Big C-hire Conversion Appeal Allowed: More Evidence A N appeal by
Page 42
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Mr. Samuel Anderson, Wilson Road, Newhouse, Motherwell. against the Scottish Licensing Authority's refusal of an A licence for 27 vehicles (1774 tons) to replace vehicles used under C-hiring margins, was allowed by the Transport Tribunal in Edinburgh on Tuesday.
As reported in Tlu, COMMelY 101 Motor on November 16. 1956. the 27 vehicles sought consisted of 17 eightwheelers and 10 tippers. They were to replace 62 six-wheelers and eightwheelers and 19 tippers. Ten of Mr. Anderson's customers had C-hiring margins, but wished to give them up.
Mr. Anderson already held special A licences for 48 vehicles and two trailers based at Newhouse, Manchester. Birmingham. Cardiff and London. and a B licence for 10 eight-wheeled tippers. He had about 20 vehicles on C licences.
Unintentional Law-breaking The Tribunal held that Mr. Anderson had been acting illegally, but they were satisfied he did not know he was breaking the law.
Mr. Hubert Hull, president, giving decision, said the Tribunal would allow the appeal and remit the application to the Licensing Authority so that the Authority might hear evidence by the • objectors • When the case opened on Monday. the question of who was the employer of drivers hired by customers from a drivers' agency in Motherwell was considered. Mr. W. R. Grieve, Q.C., who appeared for the respondents (the British Transport Commission and 28 hauliers), said that Mr. Anderson's wife operaled the agency. Customers went to Mr. Anderson. or, in a few instances, to Mrs. Anderson and asked for a vehicle and driver. They did not regard the drivers as their servants. Mr. Grieve submitted that the appellant had been operating illegally.
Mr. Hull said that the difficulty was that the only witness who spoke to the agency's operations was Mrs. Anderson. It seemed that there were 100 or 120 drivers and they were paid by her whether they drove or not.
Licensing Authority Wrong Mr. Hull held that the Licensing Authority had been wrong in saying that the question of who employed the drivers was not a matter for him. The fact that the question might be the subject of proceedings in another court had nothing to do with the case.
In giving the Tribunal's decision. Mr. Hull said that Mr. Anderson had been unable to meet the needs of a number of his customers with his licensed fleet and for some years had been engaged in C-hiring. The customers, it was said by Mr. Anderson, had been employing the drivers on their own account, but the drivers were in general the servants of Mrs. Anderson. It was impossible to infer from the facts that a contract had been created between a particular customer and a particular driver.
" We hold that, whether she knew it or not. Mrs. Anderson, throughout this period, contravened the Act in that she was using these vehicles because her servants were driving them." Mr. Hull declared.
Having regard to the needs of the customers, the Tribunal thought, on the evidence so far produced, that Mr. Anderson ought to have a grant. But the Licensing Authority had disposed of the case at the end of the applicant's evidence.
The Authority would be told to grant Mr. Anderson a licence for eight vehicles—four "fiats" of 74 tons each and four tippers of 5 tons each—unless he was satisfied by objectors' evidence either that no grant should be made, or that one smaller should be made.
The order would recite an undertaking by Mr. Anderson to discontinue hiring out vehicles without drivers and would direct to the Licensing Authority to grant Mr. Anderson a short-term A licence for 50 tons unladen weight, pending final disposal of the application.
A short-term licence was being awarded, said Mr. Hull, because of the immediate needs of Mr. Anderson's customers. The order would not be drawn up for two weeks.
R.T.C. WIN APPEAL I N Edinburgh, on Tuesday, the Trans port Tribunal allowed an appeal by the British Transport Commission and overturned a decision by the Scottish Licensing Authority, who had granted Lawson Brothers (Kirkintilloch), Ltd., East High Street, Kirkintilloch, a vehicle of 81 tons unladen.
RIBBLE TO KEEP HIGHER FARES?
AN application may be submitted by Ribble Motor Services, Ltd., to the North Western Traffic Commissioners to make permanent the higher fares introduced under the emergency regulations.
Costs are stated to have risen since December, but municipal councillors in the company's area ffave already protested against Ribble's proposed move.
It is unlikely that the 3d. minimum " emergency" fare introduced by London Transport will be reduced to the former level of 24d.
Wallasey Corporation on Tuesday lowered bus fares to levels obtaining before the extra is. a gallon was added to the fuel tax. Birkenhead Transport Committee were due to hold a special meeting this week to discuss the matter. Liverpool Corporation fares, which went up in November but not under the emergency regulations, are not affected by the Budget.