B.T.C. Revenue E60m. Up: B.R.S.
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Earns Another £15m.
TRAFFIC receipts of the British Transport Commission were L59)398,000" higher in 1951 than in 1950. British Road Services, operating a greater number of vehicles than, in the previous year, contributed an extra £14,925,000, the Commission's proyincial and Scottish bus interests an additional £5,104,000, and London Transport another £3,400,000.
Although the provincial and Scottish bus undertakings carried 0.1 per cent. more passengers, they covered 2.1 per cent. more miles. London Transport's increase in mileage (0.7 per cent.) was also greater than that of traffic (0.3 per cent.).
The Commission's traffic revenue for 1951 was £600,479,000, compared with £540.56L000 in 1950. B.R.S. earned £77.398,000 (£62,473.000 in 1950), the provincial and Scottish bus companies 143,192,000 (£38,088.000) and Londoa Transport £59,321,000 (E55,921,000).
In total, the number of passengers carried by the Commission's buses outside London rose by 0.1 per cent. The Tilling Group contributed an increase of 0.8 per cent., but Scottish traffic declined by 1.3 per cent. The mileage increase was 2.1 per cent., the Tilling Group running 2.5 per cent, more miles and the Scottish Group 1.3 per cent. more miles.
London Transport's buses and coaches carried 6.9 per cent, more passengers and travelled an extra mileage of 6.4 per cent. in doing so. The withdrawal of trains in London is reflected in heavy decreases in passengers carried and miles run by the trolleybus and tram section. Traffic fell by 14.8 per cent, and mileage by 12.7 per cent.
No comparable figures are available for B.R.S.
In the four weeks to January 27, 1952. B.R.S. earned traffic receipts of £5,760,000. compared with £5,053,000 in the first four weeks of last year. The B.T.C.'s road passenger transport interests yielded £2,925,000 (£2,587,000 a year earlier) and London Transport £4,405,000 (£4,214,000).
BALANCING CHARGES: TEST CASES SOON
ARRANGEMENTS have been made by the Road Haulage Association for the Special Commissioners of Income Tax to hear representative test cases on the assessment of balancing charges on haulage businesses compulsorily acquired by the British Transport Commission. The hearings are expected to begin towards the end of March.
The Association is asking members whose businesses were compulsorily taken over, or who have lost part of their businesses as a result of the refusal o( permits. to contribute to a fund to conduct these test cases.
DRIVERS' DIFFERENTIAL
nRIVERS of bulldozers, scrapers and Euclid 15-ton dumpers are to be paid a differential of 2d.-5d. per hour, according to experience, under a new agreement reached by the National Joint Council for the sand and ballast industry. Quarry workers and drivers of C-licensed vehicles are to be granted an extra six days' holiday a year. A28
C.I.F. Loses £657,092
IN the 10 months to March 31, 1951, 1 Corns Iompair Eireann, the Irish national transport undertaking. lost £657,092. The working loss on the railways was £949,037. Road passenger transport made a profit. of £355,760, but the C.I.E. road goods system incurred a working loss of £29,099.
Including guaranteed interest 'charges and other expenses, the total deficiency was £1,222,971. Including past losses and crediting a non-repayable grant of £980,000 from Parliament, C.1.E.'s debit balance is £1,808,884.
COMMER, KARRIER PRICES UP 11DRICES of Commer and Karrier 1 vehicles rose on Monday because of increased costs of raw materials. Typical new prices, with purchase tax, are as follows:
Commer express delivery van, £510 Os. 9d.; 25-cwt. forward-control chassis, £553 185. 5d.; 25-cwt. Superpoise van, £745 16s. 2d. ; 2-3-ton
drop-sitter, £896 2s. 11d. ; 3-4-ton petrolengined drop-sider, £960 59. 11d. ; 5-ton oil-cngined timer, £1,563 15s. 2d. ; 5-ton forward-control drop-sider, £1,305 14s.; 6V2-7-ton tipper, £1,516 6s. lid.; 7-ton chassis, £1,179 4s. 8d.; Avenger passenger chassis. £1,275 16s. 5d.; 8-ton petrol-engined tractor with 1-type Coupling, £1,067 14s. 7d. ; 10-ton forward-control tractor with S.A.E. /S.M.M.T. coupling, £1,436 10s. 9d.; 12-ton forward. control tractor with S. A.E./S.Iv1.M,T, coupling, £1 ,600 Is. 10d. Karrier Bantam 2-ton chassis. £647 13s.; CR3 3-4-ton chassis, £858 15s, 1 1 el. • Bantam 4-5-ton tractor, £809 Os. 9d. ; ambulance chassis. £623 29. W.
Hillman estate car. £841 10s.
LABOUR CRISIS OVERCOME nESP1TE a large turnover of labour in both the operational and maintenance sections of the undertaking, Nottingham Transport Department, it is reported, has emerged from its labour crisis because there has been a steady flow of new recruits during the past few weeks.
The department's position is stated to be better now than it has been for the past 12 years. There are 742 drivers and 774 conductors on the payroll.
£2m. ORDER FOR HIPPOS ANEW 12m. contract placed by the Ministry of Supply brings the total value of Ministry contracts held by Leyland Motors, Ltd., to over £9m.
The new order covers Hippo civiliantype heavy-duty six-wheeled chassis, which will be fitted with giant lowpressure tyres for cross-country work. Five-speed gearboxes with power takeoffs will he installed.
to Raise Rates 71 Per Cent.
GENERAL haulage rates charged by the Road Haulage Executive wilt be raised by 7/ per Cent. on February 24. A spokesman of the Road Haulage Association said this week that, at the moment, the Association did not contemplate recommending free hauliers to increase their rates. The national rates committee of the R.H.A. did not propose to hold another meeting until after the Budget had been announced.
The R.H.E. stated this week that the increase was to be made "following discussions with and after consideration of representations made by the Traders' Co-ordinating Committee on Transport." The Central Transport Consultative Committee, in its report for last year, summarized on page 61, records the strong objections of users to an earlier increase made without consulting trade and industry.
The latest increase is to meet heavy advances in wages and other costs which have taken place in the past eight months. " In the case of parcels/ smalls traffic, the schedules will be suitably recast in order to yield an overall average increase of 7/• per cent. and, at the same time, achieve a greater measure of uniformity," said the Executive.
A report in a Coventry newspaper,, on Monday, that the R.H.E.'s rates might not rise in the Midlands, was described as "misleading." Referring to charges for smalls, an R.H.E. spokesman told "The Commercial Motor" that' certain of the former divisional scales might suffer an increase of less than 7/ per cent., whilst others might carry a somewhat larger increase.
WELSH MINERS AND COUNCILS PROTEST THE S out h W a les Licensing Authority's decision to abolish workmen's fares, reported in "The Commercial Motor" last week, has caused a great outcry. On Monday, miners at Dulais Valley,. Neath, tendered unofficially 14 days' notice to cease work as a protest. Representatives of 36 colliery lodges in South Wales also met at Neath to discuss the abolition of workmen's fares.
Last Saturday, a conference of 40 local authorities and trade unions was held at Cardiff to discuss the matter. It was adjourned until February 23 to enable counsel's opinion to be taken on the question of appealing against the Licensing Authority's decision. It was stated that South Wales was being made the cockpit of a movement by bus operators to withdraw workmen's fares. [Other news of fares appears on page
73.] NUFFIELD EXPORT RECORD
THE Nuffield Organization exported a record number of 2,966 vehicles in the week ended February 2. The value exceeded £1m. The shipments involved the use of 20 special trains and 275 lorry-loads were taken to various ports. Two ships sailing from London were specially chartered:
R.H.E. to Appeal on Scottish Decision ?
muiLL the Road Haulage Executive W accept the ruling of the Scottish Court of Session that the remuneration of the proprietor of a haulage business acquired by the British Transport Commission ranks as profit and must be taken into account in assessing compensation? If so, will payments in other cases in which this principle is involved be speeded up?
"The Commercial Motor" put these questions to the B.T.C. and was informed that the Commission's legal advisers were studying the matter. There was the distinct possibility of an appeal. This, as "The Commercial Motor" explained last week, would be to the House of Lords.
An estimate of the number of outstanding cases in which the question of owners' remuneration arose, and were therefore being held up, was hard to make, as many were complicated by other issues.
. Failure to reach agreement was often caused also by the unwillingness of transferors to reach a conclusion, so as to reap the advantage of accumulating interest on the provisional compensation assessments. CALL FOR TENDERS
AT 3 p.m. on February 1, the Foreign Office asked Silver City Airways, Ltd., to fly three large fire. tenders to Cairo. BY midday of February 2, the vehicles had arrived at Blackbushe airport, were loaded into a Bristol Freighter aircraft and were airborne.
An overnight flight was made to avoid delay and the aeroplane was back in England on' February 5.
"Take Permit Power from B.T.C.9!
IF there were to be any further delay 1. in abolishing the 25-mile limit on tile operations of free hauliers, the power to issue permits should be withdrawn from the Road Haulage Executive and transferred to the Licensing Authorities, said Mr. R. Morton Mitchell, chief executive officer of the Road Haulage Association, at the annual dinner of the Stoke-on-Trent sub-area, last Friday.
"A haulier who can show that in the past he has been in the habit of undertaking the kind Of work for which a permit is required, or that the work outside the 25-mile radius arises in ordinary course from the nature of his business, should be entitled to an ordinary permit until the new legislation become an accomplished fact," Mr. Mitchell added.
He believed that a Bill to denationalize road haulage would be introduced "quite soon." He hoped that it would he tabled within six months of the General Election last October. Anything short of the total abolition of the 25-mile limit would defeat the return of businesses to private enterprise.
"Any mere extension of the radius will still endanger the already delicate position of the British Transport Commission's road haulage services, and will not give the urgent services essential to trade and industry at this critical time," said Mr. Mitchell.
FREE HAULIERS HANDLE MOST ANIMALS.
MEMBERS of Penrith Trades Council expressed puzzlement, last week, because private hauliers handled most of the animals bought by • the Ministry of Food at Penrith auction mart. There was stated to be an agreement between the Ministry and the British Transport Commission that beasts could be carried at Is. a head,irrespective of distance, and it was doubted whether free hauliers could undertake such transport more cheaply.
A railway delegate said that Penrith railway station lost over £14,000 in revenue last year because of lower traffic in cattle. It seemed, -hesaid, as if the nationalized industry took what was left after private haulage had "had its whack." In one week of December the railway had no such work.
The council decided to write to the Ministry to ask for the cause of the disparity.
TOUR CUT SHORT
BECAUSE of the reduction in the foreign-currency allowance, the Austrian Tyrol and Dolomites tour of the South Wales Transport Co., Ltd., has had to be rearranged. As reported in "The Commercial Motor" last week, the tour was to have been of 14 days' duration. It will now -occupy II days, embracing Switzerland, the Black Forest and the Rhineland. The probable Charge will be £40 I9s.;'which will give -patrons a personal allowance of about £9-in foreign currency.