Peter Slater. Seeks Wide B Conditiom T HE normal user which
Page 90
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
was being requested for 39 B-licensed vehicles was so wide that the fleet would be able to perform similar duties to open A licences, Mr. M H. Taylor told the Yorkshire Deputy Licensing Authority, Mr. J. H. E. Randolph, at Sheffield last week.
He was representing 35 Sodth. Yorkshire hauliers who objected to an application by Peter Slater, Ltd., to Put 39 former contract vehicles on a new B licence with normal user: "coal, coke, salt, sulphur. pitch, phosphates, sand, gravel, lime, shale, sulphide of iron, chrome ore, pyrites, pig iron, fluorspar, and bricks as 'required " (The Commercial Motor, June 3). The case has arisen as a result of the abandonment of the coal allocation system in April, 1959, which had made the operation of contract A vehicles for coal factors uneconomical.
Contract Undertaking At present 12 of the vehicles in question were on contract A and 27 on short-term B licences. If the application was granted no additional vehicles would be put on the road, the Authority was told. The hearing was adjourned.
Mr. P. D. Stater, managing director of the company, submitted figures which showed the gross earnings for the year ending March 31, last, to be £593;111, of which £287,000 were for sub-contracting. Replying to Mr. Taylor, he said that they had vehicles based at Gildersome and HoyIand. The shares of the company were now owned by Cawood .Wharton and Co., Ltd., but they were completely separate entities.
Over the past year business had fluctuated wildly and he considered a B fleet to be the answer to this problem. They may obtain a certain vehicle for carrying a load of coal, and later in the year get the same price for carrying three times that amount. This was the situation with which they had to deal.
Empty. A Vehicles
When asked why the figures proved Chat the A vehicles of the fleet were not fully utilized, Mr. Stater replied that he would not support a contract to a tune of £287,000 if there were vehicles lying idle. He said that the stated user did not enable the B units to do everything they wished. By a process of rationalization he wanted" enough vehicles to cope economically' with the demands of his existing customers.
At a previous hearing, a National Coal Board official had said that the applicants had once foind, the N.C.B. 15 vehicles within miniifes' iatice. Regarding this, Mr. Slater said it was not strictly correct, but they were always prepared for an emergency and had a system whereby empty vehicles were put on the move quickly.
When asked by Mr. J. Booth, objecting for British Railways, why many units were based at Hoyland and Gildersome, Mr. Slater said he did not know what was meant by the term " base " and their fleet B56 of 64 worked from both these points. If the case was granted there would be no change in their method of operation. No figures would be submitted for the year ended March 31, 1959, for the purpose of comparison with those already put in.
Mr. A. Blackwell, a director of John Heaton, Ltd., coal factors, Manchester, said they were experiencing enormous fluctuations and the application was of vital importance to them. On Saturday, September 17, at 10 a.m. they had received a request fbr 500 tons of coal that afternoon and 700 tons the following day. It had been delivered by Slaters', and this was the type of service they required. They were not given orders unless they could guarantee delivery.
Replying to Mr. Taylor, be said that this type of request occurred once a month. Slaters' gave them a nearly perfect service as long as there were vehicles available.
At this juncture, Mr. Booth requested that Mr. Slater should be recalled. He said that the figures did not show apparent fluctuations, and he said that Slaters' had showed no loss of traffic from John Heaton.
"We looked forward to an expanding business and in April, 1959, there was a 'setback when Heatons' lost a contract for 120,000 tons of coal as.a resnit of this," replied Mr. Slater. " We lost 250 tons a week, and were not warned beforehand that this traffic would be transported by rail." British Railways charged prices which were beyond the bounds of normal competition.
By obtaining short-term B licences for the vehicles they had increased the scope of their A fleet, he continued. Customers benefited because the A vehicles were somewhat relieved. Even so, it had been impossible to cope with all the tonnage they were offered. The vehicles should be interchangeable and their activities as flexible as possible. Mr. Booth asked that operational figures should be produced regarding all the Heaton traffic from 1958 to 1960.
Mr. Slater pointed out that they had about 90 vehicles which worked for-:his company full-time. These belonged to about 20 different operators.
Supporting the application, Mr. K. Richardson, a director of the Modern Transport Co., Ltd., Leeds, said that they distributed coal to industrial consumers. They used the railways for the transportation of the majority of this. When collecting coal froin the pit-head they were told by the National Coal Board that a large percentage would have to go by rail. They had one contract vehicle with Peter Slater, but would willingly surrender this if this application were granted,
Replying to Mr. Taylor, Mr. Richardson stated that Slaters' carrie about 2,500 tons of coal a month fc them, but the figures had been fincti ating according to the requirements c their customers. Mr. Taylor said that giving up the contract unit they may b surrendering one of their best haulag facilities.
The manager of the coal clepartmer of Cawood Wharton, stated that 76.4 pe cent. of their traffic was coal and the iv sand and gravel. There were wid fluctuations in the industry and more roa haulage was needed to clear the pit-head! The railways could not deliver co direct to the customer, and inevitabl some of their traffic would have to b transferred to road. He said that on a average they hired between 50 and 6 vehicles a day.
JUDGE CRITICIZES B.T.C. COUR' • ACTION
THE British Transport Commissios. action in fighting a claim for damage made by a woman who was knocke down by a British Railways lorry on zebra crossing was described as a wast of public money by a judge at Mancheste last week.
"It shows how public money is waste in litigation that should never have bee carried on," said Judge Raleigh Batt s Manchester County Court. He awarde £75 damages and costs. to Catherin O'Brien, who had sued through he husband, John O'Brien, of Hazelwoo Road, Cheetharn, Manchester.
For Mrs: O'Brien, Mr. T. P. Busse said, she was walking over .a zelar crossing when she was knocked downb a railway lorry. Her injurieS Were COST paratively trivial. Evidence was give that Mrs. O'Brien was well over th crossing when the railway Vehicle trie to slow down, but hit her. She caugl hold of it and then the vehicle wa bumped by a lorry from behind an knocked her dnwn.
NOT ENOUGH SPRAY PROTECTION
LETTERS written to the company an 1._! ignored by thern were mentioned a Bedford Borough. Magistrates court la5. week when C. Phype.rs and Sons, .Ltd Union Street; Bedford, were fined a tots of £20 on two charges relating to the us of workshops for the Spraying of mom Vehicles.
Four letters were stated to have bee written about the use of plain +-in.-thic glass in an internal dividing wall, suc. glass not being an approved fire-resistin material. Two letters were said to hay been written about the way in .whic 1-gal. and 4-gal. cans of inflarninabl paint were scattered around on benche in the workshop, instead of bein properly stored in a metal cabinet.