OPERATING TROUBLES
Page 53
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Under the Road Traffic Act
By D. E. SKELDING, Birmingham Manager, the Midlands Area Omnibus and Coach Owners Association Legal Difficulties that are Making the Operation of Coaches and Buses far More Troublesome than is Necessary
DURING the course of my work as manager of the West Midland office of the Midlands Area Omnibus and Coach Owners Association, I am constantly in touch with 200 or more passengervehicle operators, and I am thus afforded a clear insight into their grievances with regard to the maladministration of the Road Traffic Act.
As everyone should be aware, every application for a road-service licence for a service that terminates outside the area covered by the primary licence has to be backed.
Now, quite a score or more of our members operate once a year a tour between Birmingham and London for the purpose of conveying passengers to the Cup final. These passengers are picked up only at the applicants' garages and are conveyed to a destination in another area.
For this purpose an operator is compelled to obtain not only a primary licence, but backing licences to pass over roads in the East Midland, Eastern and Metropolitan areas, the total cost of backing licences being 30s.
Expense of Obtaining Licences.
Personal appearance at the Metropolitan Commissioner's court costs another 30s., and small expenses necessary to obtain backings in the two other areas may be put down at 10s., making a total of £3 10s.
Most of the vehicles employed on this particular tour are usually 20seaters and the fare is 12s. Gd. per head. After paying out £3 10s. of the amount gathered in, there is not much profit for the operator. It may be mentioned that 75 per cent. of the operators running coaches from the West Midland area to the Metropolitan area operate only on Cup-final day.
The lack of uniformity amongst Traffic Commissioners was recently forcibly brought home to me after making applications at the Western Court on behalf of four members. Early in the season we, along with thousands more, made applications for "period excursions" on the same schedule accompanying the P.S.V.9 form, in company with the ordinary day excursions. We were advised by the Traffic Commissioner for the West Midland area to alter the mode of application in respect of the "period excursions" and to submit them as " express carriages." This we did and obtained the primary licences.
The twd specific instances that I should like to relate were those of operating express carriages from Northfield to Weston-super-Mare and Smethwick to Weston-superMare. We were to run only on August Bank Holiday Saturday and Sunday, and return the following Saturday and Sunday. Objections to these were, in the first instance, made by the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co., Ltd., Black and White Motor Services, Ltd., Greyhound Motors, Ltd., and the railways.
Objections Withdrawn.
On learning that these "expresses" 'were only period returns and were to operate only as stated in the application, the Birmingham and Midland, and Black and White concerns withdrew their objections. The objection, even though sustained by Greyhound Motors, was not at all serious. The advocate for the railways spoke about two dozen words and that ended the objectors' case.
The Traffic Commissioners for the Western area refused these applications quite definitely only on principle, it being that they were not legitimate express services and they could not be accepted as period returns.
After having these granted by one Traffic Commissioner and identical applications refused by another, we are frankly amazed as to the best procedure to adopt. We know we have the usual avenue of appeal, but this, in its present state, we regard as futile.
• Another point that is well to the front of my mind concerns the refusals of licences for excursions that operate completely, or partly, over existing stage-carriage routes. This is a problem of which, at present, we see no solution.
One of the largest road companies, operating in this particular area, has scores of stage-carriage services, which cover practically every place mentionable. A man applying for permission to run a tour to a popular resort is not allowed, even though starting from his own garage and picking up his own particular patrons, to use the same route as the stage carriages, but must make a detour, amounting in some instances to five or six miles.
Peculiar Objections Upheld.
In some cases the stage carriages operate even half a mile distant from the applicant's garage, yet the large bus company concerned still objects, and these objections, although the applicant may be represented by a competent solicitor or barrister, are invariably sustained.
As everyone is well aware, the railways are making great play in objecting to practically every application before the courts. Their objections are worded "that the application, if granted, will introduce unfair competition." In operating our services we have no protection against the railways.
An operator running buses from Redditch to the Austin motor works, Longbridge, applied for permission to work a stage-carriage service at a fare of 5s. to Gs. per week. This licence was granted, with the condition that the fares were as stated on the application. Since then the railway has seen fit to introduce a special train operating from Redditch to the Austin works, with a weekly return fare of 4s.
We have determined to make representations on all these matters to the various members of Parliament and to ask that the points shall be brought to the notice of the Minister of Transport and an attempt in,ade to preserve the legitimate business of small operators.
The members of The Midlands Area Omnibus and Coach Owners Association and myself appreciate the admirable way in which The Commercial Motor is trying to help the small man.