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136 
• NO PROTECTION IN CONTRACTS T HE Northern Licensing Authority, Mr.
Page 52
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I. A. T. Hanlon, sitting at Durham on Monday, referred to a contract which, he said, did not give adequate protection for many operators.
He was hearing an application by Mr. Frederick Belgian, of Low Fell, Co. Durham, for a Contract A licence in respect of himself and A. Braithwaite and Co. Ltd., of Knaresborough, Yorks. The application was for one vehicle already in possession and one which was to be acquired. Mr. Hanlon said his attention had been drawn to certain contracts in the traffic area which had resulted in the granting of a Contract A licence. The circumstances of those contracts meant they were not really contracts within the meaning of the Road Traffic Act because they gave the customer the right to say: "1 haven't any goods for you this week and if you are stood off for six weeks, it is too bad ", That was not a contract within the meaning of the Act, he said.
These contracts should not be passed because while Mr. Belgian might be in a position to weather the ups and downs, there were those who sank all they had in a deposit on a vehicle and committed themselves to hire-purchase and then found that things were not so rosy as they looked. Some of these people had no previous experience of working for themselves. The Act said—and this was an important matter, commented Mr. Hanlon—that there must be a contract for continuous service for a period.
Contracts were being entered into in the Northern area and perhaps in other areas with clauses like the one in Mr. Belgian's contract with Braithwaites. This said that the company guaranteed to employ him subject to weather conditions and other circumstances beyond the company's control and the earnings of the vehicles would be not less than E120 a month. There were one-man operators who got a Contract A licence and found it was not worth the paper it was written on, Mr. Ronald S. Massey, Yorkshire area manager for A. Braithwaite and Co. Ltd.'s quarries, said his company had operated this type of agreement for a number of years and not one operator so far as he knew had gone out of business. In fact, they seemed to be prospering, he said. Mr. Hanlon: "Your experience is only from last August, when you joined your firm. The incidence of the surrender of licences is higher in Contract A than in any others. I refer to licences that do not run their full length."
Mr. Massey said his company required this contract urgently.
Mr. Hanlon: "I don't suggest that my observations apply to your company."
Mr. Hanlon said he would grant a short-term ficence for three months. This would give Mr. Massey an opportunity to take the matter up further with his firm.