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Janus comments
Page 92
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Clearing the decks
NOT a single protest was raised against the quite arbitrary decision to give the holders of A and B licences first place in the queue for operators' licences. Grants will be made by March 1 1970, Holders of C licences will not make the change until either June 1, September 1 or December 1, 1970, Any trader who may be impatietit to enter the field of hire or reward must wait at least three months during which already established hauliers will be able to take the maximum advantage of the opportunity to carry without the handicap of limited conditions or a declaration of normal user. Hauliers will aim to consolidate and strengthen their businesses and there may not be much traffic left for the trader by the time he has the legal right to carry it.
One obstacle One obstacle mars the prospect of a road haulage bonanza. For an indefinite period the operators of large goods vehicles over 16 tons gross plated weight (or 5 tons unladen if not plated) will continue to be bound by the restrictions of their A, B and C licences. This state of affairs will remain until quantity licensing is introduced. Operators will then need to obtain special authorization only for journeys beyond 100 miles or the carriage of certain bulk traffic.
Realization that the old licensing system still has power has come as a shock to many operators. The point was largely overlooked when the Transport Bill was before Parliament. Its growing importance became clear with signs that the interval between quality and quantity licensing might be considerable.
Hauliers will feel the consequences more keenly than traders on own-account. In general heavier vehicles make up a greater proportion of a road haulage fleet. The operator will be able to use lorries plated up to 16 tons for purposes denied to his large goods vehicles. He may find to his chagrin that the surplus traffic he is not allowed to carry is snapped up after a few months by a trader who has more vehicles of the appropriate size.
It does not follow that the haulier must accept the anomaly as inevitable, as yet another of the ills which fortune heaps upon his head. There is no easy way out of the difficulty but an analysis of the facts and of the .issues involved may point to a partial solution.
All the signs are that the restriction is an unwanted by-product of quantity licensing (unwanted by the Government that is —whether anybody wants quantity licensing itself is a different story). The long-distance and bulk traffic which is to be preserved for the railways must be kept inviolate in the first flush of freedom conferred by operators' licensing.
Carriage of the special traffic by road must continue to be restricted to those operators who already have the entitlement. As the exact specification of the traffic still awaits regulations the sensible procedure might seem to be to keep to the terms of his present licence for the time being any operator whose vehicles could conceivably be affected by quantity licensing. Operators' licensing, however, is supposed to set the lorries free. Only the claims Of the railways are to put a limit to competition among operators tied only to the necessity to observe high standards. It ought to be embarrassing to the Minister of Transport and to the Government that in what may prove to be a vital period the new freedom is being distributed unevenly and in such a way as to encourage the inefficiency resulting from the use of unsuitable vehicles.
The Ministry of Transport should welcome any steps taken to lessen the effect The railways should be prepared to co-operate. They have often been blamed for quantity licensing and would like to keep the criticism within as restricted a field as possible. If long-distance and bulk traffic is what they want they should have no objection to road operators carrying as much of the rest of the traffic as is offered.
The situation ought to be particularly favourable for the haulier to apply for the variation of his A or B licence to include all the types of traffic that he wishes to carry so long as he takes care not to ask for traffic which is likely to be covered by quantity licensing. Logically, the railways should not object and the Licensing Authority ought to take the most benevolent attitude he can to a request that is merely anticipating the operator's future freedom.
TH C's approach
Other operators including the Transport Holding Company may not feel so well disposed. Their approach to the application will still be to ask whether the grant would damage their interests and be in excess of requirements.
If this difficulty is to be avoided hauliers will have to co-operate with each other. Possible present loss must be matched against future advantage. The Ministry has created a favourable situation for them in that they will be the first to enjoy their operators' licences.
As an industry their aim should be, while they still have the exclusive right to carry for hire or reward, to build up an efficient and universal service of such a high standard that the traders on own-account when their turn comes will see no opportunity or need to enter the professional field. The aim can best be achieved when individual hauliers have the greatest freedom and scope.
Co -operation
Machinery for co-operation is already to hand in the road-rail negotiating committees on which the railways and the THC are represented as well as hauliers. The work of the committees in the past has not been entirely negative. They have often helped an operator to modify his application so that it satisfies the objectors while still giving him all or most of what he wants.
In the remaining span of life left to them the committees might move even further towards the positive. Operators could be encouraged to ask for conditions which enable them to make the maximum use of their large goods vehicles. Objections from other operators might be forestalled if they were given the same opportunity.
Unfortunately the committees do not have power to grant licences or variations. An application which they may look at with favour must still come before the Licensing Authority. He must still consider it in the terms of the moribund system of carriers' licensing. The absence of objections may influence him but he will look for some evidence of need.
As the first phase of operators' licensing begins to take effect this need should arise naturally for an operator who finds more scope for his smaller vehicles and cannot reap the benefit by using his larger vehicles. Provided there are no objections he should find the material for an adequate case. He also knows that there would be no appeal against a successful grant.
Will other hauliers object? Although in theory the right is highly valued a surprisingly small proportion of operators over the past 30 years has bothered to object and many of them have done so only as the result of an energetic canvass. The railways have been the main objectors, aided by the THC and its predecessors. A small band of hauliers in each area has also kept watch on Applications and Decisions and organized action when it was required.
If concerted action can help to overcome the problem of the lingering licence this will not involve a total mobilization. Thousands of hauliers who do not operate large goods vehicles will not be affected. Of the remainder only a select band will take an active interest. It should not be impossible for them to reach agreement among themselves on what should be done.
Many objections may be found to the proposal outlined here. It cannot solve the whole problem nor achieve the ideal of ridding every haulier's licence of the rust which remains on it from the old system. What ought to happen is that hauliers should not tamely accept the awkward situation that confronts them in a no-man'sland between the old and the new but should work out a positive plan for overcoming the difficulties.