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19th October 1973
Page 55
Page 55, 19th October 1973 — letters
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

'Appalling wait for 0-licence decision'

On April 4 1973 I arranged to supply, through my company, a new commercial vehicle to an own-account operator who up until this time operated light vans under 30cwt. As the new vehicle to be supplied has an unladen weight of over 30cwt an 0 licence was duly applied for.

At the time of writing, some five months after the application, my customer still has not been granted his 0 licence. I think that this is a scandalous situation as my customer was told that his application would take approximately nine to 12 weeks.

Another situation that arose during the initial stages of this saga was, that my client telephoned the appropriate traffic area office, in order to ask a question relating to the application form, and was told that he would not be able to complete the form until he had received the log book for his vehicle.

Had my client been naive enough to accept this information, you will no doubt see how ludicrous the situation would have been: in order to obtain a log book for a new vehicle, it would have to be taxed and registered, and would then have to stand idle whilst the licence application is being considered.

I advised my client to apply for an interim licence, but when he telephoned the traffic area office to inquire whom he should address this application to he was told not to bother as he would not get one.

As my customer is one of England's biggest finance houses, and requires this vehicle for its own stationery deliveries and has no intention of operating for hire and reward, I can see no reason why my client's application should take so long, or indeed why an interim licence could not have been granted.

It is appalling to think that a company has had to have over E3.000 invested in a vehicle for the past five months, and is still not certain when it can start to operate it.

D. T. BUCKLEY. Ray Powell Ltd., Leytonstone, El 1,

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