R.H.(56) LIKELY TO RAISE HAULAGE RATES
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BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT I UNDERSTAND that R.H.(56), which will give road haulage workers I a basic increase in wages of 9s. a week and make other financial concessions, is likely to come into force in about a week's time The London printing dispute caused difficulties in the publication of the Order, but these have been overcome.
Pay Rises for Bristol Staff
PAY increases ranging from lls. to 15s. a week have been awarded to male white-collar workers employed by Bristol Tramways and Carriage Co., Ltd., by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal. Proportionate advances have been given to female and junior staff. The award is retrospective to the first full pay period following January I last.
The dispute, in which the other party was the National Association of Clerical and Supervisory Staffs (Transport and General Workers' Union), arose out of the company's refusal to pay increases awarded by other companies in the Tilling Group about December 1 last.
The majority of the company's non-manual staff was recently awarded increases of three to six days' paid holidays a year by the Tribunal. A sick-pay claim was rejected.
RECORD EASTER AT VICTORIA COACH STATION
EASTER holiday traffic records were again broken at Victoria Coach Station, London, this year. Although passenger figures were not available when The Commercial Motor closed for press, Mr. L. E. Corbett, traffic manager, said that a conservative estimate of the number of vehicle departures was 4,500. Last Easter, departures were just over 4,000.
The greatest advance was in period long-distance journeys. There was no noticeable increase in the number of day trippers.
The heaviest movements were made between midday Thursday and midday on Good Friday. The majority of the passengers returned on Monday, although Tuesday was a heavy day.
E4 Ss. TO PARIS A LONDON-PARIS service to be I-1 started next month will offer a single fare of £4 5s., or £8 10s. return. Coaches will take passengers from Victoria to Ferryfield, where passengers will be flown by Silver City Airways, Ltd., to Le Touquet. The final stage of the journey will be by Diesel railcar. From Victoria to Paris the journey will take 6 hr. 50 min,
A London-Brussels coach-air service will also be introduced by Silver City Airways, Ltd.
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An immediate result is likely to be
an advance in haulage rates. The national rates committee of the Road Haulage Association will hold their adjourned meeting next Wednesday to consider the impact on rates of R.H.(56) and other increases in costs. I understand that the committee are likely to recommend an advance in charges of about 5 per cent.
If any drastic change is made in taxation in the Budget, to be presented to Parliament on April 17, further consideration will have to be given to rates.
Figures just issued by the Ministry of Labour show that in the last pay-week in October, 1955, the average weekly earnings of men in transport (excluding the railways, London Transport and British Road Services) were 211s. 7d. and of all workers, 202s. 8d.
Back-pay Enforcement April 18 has been fixed as the date for the meeting at Cambridge of the subcommittee appointed by the National Joint Industrial Council to exert pressure on hauliers who did not put into effect the Council's recommended 10s. wage increase on February 21, 1955, but waited until the recommendation was ratified by the Minister of Labour nearly three months later.
Some, at least, of the operators concerned will be present at the meeting, and the sub-committee will try to reach agreement on the question of backpayment. If they cannot do so, they will have to consider enforcement.
R.H.A. TO SUPPORT C-HIRING APPEAL
THE Road Haulage Association have now decided to support an appeal against the Eastern Licensing Authority's decision (The Commercial Motor, January 20) to allow Mr. E. E. Burton, Lynn Road, Walsoken, Wisbech, to run under an A licence six vehicles and two trailers which he formerly operated under C-hiring margins.
It is understood that the Association's licensing committee will also review the Western Licensing Authority's grant of an A licence for 17 vehicles to Mr. G. Willmott, Princes Road, Wells, who formerly ran them under C-hiring margins. He applied for 25 vehicles.
Mr. James Barrie, national chairman of the R.H.A., recently expressed the hope that the Licensing Authorities would not allow conversion from Chiring to A-licence work as a matter of course.
Bamford Sent to Assizes
TWO men charged with frauds,
involving over £145,000, in connection with hire-purchase transactions on lorries, and with stealing lorries, were last week sent for trial at Derbyshire Assizes by Alfreton magistrates.
They •were Eric Earles Bamford, 26, of Wycliffe Road, Alfreton, former managing ,director of E. E. Bamford (Contractors), Ltd., and other companies, and Kenneth Walton Hutchinson, 32, of Flowery Leys Lane, Alfreton, former traffic manager and director of a number of the companies.
There were eight charges of fraud in connection with the hire-purchase of lorries, three of stealing lorries, and one of conspiring together with other persons to cheat and defraud.
It was said that finance companies had been induced to part with a total of £308,024 in hire-purchase advances on non-existent vehicles. The hirepurchase agreements had involved 220 vehicles, but 151 of those did not exist. By the switching of number plates, the defendants were said to have " sold" vehicles two or three times over.
Hutchinson was alleged to have told the police that he took part in a number of deals, knowing them to be false, but that if he had not done so he would have been dismissed. A submission on his behalf that there was no case to answer on II of the charges was overruled.
Applications for bail were refused.
T.R.T.A. TO PRESS CLAUSE ON RECORDS
THE Traders' Road Transport Association are not dismayed by the Government's refusal during the committee stage of the Road Traffic Bill to accept their proposed clause to reduce the liability of employers for the actions of employees in failing properly to keep records. They are to press it during the remaining stages of the Bill.
The Association's annual report urges that the Minister of Transport should have cabinet rank.
All operators are enjoined to support the Lorry Driver of the Year Competition. The T.R.T.A. Scottish Division is presenting a trophy for the best driver of a C-licence vehicle, and another for the outright winner, in the Scottish Lorry Driver of the Year competition in Glasgow on September 29.
FOG AID IDEA
WHERE a road had a continuous white line down the centre and broken lines dividing the up and down carriageways, the broken lines should have other lines at right angles to them and on the near side. This would help drivers in fog, stated Mr. E. A. Whitehead, chairman of the road transport section of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, when they decided to submit the idea to the Ministry of Transport.