a a more like a crime sheet than a technical journal'
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IF the number of prosecutions and convictions grows much greater The Commercial Motor will begin to look more like a crime sheet than a technical journal: Someone somewhere may already be adding up the fines and legal costs recorded each week and calculating that, spread over the whole of the road transport industry, they would be equivalent to a substantial increase in wages or in the fuel tax. Perhaps now is the time to consider whether this indirect contribution to the national exchequer is achieving the desired effect.
Certainly the impression is that over the years enforcement has been reluctant and that as a result there has developed a fairly widespread—although by no means universal—disregard for the tine points of the Jaw. This is not altogether surprising when one remembers the complexity of the legal requirements and prohibitions and the multiplicity of regulations. It is unnecessary to investigate any further than the excellent documents produced by the West Midland Regional Maintenance Advisory Committee to realize that the operator has hi § work cut out even to be reasonably sure than when one of his vehicles is tested it will not be awarded a G.V.9.
The committee's maintenance primer sets out 16 separate tasks, each of which is broken down into several specific actions. Failure to carry out the whole series could lead to a warning and the same result might follow lack of attention to any detail.
To the reputable operator even a deferred prohibition notice is a reason for self-reproach, and the operators who have never had one must be lucky as well as conscientious. Human error may occasionally allow even a gross mechanical fault to pass unobserved. Every operator, however good his system and however much pride he takes in it, must be prepared for a mistake which in an extreme case could develop into a prohibition. This is unlikely, but is still possible. The inevitable result is to bring the law into contempt. When to some degree every operator can be guilty, none of them considers himself as an offender.
To treat all offenders and all offences alike may be good law but not good policy.lithe purpose is to raise standards throughout the industry, it might be more profitable to provide a clear distinction between the good and the had operator. Even to suggest as much might be thought near to condoning the illegal act, but it is important not to lose sight of the difference between the ordinary crime and, let us say, the parking regulations. The thief is not thought less guilty, much less free from guilt, because he robs a millionaire who would not miss the money. The motorist who parks illegally but in a completely safe spot has universal sympathy if he is caught. Nobody would report him to the authorities as he would if he were seen robbing a bank.
To the public the road traffic offence becomes blameworthy only if it is dangerous. The law can hardly make this distinction. It must exact a penalty even if the offender is parked in a quiet side street within a prohibited zone. is speeding along a safe stretch of road, is driving a little beyond the statutory period in order to spend the night at home, or is altering his log sheet to rectify a miscalculation. Where the law goes astray is when it concentrates too much on this type of offence and neglects to pursue the more lerious and inveterate transgressor whom everybody would like to see banned from the industry.
It is, of course, easy to complain that the law is too rigid. Obviously the standards must be precise and there will be hard cases where an operator has just overstepped the mark. It still seems unsatisfactory that motoring and road transport offences should continue to be dealt with as criminal actions, which automatically attract the appropriate penalty, at a time when the accent in dealing with what one would have thought more serious crimes is not so much on punishment as on the motivation behind the act. Instead of doubling or trebling the fines it might be worth while investigating what makes a particular operator kick over the traces.
Economic Reasons?
There is more than a hint that the reasons are often economic. Nobody would dispute that on certain civil engineering projects in the past tipping operators, and especially owner-drivers, have been persuaded to fetch and carry at rates which could not possibly cover the costs of proper legal operation. Some of the operators have not even bothered to apply for a carrier's licence, conduct which puts them beyond the pale in any case.
Where this has been discovered the contractors have been known to persuade the Licensing Authority to issue shortterm B licences to regularize the position. With this experience behind them some of the operators may have concluded that they could with the same impunity forget about the regulations governing drivers' hours, speed limits, vehicle maintenance and so on. In any case they were compelled to break the law in order to remain in business. Punishing the offenders, much as they may have deserved it, seemed to have little effect when there were so many of them and so many others ready to take their places.
A better remedy for a not very creditable state of affairs might be the formation of groups of operators able to negotiate as a body for a satisfactory scale of rates. If the operator is paid properly he has less inducement and no excuse for breaking the law. This solution has already been tested. In some districts groups of tipping vehicle operators are now well established.
It might be a good idea for the licensing authorities and their staffs to investigate the effect of this move and if possible to compare the situation with the previous state of near-anarchy. Some valuable lessons might be drawn and applied in other fields. Maintenance advisory committees are concentrating on an ugly symptom which shows clearly that there is something wrong. The next move should be to trace the symptom back to its cause—in other words, to make a more complete diagnosis and plan the treatment accordingly.