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The Thorny Problem of
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Page 101
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Contract Work
THE public-service-vehicle proprietor is, nowadays, faced with many difficult questions in the conduct of his business, not the least of which relates to his contract work. Prior to the passing of the Road Traffic Act, the operator appropriated his vehicles partly to his ordinary passenger services (authorized to ply for hire by the Town Police Clauses Acts for areas outside London, and by the London Public Carriage Act, 18til), and the London Cab Act, 1907, for the Metropolitan Police District), and partly to carry out contracts for the conveyance of passengers at an agreed charge or rate for the hire of the coach as a whole, often irrespective srf the number of passengers carried.
Contract work was regarded as a substantial standby to the proprietor whose ordinary services were not particularly prosperous, and that often kept him on his feet when business was poor, especially in the winter months.
Great Play of this contract walk has been made at Traffic Commissioners' sittings, by opponents who have sought to establish that the applicant could not adequately carry out the road service for which he applied, because his fleet would not be large enough also to perform his noimal contract work. , Opponents have taken great care to cross-examine applicants upon this point, and to obtain admissions from them that they hoped to continue to obtain at least a similar amount of contract work to that carried out during the previous year. Many services applied for have been disallowed or reduced in consequence of this line of attack.
Difficulties in the Way of Increased Trade.
At that time there were not present in the minds of the Traffic Commissioners and the "parties concerned the grave difficulties that were in store for the operator who wished to continue or increase his contract work. The Road Traffic Act, like all other complicated Acts of Parliament, had its concealed pitfalls that became apparent only after it had been in operation for a period.
It was not anticipated that the contractor would have to make a close investigation of the circumstances leading his customer to engage his coach as a whole. It was sufficient for him that he was paid a lump sum for specified work, and he was not concerned with the arrangements that the person hiring his coach had made with any other person. In this matter of contract carriages the Act of 19=10 excels in its policy of restriction.
What are contract carriages? The Act defines them as "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." [Section 61, 1 (c).]
A contract carriage is a public service vehicle and requires a licence as such, unless it is adapted to carry fewer than eight passengers. [Section 121.]
A motor vehicle used "without reward" for carrying eight or more passengers for the purposes of agriculture, trade or business shall be treated as a contract carriage and, therefore, requires a. public-service-vehicle licence except where the persons so carried are workpeople being carried in the course of or to or from their employment. [Section 61 (3).]
A vehicle used as a contract carriage does not require a road service licence. Here complications at once arise. Is the vehicle being used strictly as a contract carriage, or can it be said in a prosecution that, in fact, the vehicle is used as a stage or an express carriage?
Stage-carriage and express-carriage services require road service licences, and it is not easy to obtain them from the Traffic Commissioners. Considerable delay is entailed in an application for such a licence and the procedure is quite out of keeping with the requirements of contract business, the essence of which is often expedition.
There is a fundamental difference between stage and express carriages and contract carriages. The former are motor vehicles "carrying passengers for hire or reward at separate fares," whilst the latter are motor vehicles "carrying passengers for hire or reward for the use of the vehicle as a whole, at or for a fixed or agreed rate or sum."
Pitfalls for the Unwary.
Stage carriages and express carriages, subject to any condition to the contrary attached to the road service licences, may be used as contract carriages. Contract carriages may not be used as stage or express carriages, and, if so used, create serious consequences that the authorities are not slow in enforcing.
It will be well to consider in some detail the offences capable of being committed by the use of contract carriages contrary to the true meaning and intention of the Act.
A prosecution in England may not be instituted for such an offence except (1) by or on behalf of the Director of Public Prosecutions, or (2) by a person authorized by the Traffic Commissioners, or (3) a Chief Officer of Police, or (4) the council of a county, eounty borough or county district.
A person commits an offence if he causes or permits a vehicle to be used as a contract carriage without a publicservice-vehicle licence. [Section 67.] He also commits an offence if he uses or causes or permits a motor vehicle to be used as a stage or express carriage without having a road pervice licence. [Section 72 (10).] Many prosecutions have already been instituted against operators and agents in respect of their contract wcirk, the prosecution alleging in each case that the contract carriage was being used as a stage or express carriage, without the necessary road service licence. The coach proprietor has been summoned for " using " and " causing " and " permitting" the vehicle to be used. The booking agent and others have been prosecuted for "causing" to be used, and for "aiding and abetting" the proprietor in his use of the vehicle.
Contract-carriage Law Unsatisfactory.
The law on this subject, as it stands, is extremely unsatisfactory and unfair to coach proprietors and agents, and requires immediate amendment.
Proprietors hesitate to contract for perfectly legitimate business, owing to the uncertainty of the result of a possible future prosecution, because one or more of the passengers may have paid some person a separate fare.
Section 81 (2) makes the position clear •that if, where persons are carried in a motor:vehicle 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 (i.e. a stage or express carriage), whether the payments are solely in respect of the journey or not.
it will be seen, therefore, that the mere payment of a separate fare for the journey by a passenger to some person, whether with the knowledge of the coach proprietor or not, is sufficient to establish a breach of the law in this case.
How is it possible for the coach proprietor to carry on his business successfully if he has to inquire into the circumstances in which each party requires his services? At present, unless he cares to risk a prosecution, he must, when contracting with the booking agent or other party, satisfy himself upon the following points :— (1) That no passenger has paid, or will pay, to any person a separate fare for the journey, or, (2) that the passengers constitute a "private party" and that the occasion of their journey is a "special occasion."
It will, therefore, be observed that in the case of a contract by a booking agent, the coach proprietor is compelled to ask the embarrassing question, "Is your customer paying you with money collected from the passengers?" The agent may have no knowledge and be unable to reply. He, like the operator, may feel that it is somewhat impertinent to inquire into his contracting party's business.
When a Summons May Be Expected. Nevertheless, should any of the prosecuting authorities discover thereafter that a passenger paid a separate fare, and the party carried was not a " private " one on a " special " occasion, the proprietor may expect a summons for using" or" permitting," and the agent one for "causing to be used," a vehicle without a road service licence.
Severe penalties can be imposed, not exceeding £20 for a first offence, and not exceeding £50 or three months' imprisonment for the second or any subsequent offence.
The learned magistrate who recently convicted an operator and, after fining him heavily, said, "you should take out a licence," was not, of course, versed in the process of obtaining road service licences from Traffic Commissioners, Section 61, subsection 2, of the Act, sets more problems of construction than do many Acts of Parliament together. The vehicle shall be deemed to be a vehicle carrying passengers for hire or reward at separate fares " whether the payments are solely in respect of the journey or not." Magistrates have already construed these words against the contentions of operators. Recent cases disclose that the courts have taken a most strict view. It has been held that the proprietors of dog-racing stadiums who masvide free coach transport for their patrons, to and from the tracks, are, in fact, being paid a separate fare of an (Right) Mr. William Johnston Thomson, J.P., M.I.A.E., Lord Provost of Edinburgh, is chairman and managing director The Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd., chairman W. Alexander and Sons, Ltd., and other important
Scottish transport concerns. k
indefinite amount, which is deemed to be included in the entrance fee to the stadiums paid by the patron.
The fact that other patrons who did not use the coach paid the same entrance fee, did not affect the view of the learned magistrate. In a similar case, the fact that a return ticket was issued to a patron, which gave him priority of right to a seat in the free coach, satisfied the magistrate that a portion of the entrance fee was paid for the return ride. These cases are under appeal and will shortly be heard by the Divisional Court of the High Court of Justice.
The operator and booking agent are thankful for any small relief from restriction that they may find in any section of the Act and a proviso to subsection (2) of Section 61 gives a slight ray of hope.
A vehicle shall not be deemed to be a stage carriage or an express carriage by reason only that the passengers have paid separate fares for their journeys, provided that the vehicle is used for the conveyance of a "private party" on a "special occasion."
The learned judges have already differed as to the application of the words "private party" to specified facts. No general definition can be given until the Courts have ventured upon one.
The Definition of. " Private Party."
A number of persons combined by some bond of fellowship, either in business or socially, may well constitute a "private party " ; for instance, members of a business house, a church, club, institute, etc. Any party gathered together by advertisement, or from places of public resort, would probably not satisfy the requirements of those words.
In a recent case, members of a regiment and their families were held to be a private party, and the occasion of their furlough a "special occasion." The words "special occa
sion" also require legal interpretation. The Act offers some assistance by words used in the proviso to Section 61, subsection (1) (which exempts vehicles adapted to carry fewer than eight passengers from the definitions a stage and express carriages). This subsection uses the words "on occasions of race meetings, public gatherings and other like special occasions."
Questions will arise notwithstanding these words. Do the words "race meetings" include the regular meetings of dog racing, or are they intended only for the occasional horse-race meetings? What is the true interpretation of
"public gatherings "? Are they always "special occasions "?
A "special occasion " appears to be some exceptional or irregular event. The more regular the occasion, the less special it appears to he.
These problems will, no doubt, be settled for us, in doe .course, by the Courts, unless Parliament in its wisdom thinks proper to solve our difficulties by passing an Amending Act.
(Below) Mr. Edward Henry Edwardes, J.P., A.M.I.E.E., M.Inst.T., is managing director and engineer of The Lancashire United Transport and Power. Co., Ltd., and chairman Tramways Light Railways and Transport As.