On Steam and Petrol Wagon Drivers.
Page 20
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By "Observer."
Your editorial and "Motor-Wagon Carrier's" remarks on drivers, in your issue of the 25th March, together with the fact that the Mechanical Transport Section of the Territorial Forces are advertising for motor drivers, has led me to offer a few remarks on this very important subject.
Motor-Wagon Carrier " has evidently suffered from the heavy fines, imposed upon his drivers by unsympathetic magistrates, for infringing the Motor Car Acts by one or other of the following :—running above the legal speed of five miles per hour; insufficient (or no) lights on their vehicles; showing steam or smoke; using the trailer without proper brakes ; driving on the wrong side of the road ; or causing obstruction. Now as ai breach of the regulations in any one of these respects would he attended by danger or inconvenience to other users of the highway it comes under the criminal code (as you say in your editorial), and is punishable by fine or imprisonment, imposed in a court of summary jurisdiction, commonly known as a police court. The law holds (and I think rightly so) that the offending person, which in this case is the driver, must bear the consequences, but the average British employer is too generous to allow his driver (who is oily in receipt of about 35s. per week) to pay the fine—let alone see him march off to "do " his one month's imprisonment. This generosity on the part of owners is apt to make drivers less careful and observant of their duties and responsibilities. I think it would be to the interests of both owners and drivers, and, incidentally, the whole motor industry, if a sliding scale of payments of fines were adopted, for example : For the first offence the driver himself should pay one-eighth of the line and costs; for a second offence, one quarter ; for a third offence, one-third ; for a fourth offence, one-half, and in the case of further offence I should look out for a new driver, if I were the owner of a wagon. An arrangement of this kind would prevent the driver's getting off scot-free, and, after all, there is nothing like touching a man's pocket for making him careful—it certainly has inure effect 'than any amount of warning and " talkings to." It is, of course, only fair that a man should pay for his own carelessness, but as you, Mr. Editor, intimate in your article, due allowance would have to be made under special circumstances, although I am inclined to think that there are not many cases where a man should be allowed to go free. There is no excuse for a man's driving through a busy town (especially such an one as Bolton), at a speed of six miles an hour, with a heavy steel-tired wagon, for, after all, these danger zones are only few and far between, and half-anhour—or at most an hour—per day would allow for going carefully through such places.
On the other hand, if a driver has the misfortune to run into anything—to accidentally collide with a passing vehicle, or, in any way, to cause damage to property or persons—a claim for damages through the civil court, i.e., the county court, may be the result. If judgment were given against the owner of the wagon he would have to pay (and rightly so), for such accidents are trade risks.
Now, as to suitable men for making good motor drivers ; this is a very large and important subject and cannot be dealt with fully in a short article like this. To begin with, a likely motor driver must be strong, healthy, and active, not afraid of work, and able to stand the exposure to cold and rough weather. He must, also, not be fastidious about food or meals. A man who has been accustomed to inside work, in warm places, cannot, as a rule, stand the life of a motor-wagon driver. I have known good engine drivers, from mills and factories, fail because they were unable to stand the change from a warm engine room to the trying conditions of service as a driver of a steam motor wagon. The next quality in importance is natural ability and aptitude for mechanics. This is something a man can never acquire—it is inborn. Then follows training and experience of motor work, which comes from having served one to two years as an assistant in the shape of loader or stoker on a motor wagon. Last, but not least, he must be resourceful, which means that he should not easily he overcome with difficulties but show himself a veritable optimist, able to stand his corner and hold his own, at the same time possessing a civil but firm tongue when confronted with officious or anti-motor " spirits " on the road. These qualities will also stand a man in good stead when he is loading or unloading at his journey's end. I have known much valuable time lost by drivers of unstable minds being pushed on one side—talked out of their place—and unable to " stick up " for themselves. If, then, a man has the foregoing qualifications, there is some chance of his becoming a successful driver, and the officials of the Mechanical Transport Seetion of the Territorial Forces will do well to select such men as drivers. But how often is it otherwise ! Men apply for these posts without any fitness or training whatever : some because they are out of work, some with the idea of bettering. themselves from a monetary point of view, and some— pitiable wretches—labour under the delusion that the life of a motor-wagon driver is a free and easy one.
A motor manufacturing firm with which I am acquainted often have calling upon them men with a desire to learn driving, but they are mostly advised to try and get jobs as loaders or stokers with owners and 'users of motors, and so become acquainted with the work, and then, after a year or two, seek a job as driver. To my mind the idea that a man will learn to be a thoroughly efficient motor driver by working in the fitting shops is an absurd one. The railway officials realise the importance of their men receiving proper training as drivers by first serving a number of years as cleaners and stokers.
Finally, beware of fitters as drivers, for a. fitter worth his salt will not put up with the hardships of a motorwagon driver's life, and a man that is a " misfit " as a " fitter " will be a greater "misfit " as a driver. Neither do I find that locomotive drivers make good wagon drivers, but traction engine and old steam tram drivers, as a rule, turn out well. In fact, some of the best drivers I have known are of the latter class of men.