Sotving the Problems of the Carrier
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Motor Coaches on Private Hire
The Legal Aspects of the Operation of Passenger Vehicles—Stage and Express Carriages and Contract Coaches—Regulations Governing the Operation of Vehicles on Private Hire
WITH the end of the war, operators are turning their minds to the prospect of resurrecting those departments of road haulage which war conditions put out
of action. In particular, the .prospect of reviving the private-hire business in connection with motor coaches is a prominent subject of discussion amongstoperators who, in pre-war days, used to engage themselves in that. class OE work.
Some months ago I had an inquiry from a Squadron Leader in the R.A.F. who told me that he was about to purchase a business emplOying eight coaches, which, in pre-war days, were engaged on private-hire work. He said that he had had plenty of experience of mechanical transport while in the Services, but that he knev:r nothing at all of the administrative side.
He asked for some information as to methods of arriving at estimates for contracts, and about traffic laws and
general administrative matters. I give the three -items in the order in which he cited them in his letter, but .I do 4 not propose to deal with them in that order. It seems to me that the first thing to do is to make quite sure that he is clear in his mind as to what is meant by the term " private hire."
In law, public-service vehicles are of three classes:— (a) Stage Carriages, which are motor vehicles carrying passengers for hire or reward at separate fares and not being express carriages; (ie) Express Carriages, being motor vehicles carrying passengers for hire or reward at separate fares, none of which is less than ls. or such greater sum as may be prescribed; and (c) Contract Carriages—motor vehicles carrying passengers for hire or reward under a contract expressed or implied for the use of the vehicle as a whole at or for a fixed or agreed rate or sum..
It will not be difficult for this inquirer to understand that his motor coaches for private hire come under classification (c), and.that they are cdntract carriages. Nevertheless, it would be risky for him to assume-that, in that brief definition, all is included that is necessary to define the purposes for which he may use motor coaches en private hire.
The definition, as given,' first appeared in the Road Traffic Act of 1930, and was enlarged upon in the tekt of that Act.
A Definition Amendment
Notwithstanding, the definition and the explanatory note which followed were so frequently misunderstood, possibly sometimes wilfully, that a considerable number of prosecutions for wrongful use of motor coaches occurred, and a• good deal of litigation followed, so much so, that in the Road Traffic Act of 1934 the definition was amended and the uses of contract carriages more strictly defined.
Before dealing with that, however, I propose to refer to the three. types of licence which are issued in connection with the operation of public-service vehicles, for it is only when the application of these three licences is fully appre-, ciated, that the need for this careful distinction between contract: carriagesand others is realized.
The first of these is the public-service vehicle licence, and it is laid down in the Act of 1930 that no person shall cause or permit a motor vehicle to be used on any road as a stage carriage, an express carriage or a contract carriage unless he be a holder of a public-service vehicle licence to use it as a vehicle of that class in accordance with the provisions of the Act. It is to be observed that all three classes of carriage must have public-service vehicle licences.
Next come the certificates of fitness of vehicles. ' A licence to use a vehicle as a stage carriage-, express carriage or Contract carriage shall not be granted unless a certifi
tate of fittress has been issued by a certifying officer that certain prescribed conditions of fitness are fulfilled in respect of the vehicle, and that such a certificate be in force in respect of the vehicle. Here, again, it should be noted that a certificate of fitness is required for any.ot the three classes of carriage, stage, express or contract.
_Then there is the road-service licence. This is a Licence which the Commissioner may grant to a person to provide. any specified road.service, and a vehicle must not be u.4ed as a stage carriage or an express carriage except under such a licence.
The point to note is that a contract carriage does not require a road licence, although it must have a publicservice vehicle licence and a certificate of fitness.
As public-service vehicle licences and .certificates of fitness are comparatively easy to obtain, and as road-service licences are difficult to secure,, the fundamental difference between a contract carriage and the other types is fairly obvious. It is as yet open to any operator to purchase a coach. and obtain a public-service vehicle licence for it at well as a certificate of fitness, and proceed, forthwith, ti carry on using that vehicle for private hire.
Keeping Clear of Trouble
In view of the foregoing, the importance of appreciating the limitations of the use of a coach which has no roadservice licence is manifest, and the newcomer to the business must make himself fully acquainted with the law on this point, otherwise he is liable to get into all sorts of trouble.
Referring again to the definition of a contract carriage: in the 1930 Act, in enlarging upon the fundamental defini-tion which I have already given," it was declared that, where persons are carried in a motor vehicle for any journey in consideration of separate payments made by them, whether to the owner of the vehicle or to any other person, the vehicle in which they are carried shall be deemed to be a vehicle carrying passengers for hire or reward at separate fares, whether the payments be solely in respect of the journey or not.
That is, if separate fares be paid, according to the foregoing, the vehicle ceases to be a contract carriage and becomes a stage carriage or express carriage, and is not legally operable unless it has a road-service licence.
The explanation went farther. It provided that a vehicle used on a special occasion for the conveyance of a private party shall not be deemed to be a vehicle carrying passengers for bire..or reward at separate fares by reason only that the members of the party have made separate payments which cover their conveyance by that vehicle on that occasion.
What that paragraph means is that if the vehicle, was hired for a special occasion, and those who used the vehicle paid separate fares to the man who hired the vehicle, its use without a road-service licence would be legal.
Most of the trouble and litigation into which motorcoach owners fell in connection with this part of thE Act arose out of the definition of " special occasion." In the Road Traffic Act, 1934, therefore, there appeared an amendment as to the use of vehicles on special occasions for the conveyance of private parties, and the paragraph went on to state that a vehicle shall be deemed to be used on a. special occasion for the conveyance of a private party where it is used on a journey in relation to which the following conditions are satisfied, and not otherwise:— (a) Arrangements for the bringing together of all the passengers for the purpose of making the journey as a -party must have been made by some person, not being the holder of the public-service vehicle licence in respect of
the vehicle, or a person acting on behalf of the holder of such a licence, or a person who receives any remuneration in respect of those arrangements.
(b) The journey must be made without previous .notice to the public of the arrangements therefor.
(c) All the passengers must, in the case of a journey to a particular destination, be carried to, or to the vicinity of, that destination, or, in the case of a tour, be carried for the greater part of the journey.
(d) No differentiation of fares for the journey, on the basis of distance or of time, must be made.
(e) In the case of a journey to a particular destination, the passengers must not include any person who frequently, or as a matter of routine, travels, at or about the time of day at which the journey is to be made; to that destination from a place from or through which the journey is made.
(f) The holder of the public-service vehicle licence in respect of the vehicle must, within the prescribed time, make, or cause to be made, a record containing the prescribed particulars in relation to the matters referred to in the foregoing conditions and otherwise in relation to the journey, so however that the regulations shall not require particulars of the fares or prices to be recorded, (g) The driver of the vehicle must carry a work ticket containing such particulars as may be prescribed for the purpose of enabling the record of the journey made under the last foregoing paragraph to be traced and identified.
The reader will appreciate that the conditions are fairly strict. They were made so, partly to get rid of an anomaly which had arisen out of case law, arising from decisions made in the courts in connection with the old definition, which made it almost impossible for a party of people to club together and hire a coach.
It must be appreciated that the use of a publicservice vehicle for private hire must be such as tosomply with every one of these conditions. If only one of them he voided, the party becomes illegal unless the vehicle has a road-service licence.
It is 'important to be fully aware of the particulars which are to be entered in the record called for in paragraph (f) and on the work ticket calledlor in paragraph (g).
Every record shall contain the following particulars which shall be entered in such a manner as to be readily identifiable:—(i) The time and date of commencement and termination of the
journey ; (ii) the point at which the journey commenced and terminated, and sufficient description of the route to show adequately the extent of the journey; (iii) the name and address of the person who made the arrangements for the bringing together of all the passengers for the purpose of making the journey as .a party.
Every work ticket must contain the following particulars:—(i) The name and address of the holder of the publicservice vehicle licence for the vehicle used for making the journey; (ii) the time and the date on which the journey is to commence; (iii) the date on which the journey is intended to terminate, if other than the date of commencement; (iv) the point at which the journey is to commence and sufficient description of the route to show adequately the intended extent of the journey; i(v) the name and the address of the person who made the arrangements for bringing together all the passengers for the purpose of making the journey of the party. Reading the foregoing two statements of particulars as to the record and the work ticket, it is immediately apparent that the information is practically duplicated, and, actually, for the purpose of the regulation, the work ticket carried by the driver may afterwards be used to form the record.
The record must be made not later than 72 hours after the completion of the journey to which it relates, and these records must be preserved for a period of six months and be available for production during that time for inspection by any person authorized by any Traffic Commissioner. Somewhat apart from the subject of this article, but of interest as showing the need for appreciation of the intricacies of the law relating to private hire, is the case of the taxicab. At one time, " splitting" a taxi was judged to be equivalent to the carriage of persons for reward at separate fares. This state of affairs was, however, amended in 1937, when it was enacted that, " A vehicle adapted to tarry less than eight persons should not, subject to certain conditions, be so penalized." The principal provisions are that the number of passengers must not exceed four, and that the making of the contract must not be initiated by the driver or owner of the vehicle.
Finally, to terminate this summary of the law relating to motor coaches employed on private hire, I should point out that it is also necessary for the driver of the vehicle to hold a p.s.v. licence, for which, in normal times at any rate, it is necessary that he should pass an examination showing not only his physical fitness for being so employed, but also his ability to handle a vehicle of the type which he proposes to drive in accordance with his employment.
The accompanying copy form, as published by the Charnwood Publishing Co., of Leicester, combines the work ticket and contract-carriage record which is essential in connection with the operation of vehicles for private hire. As will be shown in a subsequent article, it can be made to play an important part in the recording of the work done by the vehicle as a contribution to the business of assessing costs and profits, as does the driver's logbook on a goods vehicle. This form, in fact, serves as a link between the legal and administrative sides of coach opera tion and will be discussed later. S.T.R.