Operating Aspects of
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PASSENGER TRANSPORT
PLANS FOR NATIONAL ROAD TRANSPORT PUBLICITY WEEK
Important Efforts to Further Coach and Bus Travel. Prize for Best Slogan. ALL organizations of 'public-servicevehicle operators are being invited by the Motor Hirers and Coach Services Association, Ltd., to co-operate in launching a "National Road Passenger Transport Week," to he held from May 6-13, 1934. The object of this enterprise is fully to acquaint the public with the manifold advantages of coach and bus travel, to counteract falling traffic, and to meet the intensive and well-conceived propaganda of the railways.
In connection with the event, a slogan competition is being organized, and that selected as the best will form the propaganda link in the publicity campaign. Some 6,000 operators will be requested to utilize their 46,000 vehicles to advertise the competition, and booking offices throughout Great Britain will display posters and distribute entry forms, whilst Press advertising will also be employed.
The committee chosen to select the most suitable slogan includes Miss Gracie Fields, Miss Mabel Constanduros, Brig.-Gen. A. C. Critehley, Mr. Herbert Chapman and Major J. B. Crawfurd, all of them having gained success in the judgment of matters in their respective professions. The entries will be judged on February 20 next, at the Holborn Restaurant, London, and an early announcement will be made as to the value of the prizes.
The inauguration of the campaign will be marked by the holding of public meetings in London and all large provincial cities and towns. Members of the public in outlying districts will be carried to and from these meetings free of charge. The speakers will explain the difficult legislative conditions now existent and will detail the trend of Government policy which restricts expansion. On the first day of the "National Road Passenger Transport Week," operators in each district will dispatch from important centres coaches displaying the .slogan and other publicity matter. They will cover a circular route throughout Britain in both directions, and there will be an evermoving ring of coaches on each day of the week.
Other vehicles will follow local circular routes, embracing the outlying towns and villages and, in the case of large towns, around the suburbs. On one afternoon or evening, operators will arrange to convey school children on a short tour, free of charge, the influence of children in promoting coach travel being of extreme importance. Similar excursions, open to everyone, will be arranged on the last Sunday.
In London and other large towns, operators will send 50 per cent. of available machines to a central starting point, and serve their own localities with the remainder. The possibility of broadcast publicity is being considered.
Every operator is requested to contribute at least 5s. to this excellent cause, and subscriptions should be sent to operators' own associations, or to Mr. F. A. Walker, secretary, Motor Hirers and Coach Services Association, 17, Euston Road, London, N.W.1.