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MOTOR
VOLUME 121 N. at2.1 JUNE 11, 1965
A Fair Weight
THE lull is over. A Fraser foray to outstrip the Marples blitz will be seeking 130,000 captives at the roadside this year, while last week's announcements of heavy vehicle testing at special stations, weight plating for all goods vehicles and the recruiting of staff for h.g.v. licence tests can be added to existing plans for regulating vehicle noise levels and for bringing new items within the scope of revised Construction and Use Before this is interpreted as a political attack on road haulage, let it be recognized that many of these measures were initiated by the previous regime, and all would certainly be retained if the Government changed again. Responsible operators, while suffering perhaps for the sins of the less reputable minority (and the Minister of Transport last week publicly agreed that it was a minority) will recognize that in measures aimed at the eventual benefit of transport, everyone must be on the same side. On many things road operators do not see eye to eye with the Minister or the Government, but this cannot be one of them.
Accepting that the plating and testing of all goods vehicles is inevitable, it is• now the task of operator associations to ensure that their members get a fair deal. Impartial treatment by the Transport Ministry seems promised by the way in which it has, for example, called in operators at an early stage on C. and U. revisions and on discussing 'freight agreements abroad.
I3ut over-restrictive weight plating, strictly enforced, could mean the difference between solvency and bankruptcy and, seen in the long term, no government can expect support if it tries to control rates at one end while depressing payload capacities at the other. Conversely, hauliers' representatives will have to be ready to accept reasonable ratinrrsty manufacturers and not create delay by crying for the moon.