c COMMERCIAL MOTOR August 9 1974
Page 25
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confederation comes into being this week
LEGAL procedures for the incorporation of the Confederation of British Road Passenger Transport were sear completion this week. It ivas hoped that a company ,vould be registered at CornPanics House by today with he Memorandum of kssociation signed by all 14 ignatories. (The original ight have-now been joined )y two representatives each rem the Passenger Vehicle )perators Association and he two new PTEs plus one rom the Public Road TransIon Association and one nal authority representaive — Mr R. E. Bottrill, eneral manager at :dinburgh.
Final registration of the Dmpany will bring to an end peculation about the ConAeration since its backers rst explained their idea to perators at a meeting in irmingham in July of last :ar. The body, it is now ear, will be governed by a mncil of about 28 members it their names will not be ade public until the end of is month.
Membership of the • uncil will be based on fleet rengths and is expected to : as-follows: National Bus pmpany, 7; coach and independent bus sector (basically existing PVOA members), 7; PTEs 7: local authority undertakings, 2; London Transport 2, Scottish Bus Group, 2; and Ulsterbus 1. There may be an additional representative from the local authority sector. The Association of Public Passenger Transport has already indicated (CM. July 19),that it does not wish to join the Confederation and clearly the number of its members who join the new body is by no means yet certain.
At the first Meeting of the Council — expected to be in September — these nominated representatives will elect a president and there will also be up to four vicepresidents. It is intended that the presidency will rotate between sectors every one or two years. (As reported in CM, June 21 there will be four sectors for OBS, PTEs, local authority undertakings and State-owned fleets.) It is intended that day-today workings of the Confederation will be governed by an eightor 12-man general purpose committee. However, in the event of a poll of membership each member will have one vote for each 10 or part of 10 vehicles owned on the previous July 1. The four sectors will each have their own committee and its chairman will effectively be the spokesman for that sector: Hem turn will be backed up by a headquarters executive staff of four plus the major part of the secretarial and clerical staff at present employed by the member associations.
In an exclusive interview with CM, Mr Dennis Quin, the Confederation directorgeneral, said that he hoped people who decided to join the new body would not be expecting massive changes. Initially at least, the only difference members would see would be an improvement in the services they were used to. It should be possible by streamlining action on matters of universal importance to improve efficiency, At the same time, he said, better opportunities for cross-fertilization of ideas would lead to a better understanding in the industry and, bring about the single voice on road passenger transport matters which was the essential reason for the Confederation's formation. Mr Quin stressed that, while there were obviously many areas of common concern like technical developments and Parliamentary business, it was equally important to keep alive the separate identities of the constituent members. Thus, for example, there would still be freedom for individual PVOA regions to continue and for the Scottish Conference to go on.
On the vexed question of finance Mr Quin said that the Confederation should not mean subscriptions going up. Initially, he expected the annual budget to be in -the region of £70100,000 per annum. Larger operators would pay a basic subscription with an additional fee for general services and special services. But small operators would pay a consolidated amount thus, for example, leaving most PVOA members' subscriptions unaltered.
Mr Quin said that for reasons of continuity the European Conference of British Bus and Coach Operators (ECBO) would continue as a separate body. There was a possibility that it might eventually merge with the Confederation.