AT THE HEART OF THE ROAD TRANSPORT INDUSTRY.

Call our Sales Team on 0208 912 2120

LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.

9th December 1919
Page 8
Page 8, 9th December 1919 — LEAVES FROM THE INSPECTOR'S NOTEBOOK.
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?

Tritton Invented the Tanks. Can Cabbies be More Unciivil ? A Stunted Industry.

THERE WAS NEVER really any doubt in my mind that the committee charged with settling, once and for all, the much-discussed honour of having "invented the Tank" would find for Tritton. Outside what are purely military circles, the question was one which was at least of passing concern to our own great industry. As I hinted, a few weeks ago in these columns, as broadly as I felt justified in doing on a matter that was then sub judiee, there was never any question, in the minds of those whose activities during the war gave them access to the men and conditions at the time, that to Sir William Tritton (with whom Major Wilson was associated) properly belonged the honour. To the list of so-called " claimants," I alone could add half-a-dozen others who, until recently at any rate, were quite satisfied that, but for their own initiative, there would have been no Tanks. And, arguing from similar cases in the past, I imagine, many other "inventors" must be known to other people. One remembers the number of people who invented the "chain-drive gearbox."

The enquiry waa of interest to us for a twofold reason. Tritton and other men more or less identified with /mechanical transport, had put forward arguable claims, but what was, perhaps, more pertinent was that the Tank, after all, was nothing more than a special type of track-driven industrial motor vehicle tricked out with guns and sponsons for purely military purposes. The mere use of a 011min-track was, of course, no novelty. The general shape of the machine and the special method of embodying the track drives principally eonstituted the invention.

Sir William Tritton himself has been knowneto us of this journal for years past, and was a prominent figure at all the industry's shows and congresses, such as they have been. Although he is primarily a steam man, he has, for years past, been interested in the internal-conabustion engine. He came most prominently to the notice of those whose principal care is the technical side of things when he introduced his cleverly-designed little side-spring compound 5-ton steam tractor. He early realized that the mounting of these useful little machines was, in the main, very crude and, after experiment, he came to the conclusion that he could not improve on an adaptation of the time-worn loco-type suspension. And his decision and subsequent manufacture brought his company, Foster's of Lincoln, a lot of business. Whether there was a la of money in it I .cannot say, but I suspect not. Those 5-ton steam tractors, in pre-war days anyway, yielded very little profit.

Well, here are my best wishes to Sir William! I have known him a good many years, and particularly remember his fitting out the first Tank Mobile Repair Column, and the way they had to rush round Lincoln ironmongers to buy nails and other things to fill the store bins which were part of the outfit. 215,000 is not a lot for two men who produced the machine that certainly swayed the war issue in our favour. As Tritton is reported to have said, when the decision was announced to him, "It will barely pay my expenses." But the honour is his, with that of Major Wilson—one could wish he had a more distinctive name, there are so many Major Wilsons! And the heavy vehicle industry is proud to number Sir William as "one of them."

020 For a reason not very far to seek, the cab-driver -has always more or less been held to be typical of incivility. And I must confess that, interested as I am in his modern automobile occupation, I cannot raise myself to any satisfactory defence on his behalf. He is ostensibly a commercial-vehicle user, but he is in a class quite by himself ; he is but very little associated with the activities of other men employed in other capacities in our industry. Nevertheless, it is a, disappointing circumstance that, thetaxicab owes nothing of its popularity to its driver— except in rare instances. In fact, it is used as a, matter of great convenience in spite of the inconvenience to which the average driver's disobliging attitude subjects the public user.

Of late months, things have gone from bad to worse. I have had occasion to use taxicabs, in London and elsewhere, a great deal since the summer, and, in common with everybody else, I suppose, I have been subjected to increased and unvarying incivility. I have not yet succeeded in hiring a taxicab without being subjected to amore or less irritating cross-examination as to the prajected journey, resulting, if I pass the test, in a grudging consent to allow me to hire the machine, a consent intentionally so framed as to endeavour to impress upon me that I have been granted a very considerable favour. There can be no mistake as to the intention—to impress upon the hirer the necessity to mark his sense of obligation by proportionate and suitable monetary reward for the exceptional convenience. This has been growing for months, and the cab-using public is well-nigh desperate, and has no good word to say for the cabby. The cab-driver has no margin, of reputation with which to juggle. The cab strike revealed the public's temper with regard to him.

For the moment this may not matter to him' but surely it is worthy of his consideration, or of that of the one or two of his established associations, that goodwill is a very valuable asset in any business. From the industry's point of view, it is most certainly regrettable that a tremendous increase in -cab usage should readily be attainable, if the public, were encohraged to use these machines rather than discouraged by the intimidating methods adopted by the majority of drivers, on many occasions, directly public facilities happen to take on such a, complexion that unusual demand arises. Claims for increased fares, to say nothing of other facilities from time to time desirable from the cabby's point of view, would have public sympathy and support if he were not, as generally, regarded with feelings of antagonism for frequent disfavours conferred. How far the police are prepared to tolerate the licensed taxi-cabby's newfound habit of picking and choosing his customers and his journeys is another question to which an answer should be requested. The cab trade proper is very seriottsly hampered in the matter of natural development by the rapidly-growing misbehaviour of so many drivers. There have been phases of it before, but in conformity with the general tendency towards socalled independence and incivility, it has now reached such a, stage that the public has a right to insist that the holding of licences should be subject to agreement properly to serve the public. And I think it is high time that all station yards were declared, so far as cabs are concerned, public places so that disengaged cab-drivers could not pick and choose their customers there.

Tags

Locations: Lincoln, London

comments powered by Disqus