B.T.C. Face Both Ways on Changes of Base for A-licence Vehicles
Page 35
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
EXPLAEXPLAINING why B.R.S. (Parcels), Ltd., were operating 25 foreign INING vehicles in Sheffield, Mr. J. Booth, for the British Transport , Commission, said at Sheffield, last week, that the position was forced upon them: An application to change the base for the vehicles was not opposed when it came before the Yorkshire Deputy Licensing Authority, Mr. .1..H. A. Randolph.
• Mr. J. Booth said it was really a part
• ofreorganization scheme following
• denationalization. They were seeking to add a total of 25 vehicles of 691Ions unladen to their A licences for bases at Penistone Road and Worthing Road, • Sheffield. ; The Disposal Act had charged the Commission with the task df ensuring that during the change-over period the Country's transport system should operate without avoidable disturbance.'
Regularizing Position In order to do so.they had been forced to move vehicles about the country. The vehicles sought were now all operating in Sheffield:and B.R.S. were seeking to regularize a position forced on them by traffic needs.
• Mr. W. Abercrombie, traffic assistant, told the Licensing Authority that 21 of the vehicles were moved to Sheffield before 1955 and the remaining four in 1958. Their licensed baSes included Bedford; 'Newark,' Stockton, Gateshead, Chesterfield, 'Duxburry, Doncaster, Brad • ford and Huddersfield. The vehicles were justified in Sheffield as they were more than fully occupied, and it was still necessary to hire.
One of them,' baked at Bosfon, operated trunk 'service between Sheffield and Boston, arid in this case the change would be purely administrative. ,
B.R.S. also supported .an application by British Railways to add a rigid vehicle to their Sheffield licence in ,place of an articulated outfit at Chesterfield. It was stated that half of a B.R.S. Vehicle's time was now taken up on railway work.
Vehicle Not Needed • For the railways, Mr. Booth said the Chesterfield vehicle was no longer profitable and the licence would be sur rendered. Reorganization in Sheffield, following the building of new housing estates at Darnall and Handsworth, made an additional vehicle necessary.
Both applications were granted.
A special correspondent writes: B.T.C. policy appears to change to fit the particular circumstances. At Bridlington on April 2 (The Commercial Motor, April 10) they strongly opposed the transfer of two special A vehicles belonging to Coastal Transport, Ltd., Hull, from Manchester to Hull as did other Hull hauliers.
It Was submitted for Coastal Transport that the vehicles would do the same • work, and cover the same areas, as they • had done during the past five years. They were working "with the remainder Of the • company's fleet, based at Hull, on a regular service between Lancashire and the Hull area and had, in effect, always been based at Hull.
In this case, the Yorkshire Licensing Authority, Maj. F. S. Eastwood. adjourned the hearing for further inquiries into what the objectors alleged was irregular operation.
Private hauliers have to face stringent inquiry into changes of base without notification, and it seems that the Sheffield Sub-area a the Road Haulage Association have missed a golden opportunity to check a B.T.C. tendency towards one law for themselves and another for the independent haulier.
PASSENGER DECLINE HALTED
THE small increase in passengers during the year under review is the first definite indication that fhe very substantial passenger decline of recent years has been halted," says Mr. Lewis H. Cannon, general manager of Eastbourne Transport Department, in his report for the year ended March 31.
The number of passengers carried rose by 0.35 per cent. and mileage by 0.32 per cent. During the past five years, passenger traffic has declined by 8.16 per cent, and mileage by 3.69 per cent. Mr. Cannon says that the average drop in traffic last year in 30 municipal undertakings was about 2.71 per cent.
INQUIRY INTO ULSTER TRANSPORT REJECTED
I T is urgent action, not another com
mittee of inquiry that is needed to solve the present transport problem in Northern Ireland, said Lord Glentoran, Northern Ireland Minister of Commerce, when the question was raised in the Ulster Commons last week.
Lord Glentoran declared that another inquiry would be unlikely to achieve anything. He was replying to a question asking whether he had considered the recent. opinions of the Belfast Chamber Of Trade.
Lord Glentoran said the most practical way to seek a solution was that already approved by the House with the 1958 Transport Act.
TANKERS BY ROBERTS
WELL k nown as manufacturers of railway wagons. and at one time bus bodybuilders, Charles Roberts and Co., Ltd., Wakefield, have entered another production field.
This week they delivered their first road tanker to Walkers (Century Oils), Ltd., Hanley. It is the first of a number of four compartment tankers, mounted on Thames Trader chassis, for the conveyance of 1,800 gallons of mineral oil.