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say hauliers
Page 7
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association, "they always say the problem is too much bureaucracy." Both associations say that they expected to see the majority of hauliers telling us that tougher laws are needed — most hauliers want to run lawful and responsible, as well as profitable operations, they say.
Several trends emerged from our survey. Many companies think that the Traffic Area Offices are becoming slower and slower when processing correspondence and giving out new licences.
One North Country transport manager told us: "We applied for a new licence in January of last year, 1989, and the thing did not arrive until December 1989. Our drivers were being stopped and questioned about out-of-date licences. Ridiculous."
A Cambridgeshire haulier commented: "You can never get hold of the "Traffic Area Office when you need to. No one is ever available and they never want to give you information or advice." Another told us: "Several times I've phoned up the LA at 10arn and got nothing but an answerphone message."
The vast majority of our interviewees feel that traffic area offices are becoming hopelessly under-staffed and that the bias of their decisions is constantly swinging towards the public rather than the industry.
Enforcement problems cropped up time after time, in reply to virtually every question we asked. The mood was best summed up by an operator from Wiltshire. "The whole thing's a total waste of time. We've only been stopped twice in the past two years and we didn't have our licence checked or the weight of the truck inspected at either." Illegally parked trucks can be seen anywhere, said our interviewees, and more site visits were recommended, time and time again.
"The system does not seem to encourage any sort of preventative action," said one Scottish operator. "The Licensing Authorities and their staff should get out and about more, checking up on what is going on and just dropping in to see operators in their patch."
A tide of red tape seems to be swamping the whole licensing system, say hauliers, and they will be looking to John Carpenter to give the system a clear lead.