"Traders Should Try to Stir Government"
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APLEA for a reduction in taxation on . commercial vehicles was made last Friday by Mr. D. 0. Good, a national vice-chairman of the Road Haulage Association, when he was speaking at the annual dinner of the North Devon subarea in Barnstaple. Mr. Good is also chairman of the Devon and Cornwall area of the R.H.A. The Chancellor now collected something like 1750m. a year from road users in special taxation, said Mr. Good, and he did not have to hand 'very much of it back in the form of new 'roads. As the amount that be collected increased by leaps and bounds every year without any effort on his part, it would not hurt him both to cut the rate of contribution down a little, and at the same time give operators a little more back by way of a bonus. Mr. Good also suggested that traders all over England should try to stir the Government into greater activity in road construction.
"I am sure they will have the full support of this Association if called upon," he added. Their general idea of making the roads fit the traffic was far more .positive than the plans that are so often put forward to solve road problems by means of restrictions and especially by imposing harsher and harsher penalties on any road user, who dared to step out of line. Mr. Good suggested that the traders who were making such a fuss about the inadequate road system might also like to take up the problem of the objectionable disqualification clause in the. current Road Traffic Bill. There was also another way in which traders' might care to widen their scope, he said. It was not much use having better roads if the total time taken by a vehicle on a journey was not greatly cut down. Far too great a proportion was taken up in waiting at the premises of customers. The problem thus caused was increasing but could largely be solved by the customers them
selves. Their aim should be, a very few words, to make every effort to load or unload .a vehicle as soon as it arrived at their premises. •Hauliers for their part would be only too pleased to co-operate with any proposals that the customer put forward for ensuring 'a quicker turn-round.
As has been the custom previously with this function, both Mr.. Jeremy Thorpe and Mr. P. B. Browne, the two focal Members of Parliament, were also speakers. One suggestion. from Mr. Thorpe was for a 90 per cent, discount on excise duty for any haulier who was willing to run all his operations at night.
Canal into Road
A NEW road about two miles long is r to be built along the line of an abandoned section of the Swansea Canal to replace a part of A4067 which is subject to damage by landslides. The road will by-pass the village of Godre'rgraig, some 10 miles north-west of Swansea.