Who carries the can?
Page 46
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WHAT is the position of the local authority officer who has a transport responsibility within his primary function, in relation to the proposed transport manager's licence? This question is now being posed in county and city halls and there are varying opinions. However, reference to the Transport Bill clause 65 and CM April 12, leaves no doubt about the Minister's intention—he requires a licence if he has to continue to be responsible for the operation and maintenance of the vehicles. The only vehicles excluded from this are those used for collection and disposal of refuse.
A number of authorities have made the passenger transport manager responsible for maintaining the commercial vehicles in their fleets. At best this system can only operate when the user department releases the vehicle. It is never very satisfactory, and would expose the passenger manager.
In other cases the individual departmental heads arrange their own maintenance through either a local garage or by employing a mechanic. This may ensure a well-maintained vehicle. But what of the drivers' records, who is responsible for the operation, who checks licences and all the multiplicity of other administrative tasks?
Local authorities will not be able to skate round this section of the law, nor is there any reason to think they would want to. What they must do is appoint someone to be responsible for all of the commercial vehicles they operate. Certainly a medical officer, highway engineer, or cleansing superintendent would be foolish to jeopardize his future by accepting this responsibility.
Hallmarked drivers
Pressure of traffic everywhere in Britain is bringing increased responsibility to drivers and their employers. One result is that municipal departments now tend to examine drivers' accident records with extra care. In this connection there is much to be said for a periodical check on standards by outside experts such as the testers of the Institute of Advanced Motorists and the League of Safe Drivers.
This practice is followed at Chigwell, Essex, where the UDC highways committee pays the test fees for its drivers who wish to undertake the League tests and offers a small annual gratuity to those who achieve the LSD Class 1 standard. Mr R. M. Edwards, engineer and surveyor to Chigwell UDC (population 56,500), takes the line that achieving an expert rating in driving should be regarded as something of a personal challenge. For this reason he has given every encouragement to members of his own department and a number of those on the inside staff of the council have also passed out at advanced level.
The League insists on periodical tests being taken in order to ensure that its members maintain standards. Candidates qualify in three grades—even class 3 requires something higher than the MoT test.
County coaches
School contracts fit in nicely with the general pattern of coach operation in most parts of Britain but in Northern Ireland the picture is different. Although the authorities there might have welcomed the chance of placing contracts, when these facilities were first provided the requisite buses were not to be had on hire so the counties started operating on their own account.
Co. Tyrone, largest county in size in Northern Ireland, is also the biggest operator with a fleet coming up to 130. This figure includes 27 Albion and 58 Commer buses, plus 44 Commer dual-purpose buses which not only carry pupils but in their spare time are employed transporting school meals. Altogether they covered 1,703,200 miles last year. Neighbouring Co. Fermanagh has a school bus and school meals fleet of about half that size.
In the bag
The most high-pressure public relations operation ever staged in the cleansing field was how one speaker at the IPC annual conference described the advent of the paper sack. At first the vision presented to the public was one of white-overalled gentlemen neatly packing bagged refuse onto open lorries but this has in fact given way to the practical employment of conventional cleansing vehicles which compress the bags and contents to a more economic density. Provision is now usually made for splitting the sacks so that when tipped the contents will be certain to disintegrate.
In endeavouring to obtain the co-operation of the public in accepting bags for refuse, resistance to the holders has for various reasons been encountered in certain areas. My own observations suggest that many householders react more favourably to a change from ordinary bins to bins with paper liners rather than to sacks on stands. For this reason I was interested to note that for some time now Manchester has been employing a special polythene tub in place of the original stands.
Discussing the matter in his paper at the conference, Mr R. E. Bevan, Manchester's director of public cleansing, said the price of the polythene container was less than twothirds that of a concrete post with holder and guard. All the original advantages of the paper sack system were preserved: for the user it was cleaner and quieter and for the collector permitted a considerable reduction in walking distance and total weight lifting.
Manchester has adopted a tub with a 5in.-diameter hole in the base in order to discourage its being used as a dustbin. Paper sack sales are stated currently to be running at an average of over a million a week, most of them being used in conjunction with stands and sackholders. It will be interesting to see to what extent other authorities go along with the latest Manchester practice which was introduced a couple of years ago.
Municipal champs
Any doubt about the quality of municipal drivers must be partially dispelled by their success in this year's Lorry Driver of the Year Competition, which is sponsored by CM.
Of the 276 finalists, six come from municipal undertakings at Berks. Dunfermline, Glasgow, Manchester, Newcastle under Lyme and Stoke-on-Trent.
This year's event attracted 3,027 competitors at 27 centres in Scotland, Northern Ireland and England.