Too Flexible?
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HAULIERS who read the report in The Commercial Motor last week about the unauthorized transfer of railway vehicles from one area to another, and noted the unconcern with which Mr. J. A. T. Hanlon, Northern Licensing Authority, treated the matter, must wonder how elastic the licensing system is. Six to eight months after the movement of a vehicle from London to Carlisle, British Railways applied to regularize the position. The vehicle had earlier been moved from Rochdale to London, but an application to include it in the railways' Metropolitan Area licence was not made until three or four months after it had been switched to Carlisle. The explanation was a surfeit of work in the railways' licensing department.
Obviously,' the railways must not be hampered in their collection and delivery of rail bornetraffic. There must be some freedom in a large organization to transfer vehicles from one area to another. Moreover, there must be no 'unnecessary restriction of rights under A licences, subject always to the protection of the interests of users and other providers of transport.In cases of urgency it may not be possible to go through the cumbrous licensing procedure before the movement takes place. The question is how soon after the event it should be regularized. Some people may regard six months as an unreasonable period, and hold the delay to amount to a breach of normal user and, therefore, of the original statement of intent.