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Good Behaviour Now —Less Restriction Later

20th January 1940
Page 20
Page 20, 20th January 1940 — Good Behaviour Now —Less Restriction Later
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

UOR many years road transport operators have felt themselves to be over-regulated. Their activities have been hampered at every turn, and in a variety of ways that is quite extraordinary. They have seemed to carry on in a haze of restrictions; mostly petty and often under the ,administration—almost domination—of petty officials.

Part of the mass of control has, presumably, been imposed with the object of promoting safety, but the lower speed limit and the legal requirements as regards both loading and the hours worked by drivers are amongst those that the industry has sometimes found irksome. It has also held them to be largely unnecessary, believing that simplification of the regulations and the granting of greater freedom to the operator would lead to no increase in the dangers of the highway.

Official Supervision Less Pronounced Although the Ministry of Transport remained generally dumb (if not necessarily deaf) to the appeals of the industry, operators have, nevertheless, lately been enjoying a larger measure of freedom, if only in certain respects. Whilst the war brought new regulations, more control and further restrictions, it also produced concessions, due to the exigencies of the moment. These have been far larger in fact than in theory, for whilst but few of the rules have actually been• waived. observance of the law has been less strictly enforced than in normal times. This is particularly the case as regards the restrictions on speed and the regulations governing loading; to a lesser extent, the matters of drivers' hours and the keeping of records have received less than the usual official vigilance. The police have other and more important affairs to attend to, whilst it may well be believed that the relaxation is also prompted by the desire not to hinder transport users any more than can be helped under the present difficult conditions.

The industry, then, has had an excellent opportunity of demonstrating the truth of its contention that an increase in its freedom would not involve any decrease in road safety. In that respect it has had a .remarkable stroke of luck ; but for the war it might never have had the chance to show that the solution of the accident problem does not lie in excessive restriction. Given that war-time laxities brought no appreciable increase in the casualty lists, there would be no shadow of a case left for retightening control on the return of peace.

It is already time to inquire into the progress of this experiment in freedom. So far as can be judged, its results to date have been rather disappointing. In fact, they have been disquieting, and no good purpose will be served if we blind ourselves to that conclusion and its inevitable consequences. Of the serious accidents that have come under notice in the past three months, in which transport vehicles were involved, far too high a proportion was obviously avoidable, and would have been avoided if those concerned had exercised normal care and discretion. Here we exclude crashes attributable to the black-out ; we are considering only those cases in which absurdly high speeds, improper loading or gross slackness in mechanical maintenance brought about costly disaster.

Do Not Take Undue Advantage Avoidable accidents are too common, and there are grounds for thinking that they have lately tended to become more so. On the face of it, the most likely reason for this is that users, having been given an inch have taken an ell.

We are far from saying that the majority of operators has abused the new state of relative freedom. That is certainly not the case, but that there has been abuse by a minority seems clear, and if it continues it will effectively wreck any attempt that the industry may make towards a further escape from restriction after the war.

The matter rests with operators. It still lies within their power to prove that they can be trusted when the policeman's back is turned. If they take advantage of that opportunity, then the hand of control will rest more lightly later.

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Organisations: Ministry of Transport

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