PART GRANT TO MARKET FIRM
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THREE A-licensed vehicles out of five applied for were granted last week by the South Eastern Licensing Authority to Mainland Market Deliveries. Ltd., a company which distributes Jersey Growers' Co-operative produce to English markets. Objectors were British Road Services, British Railways and four independent hauliers.
Submitting the application for Mainland Market, Mr. T. D. Corpe said that in January, 1963, the company acquired an existing business with two A-licensed vehicles. These had been working intensively, but to meet customer requirements, Mainland had been obliged to hire very substantially, the hiring figures for 1962-3 being about £58,000.
Although every effort had been made to secure vehicles from local hauliers, said Mr. Corpe, it was often necessary to rely on foreign-based vehicles looking for return loads. The purpose of the application was to reduce this foreignbased hiring by about half.
Announcing his decision, Mr. H. J. Thom said he was satisfied that foreign
based vehicles were not anything like as suitable as local transport. This had been borne out by a B.R.S. witness who admitted that he himself did not use such vehicles for this type of traffic. As for the figures of availability of vehicles produced by the objectors, these were extremely small, said Mr. Thom.
This was a seasonal business, continued the Authority, and the monthly figures showed that half or more of the earnings were to be found in one or two months. He thought there was a good deal of substance in the objector's argument that if a large number of vehicles were granted they would be used for reducing foreignbased hiring only in the peak months; at other times they would be available to abstract traffic from the objectors.
Mr. Thom suggested that, in these peak months, the company should resort to applying for short-term licences. He did, however, feel that some relief was justified, and was prepared to grant three vehicles, the normal user being: mainly vegetables for two growers' co-operatives in Jersey.