No Supplementary Ration for London Retail Deliveries
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SUPPLEMENTARY fuel rations will not be issued for retail deliveries in the Metropolitan Police District, except for milk and coal. This fact is contained in an emergency newsletter circulated to members of the London and Home Counties Division of the Traders' Road Transport Association.
Licensing Authorities in the division have confirmed that records of journeys, mileage and fuel consumption, as specified on form Z/F/3, should not be sent with applications for supplementary rations. It is stated that the right to call for such information must be retained. and presumably will be invoked in respect of subsequent claims that supplementary allowances are insufficient.
New District Offices
In the Eastern Traffic Area, district offices are to be opened in Cambridge. Ipswich and Norwich, and there will be 11 sub-district offices. The Eastern Licensing Authority is intent on issuing basic coupons, and operators applying for supplementary rations are asked to be patient.
Applicants for short-term B licences should make their pooling arrangements before applying, when they should give the names of members of the pool for whom they wish to work, together with details of those vehicles belonging to those members for which a basic ration has already been applied for. It is necessary to show that the arrangement will result in a substantial saving of fuel.
Seventeen traffic offices and four district offices are being opened in the South Eastern Traffic Area. Fleet operators who have already asked for their basic ration to be apportioned to different branches of their businesses may submit applications for supplementary rations at the local office concerned. Where the basic ration has been allocated to one address, application for the whole fleet will have to be made to the appropriate office.
Short-term B Licences Applicants in this area for short-term B licences will be advised to forward a. list of companies concerned, together with letters from companies supporting the application. These letters should state that goods are normally carried in C-licence vehicles, and information should be given as to the type of goods to be carried and the volume, frequency and scope of the traffic involved.
The South Eastern Licensing Authority will require a satisfactory explanation of why the goods, including those of the supporting companies, cannot go by rail.
Mr. R. E. G. Brown, divisional secretary, has pressed the question of allowing supplementary rations for small service vans and those used to carry special equipment. Me has been advised that applications can he considered under the heading of " excep c4 tional circumstances." The Minister of Transport has directed that supplementary rations will not generally be made for vehicles of I ton or less unladen weight.
"The proportion of basic allowance to normal requirements will not be a factor in the issue of supplementary," says Mr. Brown. "This underlines the importance of the objections we are making on information supplied by members of the unfairness of the principle which governs the issue of the basic ration for goods vehicles."
M.P. CRITICIZES INCREASE
THE raising of the wholesale price of petrol by 34d. a gallon was criticized by Mr. R. R. Stokes, M.P., at Ipswich last week. He said the extra cost of bringing oil round the Cape was only id. a gallon, or approximately 15s. a ton. "As the oil companies make £3 10s. a ton profit on every ton put into a tanker in the Persian Gulf, they can very well carry this extra cost and make less profit."
Mr. Stokes asked what the remaining 21d. a gallon was for. "I presume to maintain profits on a less turnover." The extra charge could never have been imposed were the oil industry not a virtual monopoly, and the sooner the Monopolies Commission examined the industry the better for everyone.
FEW WILL MAINTAIN 75% OF MILEAGE VEW operators can expect supple' mentary rations to enable them to maintain 75 per cent. of normal running, which was the Government's original intention, state the Traders' Road Transport Association.
"Road transport is as essential as the railways. Neither can largely replace the other. It is improbable that the railways are in a position to deal with any sudden large transfer in the present emergency of traffic from road to rail," the Association declare.
"WELCOME MOTORISTS"
" IAM sure you will all do the best you can to welcome motorists who are having to put up their cars and travel with us," Mr. C. R. H. Wreathall, general manager of East Yorkshire Motor Services, Ltd., told long-service employees last week. He added: "Perhaps when rationing days cease, if you have treated them kindly they will remain with us."