"C" for Conveyor
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WITH Conservative rule likely for another five years, the survey of C-licence transport published on Monday by the Traders Road Transport Association happily has no immediate political significance. It has, however, academic and practical value. It fills in wide gaps in the knowledge of the use of traders' transport left by official statistics. It also explains to hauliers why traders run their own vehicles and why they have expanded their fleets.
It is significant that speed and reliability of delivery was voted to be the primary reason why C-licensees use their own vehicles in preference to those of hauliers or to railway transport. Cost of transport was a poor second in the list of priorities, to be followed by the advantage of door-to-door delivery. The first and third reasons supply statistical proof of what has been repeated ad nauseam—that a trader's transport is part of his production programme, even temporary disturbance of which may have disastrous consequences.
Over the past five years C-licence vehicles have increased in number by an average of about 5 per cent. a year, but from 1957 to 1958 the advance was only 2.7 per cent. According to the T.R.T.A., about a quarter of this growth is explained by the transition from cycle and horse to the electric truck, from the commercial traveller's car to the dual-purpose vehicle, and the demand for maintenance services for new mechanical appliances for home and office. More than a quarter of C-licence vehicles are specially constructed or fitted to suit the users' needs. The " C " in C licence truly stands for conveyor-belt of industry.