Wages: Haulage Workers Get Rise, Busmen Wait
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BY A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT WAGES for road haulage workers are to be increased from next " Wednesday by between 2s. 6d. and 5s. a week, according to age. Subsistence allowance, will also go up—from 15s. to 16s.—and workers
temporarily transferred from their usual depots will get an allowance of 9d. a night.
In the bus industry it has been a "Wait and see" week. The provincial company workers have not had 'a reply to their pay claim, probably because
the employers want to see what London Transport will eventually award to country and Green Line staffs—the Minister of Labour has been asked to intervene there.
Should Mobile Shops Sell on Sundays ?
I T might be a good thing if mobile shops came within the • Shops Act, 1950, designed to prevent Sunday trading, observed Lord Goddard, Lord Chief Justice, in the Queen's Bench Division, last week. An appeal was lodged against the decision of Woodbridge magistrates that a Sunday sale from a mobile shop did not contravene the Act. The case failed.
Lord Goddard quoted the decision in Eldorado Ice Cream Co., Ltd., v. Keating, 1938, in which it was held that a tricycle from which ice cream was sold was not a "place where any retail trade or business" was carried on. He stated that a piece of ground in front of a house in a street where the mobile shop simply stood was not a place where the trader had set up a business.
Mr. Justice Devlin said that it must now be definitely decided that a mobile shop was not a shop within the meaning of the Act, and if Parliament wanted to make it so it must introduce legislation to that purpose. Mr. Justice Slade concurred in the dismissal of the appeal, but stated that he might have come to a different conclusion without the existence of the Eldorado decision.
TRIMDON STRIKE OVER
EMPLOYEES of Trimdon Motor Services, Ltd., Co. Durham, returned to work last Saturday after a strike lasting a fortnight. The stoppage followed the dismissal of two employees, both of them Transport and General Workers' Union officials, for alleged drinking before going on duty (The Commercial Motor, last week).
WALSALL SURPLUS DROPS
ANY further fare increases are unlikely to bring in the expected extra revenue, according to Mr. R. Edgeley Cox, general manager of Walsall Corporation Transport. In his annual report he says service cuts by the undertaking have been fully justified, but further economies will probably have to be made.
Last year's surplus was £24,486, compared with £36,626 the previous year. More than 70m. passengers were carried.
A28 The Order on haulage wages follows the Minister's decision to accept recommendations by the Road Haulage Wages Council. Besides all-round pay increases, the Council also proposed that 11 Grade 2 towns should be upgraded to Grade 1. They are Boroughbridge, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Melksham, Paignton, Ripon, Stratford on Avon, Torquay, Totton, Whitby and Winchester.
The Grade 1 flat rate will be as follows: Up to 5 tons carrying capacity, 163s.; over 5 tons, up to and including 10 tons, 170s.; up to 15 tons, 176s.; up to 18 tons, 183s.; over 18 tons, 192s.
Grade 2 workers will receive 9s. less in each -case, although they will, come into line where they pick up or drop loads in Grade 1 areas. London-based drivers will receive 5s. more in each case.
L.T.E. Deadlock On the bus front, negotiations between the Transport and General Workers' Union and the L.T.E. broke down at the end of last week.
These talks reached deadlock when Sir John Elliot refused to budge from his offer of 5s. to 4,500 country busmen and 7s. 6d. to the 700 Green Line drivers. The Union claimed that the 5s. offer should be increased to nearer the 8s, 6d. awarded to Central London busmen, whilst the 7s. 6d. should come into line with it.
Sir Wilfred Neden, the Ministry's chief industrial commissioner, received a letter on Tuesday from Mr. Harry Nicholas, assistant general secretary of the Union, asking for assistance. Although Mr. Harold Watkinson, Minister of Transport, had declared full support for the L.T.E., Mr. Nicholas was hoping that the Minister of Labour, would not want to appear indifferent to the busmen.
Two-hour Meeting The. letter followed a meeting of the busmen's negotiating committee, who were almost unanimous on an approach to the Ministry after conferring for only two hours.
Sir Wilfred promised to meet the Union leaders today.
The provincial claim was considered for about four hours by a sub-committee of the National Joint Council for the Omnibus Industry, but deadlock was reached. This will be reported to the full apuncil at a date to be fixed,
Hauliers Cannot Use Stronger Vehicles
A HAULAGE company's request for
stronger vehicles, because of their heavy repair bills in the past two years, was rejected by Mr. G. W. Duncan, Northern Deputy Licensing Authority, at Penrith last week. He said stronger vehicles would mean a 40 per cent. increase in unladen weight, which would allow more goods to be carried.
The applicants were J. Stamper and Co. (Haulage), Ltd., Brooklands, Penrith, who sought A licences for . six new vehicles, including one articulated outfit, to replace six lighter vehicles, one with a trailer, at present operated on special A licence. The hearing had been adjourned from June to enable the objectors, British Road Services, to produce evidence of the availability of transport at Glasgow, Liverpool and other depots.
At the original hearing, Mr. John Stamper, managing director of the applicants, had stated that no change in the existing nature of their work was contemplated.
"Ample Transport" When the hearing was resumed, Mr. L. G. Cowper, of the B.R.S. Walsall depot, said there was ample transport in the Midlands. and sometimes there was not enough traffic from other areas. Similar evidence was given by Mr. J. B. Matthews, Dundee.
Mr. W. H. Mack, Glasgow, said 166 vehicles in five B.R.S. branches in Glasgow were used mainly for carrying tractors and combine harvesters for the Massey-Harris-Ferguson trading estate and the workers in the factory were on short time. Mr. 0. Jones, Liverpool depot, said B.R.S. vehicles there were not working to capacity.
Refusing the application, Mr. Duncan said ,a grant would allow a bigger tonnage to be carried. The only case in which that would not apply was in the carriage of tractors and combine harvesters. There was, however, no way in which he could differentiate between the haulage of those goods and other traffic.
BETTER PARKING
A COMPREHENSIVE revision of 1-1 parking arrangements in Middlesbrough has been made by the town council. Dozens of new traffic signs have been erected to indicate one-way streets, unilateral parks and new " offstreet " parks. It is anticipated that the new arrangements, which came into effect on July I, Will provide parking facilities for an extra 600 vehicles.
PICK-UP POINTS WANTED INCREASED housing development in North Lincolnshire has prompted the Lincolnshire Road Car Co., Ltd., to ask East Midlands Traffic Commissioners for more picking-up points. The routes affected are those between Grimsby and Louth, Grimsbyand MabIethorpe, Louth and North Somercoates, Louth and Mablethorpe, and Alford and Lincoln.