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eu ropean scene by Bill Godwin

14th July 1972, Page 50
14th July 1972
Page 50
Page 50, 14th July 1972 — eu ropean scene by Bill Godwin
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0 Danish hauliers eager for EEC entry

DELEGATES representing almost 7000 Danish hauliers and own-account operators have unanimously supported a resolution asking all members of Landsforeningen Danske Vognmaend (the Danish RHA) to vote for EEC entry in the country's general referendum on October 2. Denmark has the highest cv density in Europe (53 vehicles per 1000 people) and the operators' association feels that EEC membership is the only way to prevent economic stagnation.

Wider opportunities are forecast for road transport in the enlarged Common Market but new safeguards will be required to control the operation of foreign vehicles which under present liberal rules face few restrictions. Danish hauliers will want new agreements with countries in which movement of their own vehicles is subject to controls.

Although almost 90 per cent of Denmark's imports enter by sea the share of road transport in export traffic has now risen to 28 per cent of the total tonnage — mainly sand, ballast, etc, within a relatively small radius of the frontier.

Total exports of Danish meat and food products amounted to 3,700,000 tons (1970) and over 25 per cent of this was also carried by road. Of 260,000 commercial vehicles registered in Denmark 150,000 were of a gvw below 2000 kg.

0 Belgium plans operators' licensing

FIRST DRAFTS for a drastic revision of road transport legislation have now been presented to the Belgian Minister of Transport. All vehicles with a payload of up to 500kg in hire and reward operations and all own-account units with a payload up to 3 tonnes will be freed from licensing requirements if the new proposals are adopted.

For haulage operators three kinds of licences will be issued: local work within a 25km radius; long-distance work; and international services. Special licences, for a maximum period of six months, will be issued for certain types of seasonal traffic. All domestic operations with foreign registered vehicles will also require special licences unless their use is governed by bilateral or multinational agreements.

The new licences will be issued for a period of three years (local operations) or 10 years (trunking and international). There will be no set periods for the validity of own-account licences. Applicants for haulage licences will have to satisfy the issuing authority that certain requirements are fulfilled. For the grant of a local licence evidence will have to be given of a "satisfactory" professional background and business knowledge. Conditions for the issue of a long-distance licence include proof of business viability; ie the applicant has to furnish evidence that a certain income level has been reached per ton of payload of his vehicle or fleet in current use. Only holders of the long-distance licences will be considered for international licences and grant of this is also dependent on satisfactory professional conduct with particular reference to international haulage practice.

For own-account operations the main criterion will be evidence of satisfactory maintenance of vehicles to keep them in a fit and serviceable condition. Own-account licence holders must also be listed in the country's commercial register.

Strenuous efforts to raise standards include the official opening recently of the first hgv drivers' school at Ghent. The centre had already been functioning for several months and the first intake of trainees has now graduated after a 13-week course of which the last two weeks are spent with a haulage operator. The second Belgian hgv training school is now open at Liege.

At the end of 1971 Belgium had almost 191,000 commercial vehicles (176,000 on own-account operations). In addition there were 10,200 trailers and 19,000 semitrailers, the latter showing an increase of 13 per cent over the 1970 figure.

0 Graphic timetable for Dutch buses

WITH remarkable faith in the equanimity of its travelling public and giving even greater credit to the perseverance of the inquiring mind the Dutch have issued a novel and ingenious countrywide bus route book and guide to take the place of conventional timetables. It is issued under the auspices of the railway-associated bus operators, who have found that producing and up-dating timetables is expensive — and few copies were sold.

. The operators now produce a gazetteer and 29 diagrammatic maps of all Netherlands bus routes. The alphabetical index is keyed to the maps and gives the operator's name or popular short form as well as the route numbers serving each listing. Each operator's area is printed in a different colour on the diagrams and a simple code is used to identify frequency a T Thus a solid line indicates

services per hour; a broken is used hy routes with one bus per how while a thin broken line shows a greater headway than one bus per hour. Telephone numbers are listed for the enquiry desks of the 65 operators covering all parts ,-)f Holland.

Another interesting pu. •transpo.t guide is the Alpine Bus timetable cow-ring the entire Central European Alpine ref'on between Graz and Grenoble.

The new edition carries details of imost 300 local and regional routes served by operators in France, Switzerland, Italy, Germany and Austria. The book contains 15 regional maps and also lists long-distance road services, such as Europabus links, between large European cities and the Alps.


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