1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148 
Further Observations on the "Report"
Page 73
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Another Association Adds Its Quota to the Great Volume of Criticism Which Has Been Aroused by the Recommendations of the Rail and Road Conference
N the introduction to its views on the Salter Report, the Commercial
Motor Users Association wishes to make it perfectly clear that it is in no way committed to support the conclusions and recommendations contained in this report. The representatives of road-transport interests were not appointed officially to represent any organization concerned with road transport.
It emphasizes the fact that although one of the duties of the conference was to consider the regulation of goods transport by road and by rail, no rer. commendations were made with regard to the regulations applying to the rail, except to relieve the companies of an obligation to publish rates in connection with their reviler road-transport services. It is submitted that the conference should have recommended the relaxation of the many regulations and requirements, statutory and administrative, which hamper the railways and increase their operating costs, rather than to recommend the placing of additional burdens and restrictions on road transport, which must inevitably hamper its freedom and utility.
Road Transport Not Subsidized.
• The tAssociation agrees completely with the views expressed, that commercial road transport should not pay less than its fair share of the cost of the roads, and it admits the need for some adjustment in the scale of taxation, with a view to increasing relatively to other classes the amount now levied upon the heavier vehicles, a considerable development in which has taken place since the present scale of licence duties was fixed, but, excepting the preferential advantage which these heavier vehicles have obtained in the absence of such adjustment, the Association strongly dissents from the assumptiou, implicit in the conclusions of the conference, that road transport is in any way subsidized as regards its contribution to road cost, but no readjustment which has any regard to equity can possibly affect, to any appreciable extent, the competition of road transport with the railways.
Any attempt to maintain artificial standards by restricting road transport and raising its cost, must hinder the solution of the real problem and can be achieved only at the expense of industry.
The Association is gravely concerned with the disregard of the wider interest of British industry, which is displayed in the recommendations, and urges the Minister to give full consideration to the criticism raised before proposing legislation on the lines which the conference has put forward.
to be continued on the same scale, and which are entirely of the character of non-recurring expenditure. Apart from this expenditure upon new construction, a large amount of the work must result in reducing the cast of maintenance, and further reduction will inevitably follow the greatly increasing use of pneumatic tyres.
An Unsatisfactory Compromise.
The compromise of setting "community use" against " legacy from the past" was unfair, as it failed to take account of the contributions made by road transport through taxation towards the cost •of the roads in the period upon which the value of this legacy was based. The compromise relieves the community entirely of any further contribution to the Cost of existing benefits which it will continue to receive, or of any contribution to the cost of additional benefits which it will receive in future through the provision of new roads and the carrying out of major improvements.
If the community value of the roads is to be set off against the legacy value, it is only just that the capital cost of all new toad construction should be similarly set off against the value which the community would derive from it, so that this capital cost should be excluded from the amount to be Provided by the taxation of commercial vehicles. The compromise has also not taken account of the real dependence of tho railway upon the roads.
Costs Unfairly Included.
There are I.Z.15,000 miles of unclassified roads in the country, more than three-quarters of the total mileage, and costing .£17,000,000 per year. Public-service vehicles rarely use them, and there can be no justification for placing their whole cost upon the owners of road vehicles. The cost of street-cleansing, watering, snow-clearing and emptying of gullies, etc., amounts to 14,500,000 per annum, and cannot be entirely attributed to the use of mechanical transport.
The Association is prepared to concur in taxation which accords with the proposals of the Royal Commission, i.e., one-third of the cost to fall on ratepayers mid two-thirds on vehicle owners.
The data used by the conference to arrive at the apportionment of taxation represents a very small proportion of road transport and does not accord with general experience.
The conference has failed to make sufficient allowance for the reduced wear and tear of roads consequent upon the use of multi axle vehicles.
It opposes the suggestion that a rebate of taxation should be granted to vehicles exceeding 4 tons unladen and exclusively employed within an immediate port area.
The proposal to restrict the right of ancillary users to carry traffic other than their own is not consistent with their payment of the same scale of taxation as applies to those who are not so restricted.
The duties seriously penalize vehicles using other motive power than petrol, and thus prejudice the manufacture of certain types of vehicle using homeproduced fuels.
Regulation and Licensing.
The Association believes that the regulation and licensing of goods vehicles could only be justified on the assumption that it is necessary to restrict the competitive power of road transport in the interest of railway traffic. Even if it were accepted that this assumption might justify the proposals if everything had been done to make railway transit as cheap and efficient as possible, no such justification can exist in circumstances where the high cost of carriage by railway is definitely attributable to the regulations governing the fixing of railway rates and charges, and to the inordinately high incidence of labour costs in the railway services.
.. Any proposal which permits a section of industry to function only under a licence subject to the payment of certain rates of wages and certain conditions of service, is an interference with the freedom of industry, and the fact that third parties could oppose the issue of licences renders the proposal still more objectionable. The proper maintenance of a vehicle could be secured by an annual declaration to be made by the owner.
• The Association is not opposed to a fair-wages clause for drivers in the employ of road hauliers, but it opposes the extension to drivers employed by ancillary users, as they of teu form only a small part of the staff employed by the latter, the wages and conditions of which staff are governed by circumstances not applicable to road transport.
Opposition to Journey Records.
It opposes the proposal that journey
records should be kept. This is an interference which would involve unnecessary expense and delay and would be unlikely to produce results of practical usefulness.
The proposal that the Minister should seek power to prohibit the diversion of traffic from the railways to the roads is opposed. The method of transport should be determined by • economic needs ; artificial regulation would be as little in the interests of the present forms of transport as in those of industry generally and would be prejudicial to any new form of transport that science may evolve.