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• The Minister for Transport Industries, Mr John Peyton, has turned down a suggestion by Mr Leslie Huckfield, Labour MP for Nuneaton, for a reduction in the numbers of applicants for operators' licences for heavy goods vehicles who are successful, so that operating standards may be improved.
The Minister in a written Commons answer on Tuesday said he was always in favour of improving standards but the grant of the licences was a matter for Licensing Authorities.
"It is far too easy to put a lorry on the road," Mr Huckfield told CM. "There are too many cowboys in the industry and the pirate element is far too large," he said.
"Now we have this system of operators' licensing we no longer have the discipline of the old carriers licensing system," Mr Huckfield said.
Mr Huckfield said he was not entirely in agreement with Labour Party policy on controlling the road haulage industry. "What we have to do is to stop people getting in in the first place."