AN END TO THE FIEFDOMS
Page 7
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quote from Chaucer, but two of the recommendations from the latest operator licensing report (see opposite). So here we go again, with yet another review of the licensing network—the seventh in 1 2 years. The last look at Traffic Commissioners and the licensing system, the 1989 Palmer Report, recommended a single national Licensing Authority with local Commissioners to act on his behalf in the various traffic areas. So it comes as no surprise that Stephen Curtis "head of the Traffic Area Network Scrutiny Team" also recommends a single Traffic Commissioner supported by a network of "regional Licensing Authorities". The Palmer report also recommended pursuing measures to restrict unlicensed operators, and suggested impounding. Curtis is a bit more coy about illegal operators, saying "more must be done to ensure the potential penalties.. are such as to be a real deterrent". Which begs the question: why did the Department of Transport spend another £84,000 to arrive at the same conclusions? Curtis claims that his recommendations could save £1 m in haulage administrative costs. Direct costs, he says, are incurred in completing forms and complying with traffic area offices' requests for information (which shouldn't be necessary if you bother to fill your form in correctly first time-95% of application forms include mistakes). Indirect costs are incurred waiting to begin operations while the application is being processed. Reducing costs is always good news, particularly for operators with nationwide networks of depots who suffer the curse of inconsistent decisions and processes between the eight traffic area offices.
1903-1993 ■ ...