Licensing Weakness xposed at Contested Hearing n Tours
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A GLARING weakness in passenger licensing as exposed at Newcastle " last week, when the Northern General Tran port Co., Ltd., strongly opposed an application by Mr. R. L. Hardwick, 28 Jubilee Road, Eston, Middlesbrough, to vary excursions and tours licenpes from Middlesbrough, Redcar and Billingham via Dover to the Continent. He asked the Northern Traffic Commissioners for permission to add an alternative route by air, via Southend, and introduce 14an 16-day tours and an additional tour to Belgium and Holland.
One objection was that the applicant's nroposed road fare from Teesside to Southend, at £3 /s. 6d., would undercut the existing fare of £4. It was also pointed out that his existing fare to Dover, at £3 15s., granted in January, 1959, was well below the standard fare of • £5 10s. Mr. J. L. R. Croft, for Northern General, submitted that 13 7s, 6d, was uneconomic if proper trade union rates were paid to drivers.
Mr. Hardwick said that his drivers were paid more than standard rates. He suggested that the £4 fare of the company to Southend was inherited from a ' Braithwaite Tour application for an excursion to Southend only, including a fantail to Clacton (The Commercial Motor, April 22). The public should not be asked to pay higher fares and Northern General ought to come into line with his own fares, he added.
Questioned by Mr. Croft concerning a statement that he could operate cheaper: by air than sea when the party rate was £3 5s. 6d. by sea and £4 13s. 8d. by air, Mr. Hardwick replied that by filling a charter plane both ways the air fare could be cut to £2 19s.
The applicant was catering for working-class people on Teesside, said Mr. T. H. Campbell Wardlaw, who represented Mr. Hardwick, Some 2,354 had booked for licensed tours to Ostend and Blankenberg in 1960.
Private Travel Not Evidence
After hearing supporting evidence by four of 10 witnesses in court, Mr. Croft submitted that private party travel was not evidence for an additional tour, especially as only one witness had used Hardwick's licensed services.
The applicant had entered the licensed Continental tour business in 1959, on the plea that he was catering for people who could not afford expensive tours. Longer periods and higher fares were now sought. The application to operate via Southend was made only after Northern General were granted a short-term licence to do so. That company's application, later in the day, would reduce the prices. of eight-ten-day tours to Holland, Ostend, Paris and Montreux, in 1961, from £30 to #20. The eight-day Ostend tour, under short-term Licence, would be reduced in cost by to £19.
Mr. Campbell Wardlaw submitted that Northern General were now seeking tours at popular prices for the first time and Hardwick was, in reality, the established operator. The company wanted a free hand in Western Europe yet objected to Hardwick.
Mr. J. A T. Hanlon, chairman, said that the C4ninissioncrs agreed with the objectors that 16-day tours were in a different dais from those licensed. They were prepared to give variety by granting additional epach-sea tours via Dover to Brussels, Amsterdam and Scheveningen for four or nine days, and for boach-air tours via Southend to Ostend and Blanken berg. But, he said, the road fares must be £5 10s. and £4 respectively to bring them into line with standard fares. The Commissioners had no control over the remainder of the charges and although higher road fares would be shown on the licence, the total cost of the tours would remain the same.
The appr ation, by Northern General, to add it Tie Continental tours via Southend, covering France, Belgium. Holland, witzerland, Spain, Italy, Austria and Germany, to licences originating from Newcastle upon Tyne, Whitley Bay arid Durham, was granted. There was no opposition following the withdrawal of an out-of-time objection by Mr. Ha dwick.