New Light on B Licences
Page 53
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The Principles Underlying the Granting of B Licences Explained by the Metropolitan Licensing Authority. Will the Appeal Tribunal Give a Final Ruling ? A.PPLICANTS for B licences under .the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933, may now be able to estimate more confidently their prospects of success, for, on
Friday last, Mr, Gleeson E. Robin son, ' IVI.C., ' LL.D., Metropolitan Licensing Authority, delivered a lucid exposition of the principles underlying the granting of such licences. The explanation was
prompted by an application for a
B licence by a coal merchant, but the principles would appear to apply equally to other persons. • On many occasions it has been submitted that coal merchants are
generally unable economically tooperate motor vehicles for the carriage only of their own goods, because their business is seasonal.
"Unless they are authorized to use their vehicles for hire or reward,' they may find it necessary to increase considerably the price of coal or to revert to horsed ,vehicles.
An alternative • suggestion has been made that a coal merchant could carry on some other business, such as that of a greengrocer, in conjunction with his primary trade, thus providing 'work for the vehicle during the summer months.
It would not, however, appear to be feasible to contend that the principles of the Act should be used to .. prevent the operation of a coal. vendor's business separately from the sale of other commodities.
Horse Displacement Desirable.
In charging the Licensing Authorities, under Section 6 (2) of the Act, to have regard primarily to the public interest, Parliament laid down that they should, in particular, have regard to the replacement of horse-dravvn vehicles by motors. In the case of a B licence, the Licensing Authority must also pay due heed to the extent to which the applicant intends to use the proposed vehicles for hire or reward. Parliament appears to have cOnsidered the substitution of motors for horses as desirable in the public interest, and it is necessary that the principles of the Act should be applied in a manner which will not make it impossible to employ mechanical transport in the place of horses.
A Licensing Authority has, of course, no discretion to refuse a C licence, although ample alternative transport facilities may exist and although it may be in the public interest that the goods should be carried by some other means.
If an applicant desired, however, to obtain a B licence to enable him to use a vehicle for hire or reward, as well as to carry his own goods, which could satisfactorily he transported by existing means, he would, in Mr. Robinson's npinion, have to satisfy the requirements of evidence laid down by the Appeal Tribunal in the well-known Enston case.
Appeal Tribunal's Doubt.
This view is extremely interesting, for Messrs. J. Enston and Son's applied for an A licence, and the Appeal Tribunal stated, in the case of Mr. J. T. Plenty, that it was not necessary to decide how far, if at all, the Enston decision was applicable to an application for a B.licence. This obServation by the Appeal Tribunal clearly suggests a doubt as to the relation of the Enston decision to applications for B ,licences. and Mr. Robinson may have had this fact partly in mind when, at the conclusion of his exposition, he invited an appeal to secure a higher ruling.
If an applicant exercises his right to send his own goods by his own vehicle, although they could conveniently be handled by existing , facilities, there is no reason why he should obtain an advantage over competitors in similar businesses by reducing his costs by operating his vehicle for hire or reward. This advantage would encourage all ancillary users to increase their profits by carrying for hire or reward, thus causing wasteful competition. If such a person were to be authorized to carry goods for hire or reward, it should be because his goods could not be transported by other means.
Entirely different considerations apply when the applicant carries on a business other than haulage and can prove that his goods, or the commodities which he treats, could not conveniently or satisfactorily be carried by any alternative form
of transport. Such circumstances might arise in the case of a coal merchant, who needs a vehicle to distribute the coal that he sells, or even a person having to send goods for long distances, where it is desirable that the vendor should provide his own transport.
The question which then arises i§ whether it is desirable that the vehicle to be run for the purpose of the applicant's own business should be operated uneconomically, orwhether it should be employed as economically as possible, such as, by accepting paying loads.
Where there is adequate reason for the applicant to use a vehicle for the transport of his own goods and the vehicle cannot be run economically unless also used for hire or reward, there would appear to be good ground for authorizing its employment in the latter manner, pro vided that it be controlled by appropriate conditions. Where there is no ground for assuming that the use of such a vehicle will result in the provision of excessive transport facilities there may be good teason for considering that, under Section 6 of the Act, adequate use should be made of such vehicles before others are licensed, even under A licences.
Application Granted.
These interesting points are extracted from the decision of the Licensing Authority on the application of Mr. R. S. Jefford.
From about 1927 to 1932, the applicant managed a coal merchant's and haulage contractor's business for his mother, and from the latter date until June, 1934, carried on the undertaking in conjunction with three brothers. He then retired from the partnership and commenced a coal merchant's business on his own behalf, his brothers continuing the family business.
Mr. jefford wished to carry for hire or reward, under a B licence, building and road-making plant and material, manure and excavated rubbish within 20 miles of his base. The application was granted.