Margin of Safety
Page 45
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Political Commentary By JAN US ACCORDING to a report in the Press, an official of the Road Haulage Executive has described as a " ramp " the growing practice for carriers to supply vehicles to traders with a C hiring allowance. Although figures are not available of the extent to which the hiring margin is being used, there is little doubt that the number of vehicles serving trade and industry in this way has increased during the past year or two.
The procedure authorizing an operator to hire or borrow a vehicle is contained in the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, and advantage has frequently been taken of it ever since the Act was passed. The extension of this procedure is. no more untoward or blameworthy than the general increase in the number of C licences.
Section 2 (6) (b) of the 1933 Act states that vehicles authorized to be used under a licence may include " motor vehicles from time to time in the possession of the holder of the licence under an agreement for hire or loan." The hiring allowance may be used with all classes of licence, but the unladen weight of the vehicles should not exceed the authorized unladen weight.
Any trader, therefore, may take out a C licence, or extend his existing C licence, and hire the necessary vehicle or vehicles from a haulier Unlike the procedure where the haulier carries under a contract A licence, the trader with a hiring allowance has himself to supply the driver. The haulier usually undertakes to keep the vehicle in good running order and to supply fuel and oil. In the event of breakdown or overhaul, he may even provide a replacement, in which case the trader has to notify the Licensing Authority of the alteration.
Where traffic is carried under a contract A licence, the trader has to give an undertaking to use the vehicle for at least 12 months Where the work is done on a C hiring margin, the contract may be for any length of time, and does not require the approval of the Licensing Authority This is an important distinction when it is remembered that, since the Sergeant appeal, contract A licences have been more difficult to get.
Explanation of a "Ramp" The outstanding advantage to the haulier of the C hiring arrangement is that the vehicles are not subject to the 25-mile limit now imposed on contract A vehicles not carrying excluded traffic or operating under a permit. Herein, no doubt, lies the explanation of the reference by the R.H.E. spokesman to a " ramp": a term not commonly applied by the nationalized road service to any part of the 1933 Act.
It may be, of course, that the official was misquoted, and did not really use the words attributed to him. Reference to the dictionary strengthens the doubt The word " ramp " has many meanings, including "difference in level between opposite abutments of rampant arch," which presumably neither the speaker nor the Press had in mind. Regrettably, the only definitions that seem at all likely would apply, if at all, more nearly to the R H E. itself than to the C hiring margin.
For example, according to the dictionary. a "ramp" is-said to involve the "levying of exorbitant prices." One might, with suitable deprecatory noises, accept this as the required definition if the reference had been to the recent application for increased railway charges. It can hardly apply to the amount likely to be paid by a trader for the hire of a vehicle.
We are thrown back on the only other possible meaning. "Ramp, v.i. and t. (Chiefly of lion) stand on hind-legs with fore-paws in air, assume or be in threatening posture: (now usu. facet.) storm, rage, rush about" This is just as bad. We are back to the R.H E again. The reference to the lion is particularly significant. The R.H.E., from the haulier's viewpoint at least, has certainly assumed a "threatening posture." As its powers mature, it is using them more and more to curtail the activities of operators.
Process of Attrition No long-distance undertaking Worth acquisition has been left free The appointed day has been hurried on, although the organization of the RI-LE. is far from complete Permits are being doled out grudgingly. The process of attrition continues in the traffic courts While the R.H.E. is on the ramp in this manner, some of the victims have made use a the fact that the gulf between haulier and C licensee may be 'crossed at one point. There is a way out of the trap, not suitable in every case, but perfectly legitimate where operators are able to take it. One might understand, therefore, if the R.H.E. did feel constrained to ramp in the other sense (now usu. facet.), to storm, rage and rush about.
The C hiring allowance may have a double effect on the R.H.E. Compensation for cessation of business has come to be described, a little hyperbolically, as payment for goodwill. If the haulier whose undertaking has been acquired starts up again as the hirer of vehicles to his old customers, under the protection of their C licences, the R.H.E. may feel cheated, like the man who burgles a coiners' den. The feeling is understandable, although without justification.
Most acquired operators have gone over with their businesses, or emigrated, or taken up some other occupation. The usefulness of the C hiring allowance may increase with the dwindling of permits. Hauliers faced with a restriction to a radius of 25 miles may welcome the provision in the Road and Rail Traffic Act which, for a change, helps them over the obstacles of the Transport Act.
There is one neatly ironical twist to the story. Some of the acquired undertakings previously operated vehicles on the C hiring margins of their customers. According to Section 59 of the Transport Act, that part of "Section 1 a the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933 (which prohibits the use of goods vehicles in certain cases without a licence), shall not apply to the Commission."
Presumably, this may be taken to mean either that the Commission need not, or that it must not, operate vehicles under a licence If the latter alternative be correct, the Commission would be legally forbidden to operate within the C hiring allowance of a' trader. The one avenue of escape for the haulier is the one avenue blocked to his rival.