is quite true_ that there are certain stretches of road in London (not continuous on any one route) where higher speeds may be indulged in without danger to the public or loss to the owners of the vehicles ; but the percentage of such roads is very small and it must be a long time before it is materially increased, Moreover, the evil is cumulative, because the more one bus knocks the road to pieces by excessive speed, the more destructive does the road become to the next vehicle, the practicable speed for the whole service being thereby continually reduced. The small wheels now used, which are a radical error, aggravate the evil.

I am one of those who feel certain that a suitable wheel will be ultimately available, just as I am fully convinced that the present solid-rubber tires never can be of any use for this purpose. The stress per unit of mass, particularly due to the continuots blows at such high speeds, absolutely alters and destroys the molecular structure of the rubber itself until, as one may see any day, the rubber breaks off in lumps like over-ripe cheese, It is a matter of common observation that a motorbus, even on a poor road, will be practically silent at 8 or 9 miles per hour, but when, as frequently happens, it is driven at 20 YO 25 miles per hour down hill, meeting paved crossings and the many man-holes, stand-pipes and other surface obstructions, it becomes a veritable rattle-trap. The best machinery in the world cannot stand such treatment for long. Hence the heavy depreciation, which absorbs all the profits of the companies, and probably ought to absorb more, if adequate provision were made to meet it. It is my own opinion that considering the type of men who now drive these vehicles, their strong sporting instincts and the keen rivalry for traffic between the various companies, some device must be adopted not only to indicate the speed but to render it impossible for any vehicle, licensed to run say at 12 miles per hour, to exceed the limit for more than say to seconds at a time, a margin sufficient to enable it to pass slower traffic and, in case of necessity, thread its way past obstructions. In conclusion, I hope those who are responsible for the running of the present services will take your extremely sensible remarks to heart, and make every possible provision for the running of their vehicles at less ruinous speeds. It is their only chance of remaining solvent. —Yours faithfully, MOTORBUSTER.I' About M otorcabs.

The Editor, " THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR."

Sir :—I was interested to see Messes. Sturrney's letter in your issue of the Mth ultimo re the above matter, and again venture to trespass on your valuable space.

While admitting that there are many persons, at present, either engaged, or engaging in, the running of motorcabs, who hardly know what they really need in order to make their business a success, I maintain that it is not at the desire of these parties that the average British fourcylinder cab has been constructed, as there has certainly been practically no demand whatever for them. Take, for example, the firm which, some months back, trundled one of its giant cabs " seating five persons, and carrying 37cwt. (1 ) of luggage," as the report goes, all the way from Scotland. Of course, the suggestion was that this was done in order to submit the vehicle to a London syndicate, but it passes my understanding why the makers went to all this trouble and expense when, from the beginning, it must have been perfectly obvious that such a vehicle could not be run at a profit in London, while fares are only 8d. per mile. Further, we have only to look back at the last Olympia show, to see that the majority of British cabs there were four-cylinder ones, with very stylish bodies, and, roughly speaking, not a single order had been booked for this class of machine either before, or during, the show, clearly proving that there had not been sufficient demand to merit the offering of such a machine for sale.

Touching the question of rapid or reasonable delivery, I am sorry that I do not know of 'a good example, re motorcabs, illustrative of the inability, shall I say, of British firms to deal with this class of business; but the following example, from the really heavy side of the industry, has, I think, an important bearing on this subject. I happened, about a year ago, to visit a firm which had just completed a heavy-vehicle factory, and I was surprised to find one of the partners much perturbed. The case, to me, did not appear a very distressing one, the fact being that they were being " threatened " by one omnibus company with an order for 200 chassis, while two other firms wanted 50 apiece, and the trouble was when could the manufacturing firm promise delivery? I advised them to let the 200 order go, as I knew that the company had not had sufficient capital subscribed to justify its attempting to place such an order, and to promise the parties who wanted 50 each fairly early delivery. Well, after some negotiations, the so apiece parties were promised half-a-dozen chassis in a few months, while the 200 order party backed out of it altogether !

The soo Renault cabs were ordered by the General Motorcab Company at the end of last May, and the first of these was licensed for service during the last week in

November. It is quite clear, therefore, that the manufacturers did not take 15 months delivering them. Then, again, fairly rapid delivery can, I believe, be secured of the well-tried and successful " Unic " chassis, without the trouble of wandering round the country investigating the peculiarities of home-made vehicles. The Darracq Company, as everyone knows, is fairly full up with private-car work, and I suppose that there is not a firm in the world which would not in some way be embarrassed by an order for 4,000 chassis at once. I think they are not a suitable example to bring into this discussion. What I meant my first remarks to bear on was the position which the British firms, which are supposed to be catering for the operator in motorcabs, and which are either attempting to supply machines totally unsuitable for public-service work, or to do so in such small quantities that the placing of an order of any magnitude with them would almost hopelessly cripple any company which wished to operate in the near future on a large scale.—Yours faithfully,

ARTHUR E. A. M. TURNER. London, 4th June, i9o7.


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