Alleged Attempt By B.T.C. to Put Hauliers Out of Business
Page 37
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
BEFORE the Transport [Appeal] Tribunal in London, on Tuesday, Mr. J. Samuel-Gibbon, for T. J. Wahnsley, Ltd., South Blackburn, claimed that the British Transport Commission intended to put Northern Ireland Trailers, Ltd., out of business. This, submission was disputed by the president.
The Commission appealed against the grant• by the North Western Licensing Authority of an A licence to Walmsley's to enable them to operate articulated vehicles from Clayton-leMoor to the trailer ferry service from Preston to Larne, Northern Ireland. Previously they held a B licence restricted to the carriage of bricks for one company. The A licence authorized two extra vehicles and allowed containers to be hauled to and from the ferry at Preston Transport for Containers Mr. Philip Kershaw, for the Commission, said that Ferry Trailers, Ltd., shipping and forwarding agents, operated a service using the Larne ferry and required transport for containers to and from Preston Docks, which had been done at Preston by Waimsley's. British Road Services offered a comparable service.
In June last, Northern Ireland Trailers, Ltd., started operating in Competition with Ferry Trailers, Ltd., and B.R.S.
" It is clear," he added, "that business which Northern Ireland Trailers secured, and for which they required the service of the respondents, was the same carriage which had hitherto been done by other forwarding agents and carriers in the North Western Traffic Area."
Mr. Samuel-Gibbon maintained that, in this case, B.R.S. were in no sense normal competitors. The Commission, he said, were charging Northern Ireland Trailers, Ltd., the same rate for the use of a tractor to draw a trailer to the krry as they would for a complete tractor-trailer vehicle.
Northern Ireland Trailers, Ltd., were dealing with 40 to 50 loads a week between Preston and Northern Ireland, and nationalized transport in Ulster did not discriminate avinst them in rates.
The president Mr. Hubert Hull): "There is a great deal of difference between saying that Northern Ireland Trailers' services are being discriminated against, in that they arc being asked to pay more than somebody else, but that does not mean to say that the B.T.C. is trying to drive them out of business. What they are doing is undercutting; is not that competition?"
The hearing was adjourned until Wednesday.