Spirit Control N O signs are yet apparent of any serious
Page 41
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
attempt to badger the Government into ending fuel rationing for commercial vehicles. Mr. F. J. Erroll, M.P. for Altrincham and Sale, brought the matter up during the recent debate on fuel and power. He pointed out
that there was no justification for rationing oil fuel, and that users of red petrol were almost always able to get what they required. "Why is it necessary," he asked, "to continue the rationing of red petrol?"
Subsequently, the scope of the discussion widened. It ranged over the five continents and the seven seas. There was much glib talk of pipelines, refining capacity, sterling oil, the dollar gap, Marshall aid and the patriotism of motorists. The Government suffered a defeat on the motion for the adjournment, and, what with one thing and another, nobody worried any further with Mr. Erroll's question In such circumstances, silence means a refusal. The commercial -vehicle owners are themselves largely to blame for not, pressing the point. It seems clear that the freeing of red' petrol would make little difference in the amount used yet the ritual for obtaining liquid fuel is becoming more and more involved.
One may wonder why more vociferous protests have not been made in the past against the established Form ,Z/F/5$. . -It, calls upon the operator to gaze into the future and to say what work he will be doing within the next12 Weeks. . He has to make a declaration that the ration issued will be used in accordance with his forecast.
The declaration makes nonsense of the whole form. If the ration be based on the operator's requirements, there should be none left for other uses. If the information he is compelled to give does not make possible an accurate estimate of the ration, the elaborate structure of Z/F/5B is completely futile.
Cynical Tactlessness .
Far from realizing this fact, the Ministry of Transport has recently thrown out a new annex—called, rather ominously, Annex 1, as if to indicate that there are more to follow. This enlargement of the existing premises is reserved for holders of A and B licences.
With cynical tactlessness, it begins by asking whether the operator's work has been curtailed by the 25-mile restriction. If the• answer be "Yes," it adds with an unexpected touch of humour (knowing full well that in most cases the answer would be much longer and highly unprintable), the haulier is to say what traffic he has lost.
Here we must surely have the ultimate reductio ad absurduin, the form to end all forms. It is tedious enough for the operator to give, in painstaking detail, the traffic for which he needs petrol. Why should he be asked, on top of this, to indicate the traffic for which he does not need petrol?
There is worse to come. The Ministry must have felt that the reasonably simple declaration on Form Z/F/5B, absurd though it was, let the haulier off too lightly. The matter has been put right by the substitution, on Annex 1, of a bureaucratic masterpiece. It falls into three parts, the first of which reads as follows: I/We declare that the vehicle(s) referred to in column (4) of the accompanying Forms Z/F/5B is/are available for work and is/are not (a) private motor vehicle(s) as defined in the Motor Spirit Regulations, 1948, as amended by the Motor Spirit (Amendment) Regulations, 1948.
This is guaranteed to make the average haulier groggy indeed, and in no condition to deal adequately with the next onslaught.
I/We also declare that any fuel ration granted as a result of this application will be used only in vehicles authorized under current motor vehicle licences and used under carrier's licences or defence permits held by me/us for the purposes mentioned in (1), (2) and (3) of Form Z/F/5B-which do not ipdude the carriage of goods for hire or reward in contravention of the provisions of Section 52 of the Transport Act, 1947 (which, with certain exceptions. prohibit the carriage of goods for hire or reward outside a radius of 25 miles of the operating centre of the vehicle) The operator, once he has read this, is unlikely ever to allow his vehicles to leave the garage for fear of the consequences It is hardly ..fair of the Ministry to conclude the declaration, with a facetious reference to what is ironically described as an , ",Explanatory " Memorandum Z/F/G.V.O. (Memo 9).
Robbing a Bank
This is not much different from asking an operator to swear he will not use his petrol ration for the purpose of robbing a bank, or poisoning his motherin-law, or suborning a Ministry official to explain the meaning of Annex 1 in simple language. The haulier who contravenes Section 52 renders himself liable to severe penalties. He would at the same time be breaking the conditions of his licence, thus committing an offence under Section 9 of the Road and Rail Traffic Act.
Annex 1 appears to assume that the haulier is willing and anxious to do all these things. He is forestalled by having to sign the declaration, which, brings him within the scope of a third piece of legislation, Article 5(2) of the Motor Fuel (Control) Order, 1948.
The whole procedure is symptomatic of the misuse which is being made of the motor-spirit rationing system. Its original purpose of saving fuel has been forgotten. Instead, it is being used to enforce the policy of the Road Haulage Executive, a policy that actually tends to waste fuel, particularly where a haulier is allowed to carry traffic outside the 25-mile limit in one direction only.
The general public does not realize how red-petrol
rationing has developed into a spiritual dictatorship by the authorities. The time is ripe for the Road Haulage Association to begin the attack on Annex 1, with its scarcely disguised imputation against the respect of hauliers for the law, and its lunatic demand to know what operators would not be allowed to do with the petrol they are not going to get.
At the same time, the R.H.A., the Traders' Road Transport Association, and other organizations representing the C-licence holder, should press for the discontinuance of Form Z/F/5B. The next step would be a concerted effort all along the line for the freeing of oil fuel and red petrol from restrictions that can no longer pretend to have as their purpose or their effect the saving of fuel.