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LAMS Report Continuing Low Standards of Maintenance
Page 71
Page 72
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CONTINUING low, standards of vehicle maintenance, aggravated in most areas by an inadequacy of examiners and enforcement staff, form the basis of reports made by the Licensing Authorities to the Minister of Transport. Obtainable from H.M. Stationery Office, price 5s. 6d., "Annual Reports of Licensing Authorities 1962-63" has been published earlier than usual this year. Because of this, figures for C-licensed vehicles are not included. These will be published shortly in a Ministry publication, "Highway Statistics".
While each Licensing Authority has specially mentioned his own particular "hobby horse" (secret shares transfers; non-attendance at inquiries; buying and selling of licences, and so on), a perusal of the reports shows that applications for A, B and, in some cases, Contract A licences are up, whilst generally there was a decrease in C-licence applications. More C-licensed operators, however, took advantage of the benefits of interavailability provided for by Section 180 of the 1960 Act.
Except in • the Northern area, apparently, the adverse weather condi tions necessitated the granting of many short-term licences to meet the coal crisis, and whilst there was a general decrease in enforcement convictions, Authorities have explained that this mainly was :aused by a relaxation of the enforce ment level because of inclement weather.
In the Northern area, applications for A licences fell, mainly because a smaller lumber became due for renewal. In !act, only three applications were made or new A licences, all of which were refused.
The L.A. (Mr. J. A. T. Hanlon) ;tressed again, as he did last year, the fact hat cases had come to light of sales of laulage businesses and licences by "the nere transfer" of shares—against the leclared intention of Section 179(a) of he 1960 Act.
Mr. Hanlon specially mentioned the ncrease of articulated vehicles exceeding 35 ft. overall length, many of •which were 'ound to be unauthorized; the practice ff adding extra axles to vehicles, and the 'act that unless a haulier can produce a :ertificate from the technical staff of the nakers, applications to authorize conrerted vehicles are refused.
There was an increase of 16 per cent n convictions obtained in respect of lours offences, and out of 5,688 vehicles .xamined, 2,625 were the subject of protibition notices, 487 of which were mmediate.
Major F. S. Eastwood, the Yorkshire -A., criticized applicants who had not .ttended court or notified his office that hey were unable to do so. Fifty-four put of 55 B-licence applications had been efused for this reason. There was an acrease of notifiable applications, specially in connection with B licences, put there was reduced activity in the ..-licence field.
Convictions totalled 3,130 in respect of ,057 enforcement offences reported, a reduction on last year — mainly because of adverse weather when "full enforcement" had not been possible. Of the total vehicles examined, 34 per cent were subject to prohibitions, 7.7 per cent being immediate.
The North Western L.A., Maj. Gen. A. F. J. Elmslie, also mentioned the " time and money which continue to be wasted" because of last-minute requests for adjournments and failure to pursue applications. There were 163 new A-licence applications, 15 of which were refused. A hundred of the 659 B applications received were refused and 147 withdrawn. There was little change in the number of requests for Contract A switches but a decrease in C-licence applications.
Systematic silent checks had resulted in a considerable number of offences for hours and records breaches being revealed. Altogether 1,562 vehicles were inspected, 55 per cent of which were subject to prohibition. The continued high percentage of defective vehicles indicated that there had been no noticeable improvement in maintenance standards, the L.A. commented.
There were 515 new A-licence applications in the West Midland area last year. Applications for Contract A licences had shown an increase.
Of a total of 11,341 maintenance inspections carried out. 810 immediate and 2,755 delayed prohibitions were issued. The L.A., Mr. John Else, remarked that. leaving aside prohibitions relating to diesel exhaust smoke, the remaining 3,120 prohibitions were disturbing, in view of higher traffic density and increased vehicle speeds. Hours and records offences showed no signs of decreasing.
Mr. C. R. Hodgson, the East Midland L.A., referring to operations by "certain irresponsible operators ", said that whilst the overall picture had improved, the activities of a few others left much to be desired and spot checks and investigations of certain traffics which attracted such operators still formed a vital part of enforcement activity. Whilst it was interesting to note that the percentage of vehicles issued with prohibitions had fallen to 248 per cent of those inspected, the fact that one in four vehicles were still found to be sufficiently defective to attract prohibition left no room for complacency and reflected the poor standard of preventive maintenance. The Eastern L.A., Mr. ' W. P. S. Ormond, drew attention to overloading.
During a special check on the Al, when 74 vehicles were stopped and weighed, 69 per cent were found to be loaded beyond the recommended limit, 19 per cent beyond the legal limit and 45 per cent beyond the legal limit on one axle.
In the area, 5,508 vehicles were inspected. and 620 immediate and 1,601 delayed prohibitions were issued. Fifty per cent of all vehicles tested had inefficient brakes.
Enforcement prosecutions in the South Wales area were 1,295 last year compared with 809 the year before. Mr.
Ronald Jackson, the L.A.. reported that there had been an increase in the use of unauthorized vehicles and those operat ing outside licence conditions. Some 49 per cent of the 4,350 vehicles examined were issued wills prohibitions, 143 per cent with immediate bans. "These figures show that the number of vehicles found defective is increasing, and this, with the increased number of defects per vehicle, indicates a general lowering of maintenance standards ", Mr. Jackson reported.
A considerable part of the Western L.A.'s (Mr. S. W. Nelson) report—his last, as he retires in May—was devoted to the question of smoke emission. During five special checks, 1,181 prohi bitions had been issued. "It is found that rather more than 6 per cent of all oil-engined vehicles are persistent offenders ", he said. Even new vehicles, being delivered on trade plates, had been seen to emit excessive smoke. And when, as often happened, new vehicles had to be prohibited, the owners felt, with some justification, that the solution was partly in the hands of vehicle and engine manufacturers. Mr. Nelson continued: "While engines may generally be powered adequately for the advertised maximum loads, manufacturers must know that purchasers of their vehicles expect them to be capable of carrying greater loads.
Mr. H. J. Thom, the South Eastern L.A., critically underlined enforcement staff shortages by saying: "1 cannot effectively fulfil My responsibility to protect the public, and operators and drivers who comply with the law, against the ever-increasing number of unscrupulous operators and drivers who flaunt it, unless I am given a full staff to enforce it ".
Mr. Thom reported that 4,214 enforcement prosecutions had succeeded, which proved the need for an even tighter enforcement programme. During the year 657 vehicles were inspected, which resulted in 38 immediate and 313 delayed prohibition notices being issued. The general run of examinations revealed that
33 per cent of vehicles were defective to the point of prohibition. Road cheeks showed that 56.41 per cent of vehicles examined were found to be defective to the point where prohibition action had to be taken. "In view of the higher legal speed which obtained for goods vehicles, the seriousness of these figures cannot be overestimated ", Mr. Thom added.
The Metropolitan L.A., Mr. D. I. R. Muir, said that he hoped to extend the routine inspection system, at present restricted to A licensees applying for continuation of their licences, and to make the fullest use of the licensing system to assist in effecting improved standards of maintenance, which was clearly necessary in many cases.He was disturbed to note that a number of operators had unsatisfactory or totally inadequate systems for regular inspection and proper mainten
ance. Some 27 per cent of vehicles examined during the year /warranted prohibition. In road checks, 2,625 vehicles were examined, of which 169 were issued with immediate, and 1,145 with delayed, prohibition notices.
Special observations on C-licensed vehicles were made in the Scottish area to see whether advantage was being taken of the provisions of section 21 of the 1962 Act which relaxed the duty of certain C licensees to keep current records. More than 400 of these vehicles
were stopped and it was found that some drivers were still keeping records although not required to do so.
Mr. W. F. Quin, the L.A.. said that there had been no marked improvement in smoke emission, whilst maintenance standards had remained unchanged and the problem remained. He deplored the increase of extra-axle conversions, which had shown a decrease probably because of them voiding the makers' guarantees. Such adaptations, he said, decreased the power/weight ratio, reduced the braking factor and tempted operators to obtain more power from existing units, thereby giving rise to excessive exhaust smoking.