L.T.E. Reject Om. Pay Claim
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AN application for higher wages for drivers, conductors, maintenance and cleaning staffs that would have cost over £5m. a year has heen.rejected by the London Transport Executive. London bus drivers sought an extra £1 55. a week and country-service conductors another £11, 19s.
The Executive have agreed that the basic rates of drivers and conductors should be increased, and the Transport and General Workers' Union have accepted that in the present circumstances some overtime is necessary. The T.G.W.U. withdrew an application for increased incentive bon6ses for maintenance and cleaning staffs.
Yesterday, representatives of the Union were due to meet Mr. W. J. Neden, Chief Industrial Commissioner of the Ministry of Labour, and a meeting has been arranged for today between Mr. Neden and London Transport representatives.
COMPANY REPLY NEXT WEEK?
PROVINCIAL bus companies are expected to give their reply on a claim for a wage increase of £1 a week at a meeting of the National Council for the Omnibus Industry, in London, next Thursday. The claim was submitted on November 30.
26 VEHICLES FOR IMPORT
TWENTY-S1X complete commercial vehicles may be imported into Eire next year, this quota having been fixed by the Department of Industry and Commerce. Designed to protect the Irish assembly industry, it does not, however, bear any relation to the number of chassis and bodies which may be purchased from abroad and which runs into high figures.
FREE TRAVEL FOR MOTORISTS?
A SUGGESTION that car parks .1"-V should be provided away from city centres, add that parking tickets should entitle holders to free travel into the city, was made by Mr. C. F. White, president of the Institute of Executive Engineers and Officers, in Leeds, last week.
METALASTIK-US. TIE-UP
A GREEMENTS have been completed for two prominent American companies to manufacture and sell Metalastik components throughout the United States. This was revealed by Mr. H. Burton. chairman of Metalastik, Ltd., in his annual report.
The two American concerns will form a separate Metalastik company to exploit the patents and developments of the English concern.
AUTHORITY CHANGES ADDRESS
rROM next Monday, the address of the Western Licensing Authority will be The Gaunts' House, Denmark Street, Bristol, 1.
110. Equipment for Leyland Oil Engine
rOLLOWING the introduction earlier
this year of a •Leyland oil-engine pack, based on the 90 b.h.p. unit, Leyland Motors, Ltd., are now .marketing this engine with 12v. electrical equipment. It is available for the conversion of petrol-engined vehicles, for replacing another oil engine •to give a higher standard of economy, or for use as orliinal equipment.
The complete unit includes dynamo and starter, exhauster, air cleaner and a Leyland 13-in.-diameter clutch. A suit .
able battery would be of 135-amp.-hr. capacity.
Tailored exclusively for the conversion of American-built International KB-8 vehicles, the 90 b.h.p. unit fitted in this type of truck has recorded an 80% better fuel consumption, as compared with the Red Diamond petrol engine which it displaced.
IN &LINE OR TWO
Thomson and Brown Brothers; Ltd., opened a new depot at 55-67 Castle Street, Inverness, on Tuesday.
Kidderminster's borough engineer has been asked to study the possible conversion of the municipal vehicles to oil.
Sunderland Corporation have decided to increase the capacity of 31 of their buses from 58 to 63 seats. This will cost £6,293.
Scrck Radiators, Ltd., --Warwick Road, Birmingham, 11, have published a brochure describing their manufacturing activities.
The 13ritith Standards Institution, 2 Park Street, London, W.1, have published a glossary of terms and notation for toothed gearing at 6s.
There are now 876,741 commercial vehicles in Canada, compared with 817,304 a year ago--a 73-per-cent. increase. The rise since the end of the war has been 172 per. cent.
Vehicle Used Before Licence was Issued
BECAUSE they used a vehicle to carry goods before an A licence for it was granted, the Storage Co. (Penarth), Ltd., were fined £5 on each of two summonses, with £4 costs, by Llanelly magistrates on Monday.
It was stated that a load of butter and tinned fruit was carried from Cardiff to Lianelly. Mr. D. J. Davies, managing director of the company, Said at the time that he was not guilty of any offence because an application in respect of the vehicle had been made to
the Licensing Authority, He advanced the same claim after tinplate had been carried from Trostre to Acton, London.
Mr. R. D. Lean, defending, said that operators were inclined to regard applications as automatic when they should wait for the hearing of the application. No one else had been deprived of business.
" My clients, in a sense, jumped the gun and put a vehicle into commission 14 days before they should have," .he' stated.
PRESSURE FOR TAX CUT I N conjunction with other organiza tions, the Passenger Vehicle Operators' Association are again to place before the Chancellor of the Exchequer a case for the relief of fuel tax on road passenger transport. Anti-tax posters and handbills for display add distribution in vehicles will shortly be aVailable to operators from area secretaries.
EQUAL STANDARD OF CONDUCT
THE Road Traffic Bill should require an equal standard of behaviour by all road users, from the driver of the heaviest vehicle to the pedestrian, said Mr. C. E. Jordan, chairman of the West Midlands Division of the Traders' Road Transport Association, when he spoke at the 4ranual dinner of the Wolverhampton Area last week.
Accusation of Rate. cutting Refuted
AN allegation that Messrs. Davison Bros., Bishop Auckland, had cut the rate charged by British Road Services for carrying goods for Bakelite, Ltd., from Aycliffe to Wembley was made by Mr. J. L. R. Croft, for B.R.S., last week, before the Northern Licensing Authority. The firm sought an A licence for three vehicles at present working under a B licence.
Mr. J. Mansfield, accounts clerk of the applicants, denied Mr. Croft's charge and said that the rate was £3 6s. 6d. a ton. Mr. Croft responded that the 13.R.S. charge was approximately £4. Mr. H. C. Acolt, for Bakelite, Ltd., stated that the B.R.S. rate was £3 Ss. 9d. "It has never been £4 per ton," he said.
Messrs. Davison had customers who were asking them to undertake longdistance work but who could not be obliged because five special A-licence vehicles were folly occupied. The application was refused, but the Authority stated that if the firm wished to modify the conditions of their B licence to allow them to carry any dais of goods for one of their customers, Marshall Richards Machine Co., Ltd., he would grant it.
Mr. Croft indicated that B.R.S. would not object to this.
MILK WORKERS' HIGHER PAY TRANSPORT workers coming under the aegis of the Milk Distributive Wages Council now receive higher pay. Men get another 6s. a week and women 4s. 6d., with proportionate increases for juniors.
United Dairies (Wholesale), Ltd., are paying provincial male workers an extra 10s. 6d. a week and females 7s. 6d., with improved rates for juniors.. Similar advances are enjoyed by employees of the county, creameries and provincial businesses. of Express Dairies.
Nestles, Ltd., have agreed to give male transport workers an additional 2fd, an hour and females 2d., with pro portionate increases for juniors. Transport and dairy workers of retail cooperative societies in London are now receiving 12s. a week more; those in provincial area A, ..11s.; and provincial area B, 10s.
HIGHER PAY FOR U.T.A. STAFF?
AN application for an increase of £1 a week for drivers and conductors of the Ulster Transport Authority by the Ulster Transport ang Allied Operatives' Union was due to be discussed yesterday between Union and under'taking officials. Overtime at time-anda-half for all hours worked after noon on Saturdays and a reduction in spreadover duties from 11 to nine hours are also sought.
Similar improvements are also desired for garage staff and foremen.
Nearly 4,000 men are affected by the claim.
Cook's Replace Obsolete "Special A" Vehicle'
DE-SPITE opposition by the Special Traffics Division of British Road Services, the Northern Licensing Authority last week granted two applications • by ..Siddle C. Cook, .Ltd., Consett, to operate articulated vehicles.
An A. licence was sought for a tractor of 11 tons unladen and a trailer of 12 tons 9 cwt. to riplaee an outfit specified on a special A 'licence., and an A licence was required for a B-licence articulated vehicle of 11 tons 17 cwt.
It was stated that the special A-licence machine had solid tyres and was uneconomical to operate. A new tractor was to be purchased and the trailer rebuilt. Carrying capacity would not be affected.
The B-licence vehicle was at present limited to carriage for Steel and Co., Ltd., Sunderland, but an A licence was needed because of the general demand for low-loaders.
OVERCHARGED PASSENGERS: t9 . FINES QTATED to have overcharged pas sengers on a journey to Margate, Richard David Cox, Wycliffe, Bunkers Hill Lane, Bilston; coach proprietor, was fined a total of £9, with £9 4s, costs, at Bilston last week.
For the Ministry of Transport, Mr. M. T. A. Matthews said that the return fare to Margate was 1.2 5s. There was a standard condition in the West Midland Traffic Area that children under five should he carried free and from 5-14 years at half adult fare.
Cox, he said, charged £3 for adults and the same for a child of 10 years. Defendant agreed that he had charged £3 per seat. His licence, issued by the East Midland Licensing Authority, had indicated this sum. He had, he claimed, never received a licence from the West Midland Licensing Authority stating that the fare should be £2 5s.
Mr. Matthews replied that the East Midland Licensing Authority's fares could apply only to his area.
A second summons concerned failure to carry fares tables.
Driverless Vehicle Not " Used "
IF a motor vehicle runs driverless over 1 the public road, it is not being " used " in .the legal sense. This ruling was given by Sheriff A. M. Frain, at Perth last week. He had reserved his decision in a case in which James R. Carmichael, director of A. M. Carmichael, Ltd., 9 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh, building and civil engineers, had denied causing or permitting a lorry to be used without efficient brakes, a horn, mirror, silencer and speedometer.
The charges followed an incident when William Crabb, aged 35, Mackies Land, Inyergowrie, had stopped his vehicle on a private road leading to Sronphadruig Lodge, Calvine, to shut a gate. The lorry ran backwards and driverless across the main Perth-Inverness road, breaking down a fence and entering. a• field, causing injuries to Crabb from which he died.
The Sheriff said that he was satisfied that the lorry was in the condition described on the charge sheet. That, however, was of no consequence unless it was being used on the public road. The only time it was on the public road was during its "uncontrolled passage." across the highway. This was accidental and inadvertent. The owner, said the .sheriff, was entitled to be acquitted.
FIRST ADDITION FOR 20 YEARS
AHAULIER who has held an A licence for one vehicle since 1934, applied for the first time for an extra vehicle to the Northern Licensing Authority last week. He was successful.
Mr. I. H. Wilson, Hebbuni-on-Tyne, the applicant, told the Authority that since meat had been derationed he could not cope with the demands of local butchers. His monthly turnover on meat haulage had almost doubled. Mr. A. Neesham, president of the Jarrow and Hebburn Butchers' Association, confirmed the need for extra transport, and local butchers sent letters of support. Mr. F. Milton appeared for the applicant.
GREENGROCER'S APPEAL FAILS
A GREENGROCER who sought a
B licence to enable him to carry goods back from market appealed to the Transport Tribunal, last week, against the Metropolitan Licensing Authority's refusal to grant it.
The appellant, Mr. F. Moore, 27 Clive Street, Stepney, was stated to have produced only three letters of support from potential customers. He told the Tribunal that when he made his application, he did not know what evidence the Authority would want.
Rejecting the appeal, and advising the appellant to make a fresh application, the president said that it would have been wrong for the Authority to have granted a licence on the evidence presented.