Western LA jumps on tipper overloading
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AT Warminster last week, Ministry of Trans port examiners "booked" a substantial number of tipping vehicles for overloading. This action can be seen as a direct sequePto the testweighing of a short-wheelbase four-wheel tipper ordered by the Western Licensing Authority, Mr. J. R. C. Samuel-Gibbon, in connection with the opposed Contract A renewal bid by Stoke St. Michael Transport Co. Ltd. (COMMERCIAL MOTOR May 27). In his decision refusing the bid the LA found as a fact that "habitual overloading beyond the lawful limits" had been a feature of the company's operations.
In view of allegations that overloading of kind was widespread, the LA gave notice that cases of overloading brought to light as a result of checks he proposed to institute would be subject to enforcement action.
I understand that tipper operators in the area engaged on quarry operations are greatly concerned with the action taken. Although many operators deprecate overloading and wish to see operations regularized, they point out that the rates schedules applied by most of the quarries are based on loads (for short-wheelbase tippers) of 9 tons or more. The contractors and local authorities buying the quarry materials also prefer -loads of this customary tonnage.
The interim rates schedule drawn up last year by the Mendip Tipper Operators' Group was based on minimum loads of 9 tons. Clearly, any reduction of tonnage carried makes rates, already marginal, grossly uneconomic. Another vitally important factor is that any rigid enforcement of legal loadings must provoke an immediate shortage of vehicles.
Operators' fleets in the West Country are believed to be fully extended already and if. as logically should happen, the Western LA's action is followed in other areas, the national implications, however embarrassing to tipper operators and quarry managements, may rebound to the benefit of the vehicle manufacturers. J.D.