"B.R.S. Made Licence Ineffectual"
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VALUABLE conditions on the applicant's B licence had become ineffectual, because of the attitude of British Road Services, the North Western Deputy Licensing Authority, Mr. J. R. Lindsay, was told at Manchester last week.
The farcical position had arisen of one of the parties before a Licensing Authority being able to make a grant ineffective. The objectors were responsible for the applicant's loss of work, and the Authority was entitled to have regard to it, This proposition was advanced in support of an application by Mr. W. Kirk, Bollington, near Macclesfield, to transfer two vehicles from a B to an A licence.
Mr. J. A. Dunkerley, for the applicant, said he had six vehicles, two on special A licence, two on C-hire to Henry and Leigh Slater, Ltd., and the two concerned in the application. The main reason for the application was the loss of business from a substantial B-licence customer, who had purchased his own vehicle.
In addition. nationalization had killed two more of the B-licence conditions. Inone case B.R.S. negatived a grant covering any distance by restricting it to 35 miles and it was never used. Customers had gone elsewhere. The B-licensed vehicles were no longer fully occupied.
Macclesfield Transport. Ltd., a group comprising the majority of the hauliers in Macclesfield, and of which Mr. Kirk was a founder-member, were willing to give him work. In 1956, £60,000 was paid to members of the group for the hire of their transport, but the company were unable to place 3,200 tons of traffic to the value of £5,330. Mr. Kirk was unable to help because of the restrictive B-licence conditions.
Slater's traffic was now the main work of these vehicles, added Mr. Dunkerley. A large amount of this concern's distributive work was at present done by British Railways, but if the application was not granted Mr. Kirk would be forced to ask for some of it.
Mr. A. J. F. Wrottesley, for the British Transport Commission, who objected, submitted there was no case to answer. Macclesfield Transport were the only witnesses.
Mr. Lindsay said he could not see how traffic refusals constituted evidence
of need. He could not understand the applicant's apparently tender feelings for British Railways with respect to
Slater's distribution traffic. It was a competitive world and there was no reason why Mr. Kirk should not take what he could get. No case had been made out for an A licence. The application was refused.
New Coupling on Douglas Tractor
iNCORPORATING a new type of I coupling, a Douglas Tugmaster tractor has been shipped to Compania Shell de Venezuela for oilfield use. The fifth-wheel coupling is mounted on .lifting beams hinged to the chassis. The beams may be raised and lowered by hydraulic rams driven off the tractor engine. Each ram has a capacity of 15 tons.
Both the operating leverfor the coupling pin and the controls for the rams can be operated from inside the cab so that the driver need not dismount. Designed by the Douglas Equipment Co., Ltd., Cheltenham, in collaboration with Shell engineers, the tractor will be used for yard shunting, hauling loads of up to 60 tons at speeds of up to 15 m.p.h.. to free normal tractors for road work.
To provide maximum stability, the rear axle is fixed rigidly to the chassis. Absence of springs is not critical foi the work which the tractor will do.
CONTENDER LEAVES FOR CONTINENT
1--,N Tuesday a Harrington Contender
coach, which has been supplied to • Motorways (Overseas), Ltd., left Victoria Coach Station, London, for a tour of seven European countries.
The vehicle (a road-test report of which appeared in The Commercial Motor on December 7, 1956) incorporates a Rolls-Royce 880 engine with automatic gearbox and has luxury seat
ing for 26 passengers. The body is 30 ft. long and 8 ft. wide and has Clayton Dewandre heating and demisting equipment, Radiomobilc publicaddress apparatus and Weathershields amber Perspex roof ventilators.
A DAY LATER
BECAT_JSE of the Easter holiday, the next issue of The Comrnerckd Motor will be published on Saturday instead of Friday.
Five Hearings, But Still No Witness
MON-ATTENDANCE of the main customers' witness after suggestions that British Road Services and British Railways damaged their goods, was deprecated by Mr. J. R. Lindsay, North Western Deputy Licensing Authority, at Liverpool, on Tuesday. After an adjournment for the production of proof of the allegation; the witness had twice failed to attend., Mr. Lindsay was continuing the hearing of an application by Johnson Wild and Co., Ltd., Newton-le-Willows, to transfer three vehicles, including two articulated outfits, from B to A licence (The Commercial Motor, November 30 and February 1). •
Inquiries had been held on five occasions, added Mr. Lindsay. In view of the lack' of interest now shown by .Stoves, Ltd., the customers on whose needs the application was based, it would be refused.
Mr; E. A. Whitehead, for the applicants, said they had requested the customers' attendance, but had been unable -to get any reply. Allegations against the British Transport Commission must now be disregarded.
MR. CROVVTHER ATTACKS HIGH FUEL COST , IN recent years fuel tax had become a I lower percentage of total fuel price because the oil companies had increased their basic prices so rapidly, said Mr. R. G. Crowther, national chairman of the Road Haulage Association, at the annual luncheon of the East Midland Area at Nottingham on Wednesday.
If fuel tax and prices chased each other, the ultimate cost would become entirely uneconomic to the user. Mr. Crowther hoped that not only the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but also the oil companies, would have regard to the ultimate retail price of fuel by co-operating and reducing their respective shares of the high cost.
MERCEDES' U.S. LINK
AN agreement has been reached between the Daimler-Benz concern, of Stuttgart, and the Curtiss-Wright Corporation and the -StudebakerPackard Corporation, of America, whereby Daimler-Benz will have the Studebaker-Packard sales and service organization in America at their disposal for Mercedes-Benz products, including commercial vehicles. There will also be technical co-operation.
NEW L.T.E. PAY AWARD
TOcost £230,000 a year, a 5-per-cent. pay increase, back-dated to early January, has been awarded to 10,500 engineering workers of the London Transport Executive, of whom 6,500 are employed in road services workshops. Skilled workers get an extra 9s. 2d. -a week, semi-skilled Rs. 3d., and unskilled 7s. 4d.
A Licence Gained by Take-over
nESPITE allegations of illegal opera
tion under B licence and of canvassing the objectors' customers, an application by a Liverpool fish and fruit wholesaler to enter the A-licence field by a take-over was granted by the North-Western Deputy licensing Authority, Mr. J. R. Lindsajr, at Liverpool, on Tuesday.
Harley and Miller, Ltd., applied to take foyer the Alicence for a '2+:ton vehicle purchaied from Mr. T. J. Herd. T. Comerford, Ltd., G. McConomy, Ltd., J. Fielding (Liverpool), Ltd., and Mr. T. Byrne, Junr., objected.
Mr. J. Miller, the applicants' managing director, said Mr. Herd Was retiring because of ill health. He denied canvassing and said his company had been approached by many. other wholesalers in the market since they made their application for an A licence.
Mr. S. Curtis, chairman of Liverpool Wholesale Fish Merchants' Association. said that T. Comerford, Ltd., did most of the fish delivery from railway stations in the 'city to the markets During the past eight years the ser‘tice had been unsatisfactory and the company had repeatedly been asked to improve it. They were losing trade because of late deliveries.
Mrs. M. E. Foley, managing director of Comerford and McConomy, said the two companies had 12 vehicles engaged in fish delivery. Difficulties arose because of market congestion caused by trunk vehicles. She had received . no complaints frorri the Association that individual wholesalers blamed their hauliers when they could not sell fish. Customers had informed her that the applicants had been carrying from Liverpool Station contrary to the terms of their B licence.
Referring to the allegations of illegality, Mr. Lindsay said Harley and Miller were.clearly not entitled to carry fish from the station to the market, as it was admitted they had done for the past 12 months. It was difficult to understand ho* ,they could have misinterpreted the terms of their B licence. This work must cease immediately or the consequences would he serious. However, he saw no reason refusing the take-over application.
MEET IN LONDON THE management committee of the
International Union of Public Transport met in London last week as the guests of the London Transport Executive. They were shown over the L.T.E. bus overhaul works at Aldenham.
NEW R.H,A. OFFICERS MEWLY elected officers of the Road Haulage Association are:— Southern Area: Mr. L. R. Robson. chairman: Mr. J. Rawlings. vice-chairman.
Northern Area Meat Functional Group: Mr. H. Rowland, chairman; Mr. C. W. Lowe. vice chairman.
Tyneside ...Sob-area: Mr, F. H. Patterson, chair
man; Mr. B.' Mau. Mr. Q.—A.'13ambronah. vice-chairmen: Mr. W. A. Whitehead, honorary
Robson Licence Renewed
AFTER winning anappeal (The Commercial Motor, February 22) against the Northern Licensing Authority's deletion of a vehicle from their B licence, Joseph Robson (West Farm), Ltd., Newburn, Newcastle upon Tyne, were last Friday granted a B licence for two vehicles in continuance of an existing B licence which expired on November 30 last.
A vehicle had been removed from the licence on the ground that a statement of intent made when it was originally granted had not been fulfilled. In allowing the appeal, Mr. Hubert Hull, president of the Transport Tribunal, said that they thought the Licensing Authority would have been wiser to have delayed reaching a decision on either the legal or practical ,effect of what he took to be departures from the truth, until he came to consider the renewal of the licence.
Mr. C. Gradon, company secretary, said that although the base was now at Newburn, the vehicles were working daily in the Wallsend area and had done so since the company's Walls'end premises were closed. , One of the drivers lived in Wallsend and his vehicle stayed there.
CASE ADJOURNED FOR TRAFFIC TALKS .QO that a representative of British 1--,7 Road Services and Mr. I. R. Dunkerley, Chipping Sodbury, could agree with Golden Valley Colours, Ltd., Wick, upon the sharing of the company's traffic, the Western Licensing Authority on Tuesday adjourned. until May13 Mr.. Dunkeiley's application for it B licence for four vehicles.
He had been granted a short-term B licence during, fuel _rationing So that she vehicles could be -loaded in -both directions. He had 'been a haulier for
-10 years. .
Th applicant wished to carry bricks and tiles for the Redland Tile Co., Ltd., and red -oxide to London for Golden Valley Colours, Ltd., and Winford Red, -Ltd.
Mr. A. Webb, for B.R.S. and the rail.ways, said that the red-oxide traffic of B.R.S. was declining. The Authority observed: "We do not know the answer to this because there is not a witness from Golden Valley Colours, Ltd. It may well be it was caused through the crlling of vehicles to the applicant."
H.R. OBJECT TO SMALL VAN WHEN Mr. A. E. Reeves, Dndbridge, VY Gloucestershire, applied to the We stern Licensing Authority on Tuesday, for a B licence for a light van to carry general goods within 15 miles, British Railways . objected.the applicant, a windowcleaner, said . that he wished to use his vehicle to .serve small traders.
He was granted a B licence for the retail delivery, of furniture and household effects within 10 miles.