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Sufficient Low-loaders in Hull?

22nd February 1963
Page 44
Page 44, 22nd February 1963 — Sufficient Low-loaders in Hull?
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

TiE moreI attend the Transport Tribunal, the more I find myself drawing a comparison between judgments given by the Tribunal and judgments given in civil court actions. You rarely know, until the very end, which side is going to win.

I found this was particularly so, last week, when the Tribunal was asked by Sayers Haulage (Hull) Ltd. to set aside a decision by the Yorkshire Liemsing Authority, who had refused to allow the company to add a heavier low-loader trailer, capable of carrying abnormal and indivisible loads, to its A licence.

Mr. Samuel-Gibbon, for Sayers. directed the Tribunal's attention to document after document which gave the minutest details about the operations of Sayers. There were letters of complaint from customers, and evidence of inconvenience. Indeed, even the Tribunal agreed that the applicant, who was the first to operate such vehicles in its area, had made out a prima facie case for a heavier low-loader trailer.

Nevertheless, the Tribunal found, after considering the evidence of the objectors, that there was a "degree of availability for further traffics" and refused to allow Sayers the trailer.

What a pity the members of the Tribunal were not snowed-up in the East Riding of Yorkshire at the beginning of the year. It was because of a lack of a heavy low-loader in Hull which prevented the County Council from getting certain heavy American-type Bulldozers into action to assist its own snow ploughs which were bogged down. It was because of this, too, that no bulldozers could be sent to relieve the workmen marooned at Fylingdales recently. Machines which could have helped in this emergency were lying idle because there was no large low-loader in the area.

It could be argued, I suppose, that this was an emergency, and machinery exists within the Ministry to cope with these extreme cases. Short-term licences to operate unlicensed vehicles can, in certain instances, be "granted" over the telephone. But this cannot apply to heavy low-loader equipment. Operators cannot afford to acquire such equipment unless they have the necessary licences undo which to operate them.

Sayers assures me that we have no heard the end of the matter yet. sincerely hope, at least for the sake a the farmers in the East Riding who hac starving cattle on their hands because tla snow ploughs could not get through, tha the matter is not dropped.


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