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of the week (continued)
1CARRIERS' RECORD YEAR.
DURING 1938 the demand for the L/products of Karrier Motors, Ltd., Luton, increased by 85 per cent., as compared with 1937, which itself' was also a record year. Furthermore, this upward trend in sales is expected to continue, if the latest figures available for the first half of the present financial year be maintained.
In popularity, precedence must be given to the Karrier Cob, and numerous contracts have been placed for this handy semi-trailer tractor, its purchasers including a number of prominent private and municipal operators. Since the company transferred its activities to Luton, over 1,000 machines of this type have been produced.
Exhibition of Garage Equipment.
it /I ANY garage proprietors and cornliflmercial users over a wide London area are being invited to attend a series of garage-equipment demonstrations, which will be given, at frequent intervals, during the period from March 6-17, by Brown Brothers, Ltd., at its head office in Great Eastern
Street, London, E.C.2. Nearly 30 manufacturers will be exhibiting examples of their products. The exhibition is held daily from 10 a.m., to 6 p.m., and is open to any member of the trade.
Alter Conditions or Damage National Prosperity.
A DDRESSING members of Edin
tAburgh Rotary Club, last week, Mi. Gaston Vincent, Public Relations Officer of the British Road Federation, said that whilst they were not opposed to the railways seeking a lightening of their conditions, they maintained that, in fairness, road transport should be considered.
" Unless conditions are amelio rated," he stressed, " road transport will be faced with a hopelessly unequal fight which would cause its gradual extinction, to the detriment of industry as a whole. Enterprise would be throttled, freedom of competition would be denied, and the public would be rigorously controlled in its right to choose the means for transport it prefers, to the detriment of national prosperity."
Conditions in respect of the heavy burden of taxation which road transport suffered must also be ameliorated, if the scales were not to be weighted against it. Road transport, as a whole, now paid approximately £88,000,000 per annum in special taxation, against an annual expenditure of, approximately, £58,000,000 on the roads, of which only £22,000,000 was derived from this motor taxation. The amount paid by goods road vehicles alone was £31,500,000 a year. That was £8,000,000 in excess of the £23,500,000 s22 which the Salter Conference, on which the railways were strongly represented, recommended as the contribution which should be made by the goods vehicles.
Transport in all forms was valuable for national defence in proportion to its rigidity, and motor vehicles provided the most mobile and flexible mode yet devised, said Mr. Vincent.
Wages Board Meeting.
THE first meeting of the recently constituted Road Haulage Central Wages Board has been fixed to take place on Wednesday, March 8.
£75,000 Order for Electric Vehicles. WM. learn that an order for 285 VV electric vehicles, worth approximately £75,000, is to be placed by the Bristol Co-operative Society. The vans will replace horsed and hand carts and petrol vehicles for house-to-house deliveries of bread and milk.
Mr. Bracey, the works manager of the society, stated that the reason for the change-over was that the petrol vehicles in use at the present time, would, in the event of emergency, have a certain proportion of their number commandeered for Government purposes. Furthermore, the society• was satisfied that the battery-electric vehicle. was more suitable for house-to. house deliveries within a 20-rnile radius.
PERSONAL PARS.
MR. A. E. BOYER, transport manager of Halifax Corporation, is to retire at the end of April. During the 14 years he has been at Halifax, Mr. Boyer has built up a scheme of centralized transport which few towns can equal. His department hires out different types of vehicle to corporation departments and is self-supporting. When he came into office, the department possessed 30 motor and 114 horse-drawn vehicles. There are now 120 motor and six horsed vehicles.
The election of Mx. H. J. SEED to the chairmanship of the East Lancashire and Cheshire Branch of the Institute of the Motor Trade is of special interest to commercial-vehicle operators, as well as to motor agents and service engineers. It is the first time a commercial-motor specialist has occupied the post. Moreover, Mr. Seed was a few days previously appointed delegate, at the annual general meeting of the East Lancashire and 'Cheshire .Division of the Motor Agents' Association, to the. conimercial-vehicle committee at M.A.A. headquarters in London. Mr. Seed is-a member of -Messrs. Leach and Seed, Liverpool Street, Manchester, one of the oldest-established firms con
• centrating on commercial vehicles. .
, Dunlop Opens New London Depot. ,nNE of the features of,the: new depot %JIM the Dunlop Rubber 'Co., Ltd., which has been opened at .159, Acre Lane, Brixton, London, S.W.2, is the unusually large fitting garage, which is capable of taking any size of vehicle. The new branch is intended to serve operators in south-west London and the suburbs, as well as Surrey and midSussex. Mr. S. J. Terry, the district manager, is in charge.
Operators will find that an excellent time to visit this new depot is between March 6 and 18, when a special show of equipment is being held.
Austin Cabs in London.
ACCORDING to a statement made at the ordinary general meeting of Mann and Overton, Ltd., on Tuesday, last year the company supplied 70 per cent. of the new cabs put: into service in London. These were Austins.
• The company moved into larger premises in June, and a big extension of its service organization has resulted.
£500,000 for By-passes and Diversions.
ACOST of £500,000 is involved in schemes which the Minister of Transport has approved, for diversions and by-passes on the Leeds-Selby road, as part of the Liverpool-Hull trunkroad scheme. One of the schemes, for diverting the road at West Garforth, will necessitate a new bridge over the railway between Leeds and Castleford.
A FORDSON ON EXCAVATOR HAULAGE
RESULTING from the fact that the type is so admirably adapted for transporting machinery and like loads of great bulk and weight, the big lowloading articulated outfit, with detachable trailing axle, has of late gained marked popularity. A machine in this class recently acquired by Fitzpatrick and Son (Contractors), Ltd., Old Ford Road, London, E.3, incorporates
several features of considerable interest.
Not the least interesting of these is that a Fordson chassis and cab is employed as tractive unit, whilst the semi-trailer is a product of Carrimore Six Wheelers, Ltd., North Finchley, London, N.12.
The Fordson is powered by a V8 engine, driving through a doublereduction gearbox, and has a specially shortened wheelbase, We understand that it has shown itself to he well up to the exacting work demanded of it.
The semi-trailer is equipped with the maker's Quickfit detachable rear axle, which immensely simplifies the operation of loading and unloading the excavators which the outfit commonly carries. It affords a clear space of 14 ft. 6 ins, in the well, between the siep and the rear wheels.
These last are equipped with 18-in. brake drums, the shoes being actuated by servo apparatus operated simultaneously to the Fordson foot brake, and are shod with 36 by 8 tyres. An illustration of this interesting articulated machine appears on this page.
France Going Ahead with Coal-gas Supply Stations.
OUR French contemporary Journal des Usines a Gas reports that a new coal-gas compressing station has recently been established in Strasburg by the gas company of that town. The equipment comprises a Luchard electrically driven five-stage compressor, capable of compressing gas up to a pressure of 4,977 lb. per sq. in, at the rate of about 7,000 cubic ft. per hour.
The gas is stored in six steel cylinders, each having a capacity of
555 litres and tested up to a pressure of 7,400 lb per sq. in. Connections are provided so that the gas cylinders of motor vehicles can be rapidly recharged at a pressure of about 3,550 lb. per sq. in. The Strasburg Co. is running a demonstration van on coal gas and h is reported' that the Strasburg local authorities have decided to adopt this fuel on the municipal dust-collecting vehicles.
German Sales Increase in 1938.
ANAN official return shows that 3,478 vans and lorries were sold and registered for the first time in Germany during December last, compared with 3,803 units in the final month of 1937. The aggregate sales during the past 12 months reached a total of 44,731 machines, as against 43,221 units in the preceding year, an increase of nearly 3.5 per cent.
The sales during December last comprised 537 vehicles for loads up to I ton, 922 between 1 ton and 2 tons, 897 between 2 and 3 tons, 592 between 3 and n tons, 217 between 3i and 4 tons, 156 between 4 and 5 tons, 150 between 5 and 71 tons and 7 over 7/
tons. According to numbers, the most popular vehicles are the Opel, Ford, Daimler-Benz, Magirus, Hansa-Lloyd, Bussing-N.A.G., Tempo, Phanomen, M.A.N., Krupp and Henschel.
I.M.T. Examination Flans.
THE 27th examination of the Institute of the Motor Trade will be held in London and certain provincial centres on April 28. The Council is offering gold, silver and bronze medals for the three candidates securing the highest number of marks in the April and November examinations this year. Full particulars of the examination syllabus, etc., may be obtained from the secretary of the Institute, 201, Great Portland Street, London, W.I.
Express Carriers Meetings.
THE north-western division of the National Conference of Express Carriers is holding a meeting at the Queen's Hotel, Piccadilly, Manchester, on Friday, March 3.
The southern area of the Conference is holding a meeting at Portsmouth on Wednesday, March 8, although the actual place at which it will be held has not yet been fixed. SOLID FRONT AMONG AGENTS CALLED FOR.
A STRONG appeal for closer co1-1.operation between the Motor Agents' Association and the Scottish Motor Transport Association was made at the annual dinner in Aberdeen of the North-east Scotland Division of the M.A.A. The appeal was made by Mr. F. H. Beer, president of the Commercial Vehicle Section of the M.A.A.
Dealing with the achievements of the M.A.A., Mr. Beer mentioned how, a few years ago, the idea of price protection for can had seemed ridiculous, and how it was largely due to the M.A.A. that the retailer was now sure of a fair profit. Something had also been done about the tyre trade, and arrangements had been come to with several big concerns which made it possible for agents to sell tyres with a reasonable profit.
The comthercial-motor section, however, was still in an unfortunate state. Mr. Beer could not think of any Words which could possibly express the catchas-catch-can methods to which the dealer in commercial motors was reduced in his attempts to earn a miserable pittance. To deal with this situation, he and three friends rather less. than three years ago had founded the Commercial Vehicle Section of the
M.A.A. Only a few days ago the section had its first annual dinner in London, at which 1,123 members were present.
Leaving aside purely local arguments, Mr. Beer said it was obvious that members of the retail motor trade in Scotland ought to stand solidly together and not have unnecessary differences between them. They ought to present a solid front.
W.D. Buys Six-wheelers for Overseas Work.
THE first large War Department contract to be placed this year with Leyland Motors, Ltd., is . for .137 machines, which, it is understood, are destined for the Egyptian Government. It is. made up of three different types of six.-wheeled vehicle, powered by four-cylindered petrol engines and incorporating rear bogies giving a high degree of articulation. Wireless-interference suppressors, as well as auxiliary gearboxes, giving a total reduction of 16 to 1, are features common to all the chassis. Some of the vehicles will he equipped for searchlight operation, others as workshop units, and a smaller number for wireless work.