Full Tax on Vans with Windows

1st June 1956, Page 80

1st June 1956

Page 80

Page 80, 1st June 1956 — Full Tax on Vans with Windows

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ANYONE who, from today, inserts side windows in the body of a van will become liable to the full rate of the purchase tax applying to a car. Any other form of alteration which converts a vehicle into a car will also incur the full rate of purchase tax.

The tax will be calculated on the current wholesale value of the vehicle, any tax shown to have been paid on the chassis being allowed as an offset. Ultimately, the owner is liable for the tax, but it may in the first instance be recovered from the person who does the work.

Such an alteration must be reported at once to the Customs and Excise authorities, unless the conversion was made by a registered manufacturer or processer of motor vehicles, whose position with regard to tax is not altered.

This loophole in the law has been closed by Clause 6 of the Finance Bill. Full details are contained in Notice No. 771 issued by H.M. Customs and Excise, King's Beam House, Mark Lane, London, E.C.3.

IRISH HAULIERS UNITE

HAULIERS, at a meeting in Dublin, have unanimously agreed to form an organization, known as the Licensed Road Transport Association, to safeguard their interests. Membership will be confined to hauliers having road transport merchandise licences.

A provisional executive committee has been elected and the 1956 subscription has been fixed at £3. Mr. L. F. Lynch has been appointed general secretary.

One of the objects of the Association is to establish a clearing-house system with branches in principal towns to secure return loads for members. There will be co-operation with kindred organizations in the formation of a national transport conference.

The Association's address is 34 Upper O'Connell Street, Dublin.

44 APPEALS LODGED IN 1955 nURING 1955, 44 new appeals were

lodged with the Transport Tribunal. Two were not prosecuted. Fifty-five appeals were heard and determined, and in 29 cases the appellants succeeded. One case was remitted to the Licensing Authority for further consideration and another was settled by consent of the parties.

This is stated in the Tribunal's annual report. At the end of 1954, 25 appeals were pending: one was not prosecuted.

CONDUCTORS MUST PAY rONDUCTORS who leave Stockton

on-Tees Transport Department less than a year after completing their training are to be required to pay for the cost of their training, About 18 months ago the transport committee introduced a similar scheme governing bus drivers.

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Existing Services Must be Tried

BEFORE additional haulage facilities could be granted it was necessary for intending customers to try to obtain existing services, said the Western Deputy Licensing Authority last week. It was not sufficient for witnesses to state at an inquiry that they had work to be done. They must be able to say they had tried existing facilities without success.

Mr. G. H. Richings, 16 Gloucester Road, Andoversford, was refused a B licence for a vehicle to carry wood blocks, coal, hay and straw within a 25-mile radius. He was a newcomer and was supported by Messrs. W.

Williamson, coal merchants, Cheltenham, and Mr. R. Gillett, a farmer, who said he was unable to shift hay last summer because of lack of transport.

Objectors were British Railways, Messrs. Palmer Bros. and Messrs. A. F. Phipps, who said that they had not been called upon to give assistance, but could do so. nVER the past 3i years Shell-Mex

and B.P., Ltd., and Scottish Oils and Shell-Mex, Ltd., have allocated more than £6m. to new or remodelled installations and depots designed to reduce distribution costs. This was stated last week by Mr. A. M. Robertson, general manager of Scottish Oils and Shell-Mex, at the opening of a new depot at Kirkcudbright, which will serve south-west Scotland.

The system at the depot makes use of water transport and large road vehicles covering long leads. Vehicles may drive up to filling gantries and out without reversing. Pumps with a flow of 250 g:p.m. have superseded 50-g.p.m. equipment. "What used Jo be a 40-minute job on a 2,000-gallon tanker can now be done in eight minutes, the load being metered automatically and the driver given a printed loading note," said Mr. Robertson.

Sixteen similar depots in various parts of Britain have been completed at a cost of £24m. and work is in progress on another 20. The road tanker fleet is being standardized as far as possible on 2,000-gallon delivery vehicles, MADRID OPERATORS' AWARD

rtA CERTIFICATE and trophy, in recognition of outstanding maintenance records achieved by Empresa Municipal de Transportes de Madrid for their fleet of over100 Leyland buses, has been presented to Senor Carlos Brinis, director-general of the undertaking, by Mr. D. G. Stokes, director and general sales and service manager, Leyland Motors, Ltd. Mr. Stokes travelled specially to Madrid to make the presentation.

The buses cover over 133,000 miles before overhaul, a record for the Spanish company.