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c,f the Road Transport Industry
Licensing Policy Needed
ANXIETY is growing among hauliers about the effect which any change in normal user is likely to have on the renewal of their A licences. They are also uncertain of the questions to be taken into account when special A licences expire and are due for replacement by ordinary A licences.
A uniform policy among the Licensing Authorities is required and there is a clear case for a direction to them by the Minister of Transport. Operators should be told of the attitude which is to be adopted on both these questions and the Minister should make an early announcement.
If the rule of normal user—a railway invention—is to be strenuously applied, A licences will have little greater value than B licences, which was never intended by _Parliament. In effect, normal user will become a condition of the licence, although under the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, specific conditions cannot be attached to an A licence. Hauliers must be allowed ample latitude to vary their activities according to trade demands. Proof that a haulier's vehicles are fully engaged, despite even a substantial change in his traffic, should be sufficient to justify the renewal of his licence. Obviously, different circumstances would prevail if the applicant had, during the currency of his previous licence, never attempted to carry out his original statement of intent. It should not be necessary, however, to fulfil the original terms of normal user throughout the period of the licence if trade changes require the operator to divert his attention from his previous activity.
It is to be hoped that the Minister will make these points clear in a public statement and thus allay hauliers' fears. He should also direct the Licensing Authorities not to have regard to past normal user under special A licences. When those licences expire, hauliers should be entitled to have them converted into open A licences on a statement of future intention, provided that the vehicles are reasonably employed. Conditions of operation for some time after denationalization were artificial and should not be taken into account.