AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

The New Subsidy Scheme.

8th June 1920, Page 1
8th June 1920
Page 1
Page 2
Page 1, 8th June 1920 — The New Subsidy Scheme.
Close
Noticed an error?
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.

Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

WE UNDERSTAND that a new subsidy scheme has been tentatively drawn up, and that the Mechanical Transport Advisory Board has invited representatives of the Imaerial Mechanical Transport Council, the India. Office, the Association of .British Motor Manufacturers, and the Commercial Motor Users Association to a meeting which will be held today (Tuesday) with. the abject.of discussing the scheme. .

The Mechanical Trameort Advisory Board, under the chairmanship of Major-General Sir E. E. Carter, K.C.M.G., 0.B., .M.V.O., Dire,ctor of Supplies _and Transpoit, War Office, consists of four military mom.. -hers appointed by the War Office, and four civilian members, nominated by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Automobile Engineers. The secretary is Brevet Lieut.-Colonel M. S. Brander, R..A.S.C. .

It is understood that preliminary meetings of the MT. Advisory Board have already been held to consider the irew subsidy scheme, and the meeting to-day hais been arranged so that the views of both the users and manufacturers of motor vehicles can receive due consideration before the scheme is definitely settled.

Possible Co-operation between Rail.and Motor., E UNDERSTAND that the Transport Officer for the North-West Division has been pursuing enquiries in certain directions in southwest Lancashire. The purpose, so far as we have been able to ascertain, is to secure a measure of co-operation between road vehicles and the railways. It will be remembered that, at the recent conference of the National Alliance of Commercial Road Transport Federations and Associations, the speeches of railway representatives present did not show any warmth of enthusiasm for the railways tarrying short-distance loads. Perhaps there is reason for believing that in the future the railways will concern themselves less with short hauls, and will concentrate more on longdistance traffic,.

0c:impotent authorities assess a 50-miles-radius from a given centre as an economic distance for a motor to be operated for day journeys, and, if the Ministry of Transport intend, as is surmised, to take traffic within this' compass from the railways, it will mark a wonderful development in the evolution of road transport, although enquiries at the headquarters of the Ministry' give no confirmation. It is presupposed that there will be area groupings, each with a transport centre,. from which traffic will radiate, and that, in process of time, all these will be linked up. Thus it will be nossibie for a contractor to t.ccept a load for, say, a destination 100 miles away by depositing it at the headquarters of the area adjacent to his own, obtain a return load, and return home, leaving to the organization of the next centre the completion of the carrying contract. If thearailways are not te handle short-distance traffic, return loading facilities ought to undergo a considerable and much desired improvement, for conditions latdy have left much 10 be desired.

Larger and Larger Omnibuses.

THE NEED everywhere is for more, and yet more, passenger transport. If ever there was a shining example of supply creating demand, it is t6 be found in urban passenger transport. Within the lifetime of living men, few lived a greater distance from the scene of their daily labours than could comfortably be compassed by walking. The coming of the omnibus, the suburban railway, and the tramway services has caused people to live farther out and, more than that, to use the services as a means of saving even only a few minutes in their small journeys in and about the cities. , The growth of passenger travel in the Metropolis in the last ten years alone has been stupendous, and it is by no means an exag&ration to say that the services—extensive -though they be—are entirely inadequate. We contend that the, services, to be satisfactory, must be based, not upon the average number of persons travelling hour by hour throughout the day, but on the peak loads, for, having adapted our life to the new orderof things—living home distance from the scene of our work and travelling to and fro Morning and night—we may logically ask for the provision of proper and adequate facilities. .. The omnibus service, because of the provision by our forefather's and ourselves of a wealth of pennon. ent way—the roads—ramifying -in all directions, is the best for short-distance business travel. But, present costs of labour and material axe causing the Landon service to run at a loSs, the solutien to the problem thus treated being the enabling of each unit of the service to carry more passengers per day, with -out increasing running costs or standing charges. . The K-type was an--experimental step in the right direction, for it has a carrying capacity of 46 Passengers, as against the 34 passengers, which, wrongly, had come to be regarded as the proper complement for a motorbus. The Carriage Department of Scotland Yard showed its perfect understanding of public

needs and its appreciation of the correctness of the solution of the problem of securing greater travel facilities, when it agreed to approve the K-type, and the obvious success of that type (of which over 50 are now on the streets) suggests that it should not be regarded as the last word in bus capacity. Larger buses should be experimented with: we feel juat as assured of their practicability as we are of the pressing. need of the greater facilities which they would provide. The big queues of waiting passengers at the peak hours would then diminish, and there would be a material reduction in the loss af time which is incurred by many workers at the 'commencement and end of the working day.

Automata or Human Beings?

N A RECENTLY published article, describing the development of the autotnobile industry in the

United States, stress was laid upon the wonder; fill organization existing in certain works. "The men each do a particular thing, stamping a • bush on a gudgeori pin, dropping a piston in. a cylinder, adding a belt or a net, standing in the same position, shoulder to shoulder, never moving more than the reach ef their arits, repeating the same operation upon the pieces as they travel before them, in measured continuous procession of about two miles an hour, an. endless appearance and disappearance Of thousands of copies of the same thing, each looking exactly like its forerunner and follower, each requiring the same thing &ale to it ; no variation, no cessation ; a monotonous, inexorable movement"

'This is undoubtedly a. description of the scientific develepment -of the theory of quantity output of a standardized product. It is also, intentionally or otherwise, a. description which fully conveys the sense of the appalling monotony with a reference to which it terminates. One can imagine no more.souldestroying occupation than one of those described. The training occupied in order to become competent is reduced to a minimum. In many cases, a few minutes would serve to teach all that is to be known. After that, the whole process entrusted to each worker becomes simply automatic. It requires TIO brain effort. It exercises only one muscle or set of muscles.

One would imagine that, if ever the principle of quantity output is carried so far that the bulk of the workers of a nation -are occupied in the manner described, initiative and originality will be destroyed and, in, course of time, the original mental faculties will be dulled. One wonders, also, to what degree men so trained would be adaptable to any totally different employment. Without praising our own. motor industry for the

excessive tendency toward individuality which it revealed prior to the war, one cannot help thinking that, without-such individuality, it could never have doneaso quickly and so efficiently, the great variety of war work that it actually accomplished, If there is anything in this theory, it behoves a nation to consider to what extent it is justified in aiming at cheapness of production at the expense of the individuality of the human being, and whether it may not be worth while to retain, even at some expense, a certain degree of individuality which may becoma extraordinarily valuable at a time of great emergency.

Serviceand Other Matters.

TILE AMERICAN motor manufacturer has diecovered a reason fo`a• giving service which is . perhaps not immediately apparent. aenerally speaking, the giving of service is justified from a commercial point of view by the fact that good service helps to make and keep satisfied users, and so to encourage the extended employment of Motor vehicles. Another point of view is that good service, by keeping vehicles upon the road, leads to the vehicles themselves, their tyres and supplies, being used regularly and, therefore, used up more quickly. This being so, new vehicles to take the place of the old are required earlier.

The principle is one et, which We have heard in other connections as being popular in America. Thus, a well-known English writer of school books met an American professor who made his living in a similar way, but was obviously able to secure a mush better income in'the process. The American pointed out to the Englishman where the latter and hiapubfishers ma-de their mistake. His books were printed on good paper and were well and strongly bound. When one child had finished with a book it was passed on to another, and, very likely, before it fell tr . pieces it had been used by a dozen. The American pointed out that he and his publishers took the greatest possible care to make sure that, while his books would hold together long enough to satisfy the needs of "one pupil, they. would certainly

not be. fit to be passed on to a second. Corltequently, a new book had to be bought for each new pupil taking the course, and the sales were increased accordingly.

The idea 'is highly commercial and so, also, is the idea of service for the purpose of accelerating wear and tear, but one cannot help wondering whether it is possible to appreciate such theories fully without encouraging a tendency to manufacture something satisfactory for a time, but the reverse of durable under average rough conditions.


comments powered by Disqus