FTA says it again: leave us out of TML plans
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THE Freight Transport Association remains implacably opposed to the whole scheme for transport managers' licensing but, since the Government has accepted the EEC directive, it asks that ownaccount operators should be left outside the system in the UK—as they will be on the Continent.
The FTA this week followed up its initial comments on the DoE proposals for controlling access to the occupation of road haulage operator (CM, September 5) with a detailed statement of its views. The DoE had asked interested parties to comment, to help in introducing a scheme to meet the EEC directive.
Own account operation should be excluded, says FTA, because the proposed qualification will inevitably be of a low standard which will contribute little, if anything, to efficiency or road safety; it would impose extra complication on industrial transport which is already overloaded with regulation; it puts emphasis on commercial examination subjects which cannot reasonably be made a statutory requirement for ownaccount opera tors; and it would bear particularly hard and irrelevantly on small businesses — for example, a retailer with one van.
Automatic
But the FTA wants the "grandfather rights"—that is, automatic qualification for existing operators/managersto be extended to own-account men. It argues that any other course would deprive existing own-account managers of their rights by what was, in effect, retrospective legislation. However, the Association accepts that, after the transition period, any company wishing to carry for hire and reward would have to comply fully with requirements for admission to the haulage occupation.
The FTA hopes the TML scheme will not lead to major changes in the Operators' Licensing system, which it finds "incomparably superior" to the old A, B and C-licence arrangement. It suggests that an additional condition attached to the licence of any firm wishing to carry for hire would be the only change necessary.
The DoE's apparent plans to include more vehicles and a greater spread of managers than the EEC Directive do not find approval with the FTA. It argues for 3-1tons payload or 6 tonnes gvw as the dividing line—or possibly even the 7.5 tonnes gross used for the new hgv licence split. And it thinks that one licensed manager per undertaking (with the option for firms to apply for more if it suits them) is preferable to suggestions of one licensed manager per operating centre, as called for in the 1968 Transport Act legislation upon which DoE wishes to base its scheme.
On establishing the good "repute" of managers, the Association thinks account should be taken only of offences directly related to transport, and that there should be an effective appeals system.
Syllabus
If the TML scheme were to apply to own-account, then FTA would want a road safety syllabus to replace the commercial items; and it proposes that people holding professional transport qualifications should be exempt from examination under the scheme.
Licences should be for life, says the Association, and in emergencies (eg death of a manager) a firm should be allowed to run without a licensed man for a year as proposed by the EEC, rather than the three months laid down in the Transport Act.
The Road Haulage Association policy on this matter as agreed by its national council is that the requirements should apply only to hauliers (CM October 24). However, it wanted a three-year qualifying period for "grandfather rights " for operators genuinely in the hire and reward business only.