OPINIONS and QUERIES Maladministration of the Road Traffic Act.
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The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[3571] Sir,—We have been running coach services to south-coast towns for a number of years between the months of April and September.
On March 2nd this year we submitted schedules to the various Traffic Commissioners whose areas we traverse.
We had our hearing before the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners on May 16th. A licence was granted to us with certain conditions, one of which was that we could not make period-return bookings. As thig class of business is of great importance to us we immediately lodged an appeal against the decision. We heard nothing more with regard to the matter until October 22nd, when we were notified that our appeal would be heard on November 3rd, and a document headed "Observations of the Commissioners for the South Eastern Area," dated June 12th, 1931, accompanied this notification. These " observations " contained such gross mis-statements and inaccuracies that we immediately wrote to the Minister of Transport withdrawing our appeal.
We think that coach operators throughout the country will be interested in the recital of our case, showing the unjust treatment we have received.
At our hearing at Lewes we were asked by the Commissioners to produce evidence justifying our applieadon to be allowed to issue period-return tickets on our tours and excursions. We submitted our charts for the month of August, 1930 (the month selected by the Chairman for the Commissioners) at about 1 p.m. on a certain day and received them back by first post the following morning. These charts showed that 55 per cent. of our bookings for August were period-returns. In the " observations " the Commissioners stated that "it was impossible for anybody to -obtain accurate information as to the percentage of period-return tickets which the applicant issued last year," and continued, "but even if we had had that information. before us at a public sitting, or at any time, it would not have altered our decision." In view of this most extraordinary statement, coming from those placed in such important judicial capacities, we came to the conclusion that we stood a very poor chance of obtaining justice.
As an example of the Commissioners' gross misstatements, we again quote from the observations :— " No operator guarantees that he will run any particular excursion at any special time or on any special day —at least not until he has seen how the seat reservations are being made." This is not true and is a libel on coach operators. No reputable operator would seek to evade his obligations made when booking. If he failed to carry out his contract he would soon be out of business.
With regard to further inaccuracies in the observations of the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners, the e44
statement is made that we intended to run only at week-ends. It was made perfectly clear on our schedule and in our evidence at the hearing at Lewes that the week-end excursions applied to Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Margate, Folkestone, Southsea, Southampton and Bournemouth, the " approved " schedule received from the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners shows that we are running daily between April 1st and October 31st to Brighton, Worthing, Littlehampton, Bognor Regis, Eastbourne and Hastings, yet the statement is made that we intend running only at week-ends.
The Commissioners also stated, "That there are ample facilities provided by the railway companies to all the places to which the applicant desired to run and that in each instance the railway companies issued week-end tickets." Two of the objectors (Maidstone and District and Southdown Motors) admitted in their evidence at the hearing that they did not run through Croydon, and Mr. Sturgess (representing the Southern Railway) stated that passengers for Tunbridge Wells would have to go to London first. This was not given on our schedule as a day or week-end excursion ; but was given as an afternoon excursion.
The foregoing proves the hopeless confusion in the minds of the South Eastern Traffic Commissioners, and, in the light of the facts set out by us we feel convinced that all fair-minded people will 'consider that we were perfectly justified in withdrawing our appeal.
The extraordinary feature about the administration of the Road Traffic Act is the lack of co-ordination between the Commissioners for the different areas. Commissioners in one area will grant period returns (the Metropolitan Commissioners have granted our application, including period returns), whilst in another area the permission is refused. Consequently operators are in a dilemma. Small operators (many of them, like ourselves, pioneers in the coaching business) who have put their all into the business and have been running excursions for years with period-return bookings, are, under the operation of the Road Traffic Act, faced with ruin. A law which allows this to be brought about is unjust, and it is to be hoped that, next year, when applications are renewed there will he complete co-ordination amongst the various Traffic Commissioners, and a just and uniform treatment meted out to all. G. TAYLOR AND SON. Croydon.
The First Transport Association.
-The Editor, THE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[3572] Sir,---I cannot agree that the Tramways and Light Railways Association was the first transport association. You give in last week's issue (page 445) 1897 as the date of its original formation.
The Self-propelled Traffic Association, of which the late Sir David L. Salomons, Bt., was chairman, was formed in December, 1895. I became hon. sec. of the Liverpool Branch in February, 1896, and this section
was formally constituted, with the late Loid Derby as president, in August, 1896. It held sessions of papers, at the Liverpool Royal Institution, during the winter sessions of 18964897 and 1897-1898, culminating in the First Competitive British Heavy Motor Trials, in May, 1898, at which public contest Leylands and Thornycrofts won cash prizes.
I have no doubt that, whilst the Self-propelled Traffic Association, which later amalgamated with the Royal Automobile Club, and remains part of its constitution, was the first road-transport association in this country, our railway friends had an older organization in respect of their form of land transport. The Liverpool branch continues to-day as the Liverpool area organization of the Commercial Motor Users Asso
ciation. E. S. SHRAPNELL-SIIITE, Hound House, Shere.
Some Trenchant Suggestions, The Editor, TILE COMMERCIAL MOTOR.
[3573] Sir,—I would like, through your valuable columns, to voice my opinion regarding things in general Now that we have a National Government in power, and one pledged to economy, I beg to offer a few suggestions, based on my experience as a road-transport operator.
First I suggest the repeal of the Road Traffic Act, 1930, instituted %by the Socialist Government, as I consider it is the most iniquitous and repressive piece of legislation ever passed against the Jaws of progress and road-transport operators, it never was designed to help the road-transport men, but it is definitely antagonistic to them.
Secondly, I suggest that the Area Traffic Commissioners, with all their encumbrances, should be swept away, as were the Socialist Ministers who made this Act, we could save something there and be no worse off.
Let us get down to brass tacks ; we carried on all the years before the Road Traffic Act, and trade was better then that it is now. I suggest that under this Act the road-transport operator is being hounded off the road by the police, who seem to make a speciality of the commercial vehicle.
I speak feelingly as one who has been fighting to earn a living in the road-haulage business these past few years, and has been associated with it since its inception. I suggest that half the police who are hanging around street corners and cross-roads waiting for cases should be given something more productive to do, also the mobile police could be disbanded ; they are an expensive luxury.
I suggest that the various transport associations should press for a 50 per cent, reduction in the petrol tax, and 50 per cent. off the road tax, also I think the steam wagon should be given favourable consideration, as it uses 100 per cent, home-produced fuel.
Transportation is one of the main essentials of life and any Act made to suppress it is bound to react unfavourably against us in the fight to maintain our status and existence as a nation.
I appeal to the new Government to give road transport a fair chance, and it will do its share to regain
our prestige. A NORTEERN OPERA.TOR. Leeds.