C.M.U.A. President-Elect on the New Act
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NEARLY 500 operators heard an address on "The Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, as it Affects the Commercial User," by Mr. James France, president-elect of the Commercial Motor Users Association, at a meeting held at the showrooms of Apple
yard of Leeds, Ltd. The meeting was held under the auspices of Appleyard's and the North-Eastern Division of the C.M.U.A. After the address, the operators were invited to inspect the company's workshops and service facilities, and to inspect a display of Morris-Commercial vehicles, of which the concern is a distributor.
Mr. W. G. Graham, sales manager of Morris Commercial Cars, Ltd., presided at the meeting, and he was accompanied by Mr. G. E. Gilbey (chairman of the North-Eastern Division of the C.M.U.A.) and Mr. F. Limb (general manager, Appleyard of Leeds, Ltd.).
In opening the meeting, Mr. Graham said that nobody could object to control of the kind which stipulated that machines should be maintained in a fit condition and that drivers' hours should be regulated. It was also to the common good that speed limits should be observed, and that due regard be paid to safe loading.
"The most distutbing feature, to my mind," said Mr. Graham, "is the fact that we may be faced with a host of regulations'. Wherever the band of legislation gets a grip on any business community, you find that retrogression inevitably sets in." • In the course of his explanation of the Act, Mr. France referred to a difficulty arising from the law with regard to drivers' hours, which includes waiting for a load, etc., as time spent on duty. An awkward position was, he remarked, created in such ca'ses as the transport of wool from Liverpool to • the Yorkshire textile mills. A driver might be held up at Liverpool docks for three hours awaiting his turn to load, and it was impracticable for him to park his lorry and sign off duty for that period, because then he would lose his turn at the docks. Efforts had been made to obtain a concession from the Minister of Transport on this point, but the Minister had distinctly stated that the hours regulations would be strictly enforced.
In connection with the Road Traffic Act, 1930, the trade unions joined with the employers in obtaining an allowance of two additional working hours in the case of exceptional circumstances. When the question was again raised by the Act of 1933, however, the union representatives made additional demands that the employers would not meet, so that the two extra working hours per day, which were particularly useful in cases such as Mr. France had quoted, when explaining the Act, were lost.
Strong criticism of the Railway Rates Tribunal was made by Mr. France when dealing with the question of agreed charges between railway companies and their customers.