Hanson applies for all-A fleet
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• Introducing his successor, Major-General Sir John Potter, the Yorkshire Licensing Authority, Mr. H. E. Robson, commenced hearing on Tuesday in Leeds a B-licence application remitted by the Transport Tribunal and a new A application both by R. Hanson and Son Ltd., Wakefield.
As in the first application last February when Hanson was granted the transfer of 75 Contract A licences to B (CM March 8 and April 5 1968), there were many objectors to the A application, including THC, BR and 27 non-Yorkshire-based private hauliers.
For Hanson, Mr. R. Yorke said the A application was being made to put all its 268 vehicles on one licence. This would amalgamate 31 A licences with 105 vehicles and 11 B licences with 139 vehicles (including the 75 granted last year) and during the hearing evidence would be given by the National Coal Board for which reason the Tribunal had remitted the case.
The normal user as sought included 51 commodities but he suggested that these should be reduced to 15. However, following objection that two items had not been published, Mr. Yorke said he would return to the more detailed conditions. Since the two items concerned represented less than 2 per cent of the business, they could still be carried, without declaration.
The application was being made to obtain greater operational flexibility, to reduce paperwork and dead mileage and gain higher productivity. Mr. Yorke invited the LA to inspect Hanson's premises "to find as a fact that no haulage firm could operate a higher standard of efficiency". Mr. Robson agreed with Mr. J. W. Bosomworth for THC that any inspection should take place after all evidence had been adduced.
Mr. A. R. Botham, Hanson's group general manager, said, although at the last inquiry it was stated that a £100,000 contract to carry coal for NCB to the North East Gas Board had been lost, it had been regained on April 1 1968, and work from NCB had increased from £769,961 in 1967 to £799,307 in 1968.
Mr. Botham said that if this licence amalgamation had not been requested he would have had to apply for 25/40 additional A-licensed vehicles to meet existing customers' demands.
He explained that the 24 vehicles delicensed during the year had been sold under an agreement with an associate company, who bought most of Hanson's old vehicles, in order to retain the goodwill, necessary for his replacement programme even though new ones had not arrived. However, by March 31 all authorized vehicles would be working.
For private objectors, Mr. J. A. Backhouse pointed out that since last October Hanson had operated only 55 of the 75 B-licensed vehicles granted nine months previously. At the moment there was only economic work for 55, agreed Mr. Botham.
If the switch had not been granted in March, Mr. Backhouse contended that Han son would have been unable to take on the new Gas Board contract since the contract vehicles had been with NCB and furthermore the Gas Board was not specified on the 75-vehicle B licence that had been granted. Mr. Botham said the NCB paid them for this haulage.
Allegations of over-loading regarding iron ore for Lancashire Steel Company, Mem, carried by Hanson on June 7-10 1968 from Birkenhead docks were referred to. Mr. Backhouse said this line of questioning was pursued to show that if Hanson did not seek work outside its own area as primary traffic, more vehicles would not be required for its regular customers.
Mr. Botham considered that the £21,000 worth of this new iron ore traffic was not regular in relation to the company's £1 +m turnover. Some six shiploads had been done in 10 months and transfer work from Shotton in the Wirral to Mem, all at irregular intervals. He maintained that this was return traffic even when vehicles stayed overnight in Lancashire to do the dock shuttle service.
Mr. Bosomworth estimated that the B-. licensed fleet would earn an additional £330,000 if the switch was granted. Mr. Botham expected a further £200,000 to come from customers, ICI Ltd., Derbyshire Stone Sales Ltd., and Fisons Ltd. Mr. Bosomworth estimated that since group earnings had dropped by £152,930 compared with 1966 and all customers' rates had been increased, the loss of traffic was greater than that figure represented. The hearing continues.