CO-ORDINAr NC GOODS TRANSPORT
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in the Irish Free State
N view of the discussions throughout the world concerning the merits and.
demerits of comprehensive schemes for the co-ordination of all inland transport services on an economic basis, it will be particularly interesting to watch the progress of the haulage industry under the co-ordination plan outlined by the Irish Free State Railways Act and Road Transport Act, 1933, These two Acts formulate a scheme outstanding amongst the transport-reorganization codes recently introduced in many other countries, in that it virtually hands over to the older and, at present, less-successful forms of transport the more recent method of transport, the popularity of which has eclipsed all else.
The Railways' Opportunity.
Thus, the three main railways—the Great Southern, the Great Northern, and the Londonderry and Lough Swilly railways—and the canal companies have been given an opportunity of gaining control of practically all roadhaulage services in the country. The railway companies are regarded as the bodies responsible for the co-ordination of all goods transport systems.
Whilst legislation co-ordinating inland transport in other countries usually aims at the establishment of a common supreme controlling body, the Free State scheme seeks to unify only those services which are in direct competition. Uneconomic competition is completely eliminated in any par u26 ticular section of goods transport, but a certain amount of competition between different forms of transport remains. The trader, therefore. is free to choose between road, rail and canal transport for his merchandise.
The licensing system introduced by the Road Transport Act, 1933, gives power to the Minister for Industry and Commerce to control and regulate practically all motor-haulage services, whilst the railway measure permits him to sanction the closing down of unprofitable sections which the companies wish to discontinue.
The former Act provides that, for licensing purposes, certain exempt areas are to be recognized, within which it is permitted to operate goods motor services without a licence. These immune areas include the districts within a 15mile radius of the cities of Dublin and Cork, and within a 10-mile radius of the main post offices of the following towns :—Lirnerick, Waterford, Ballina, Drogheda, Dundalk, Galway, Sligo, Tralee, Westport and Wexford.
All licences are issued on the area basis. All operators who carried on goods-transport businesses continuously during the period commencing July 1, 1932, and ending on the date of the passing of the Act, were, on application to the Minister for industry and Commerce, granted licences to carry specified merchandise within the limits desired. The railway and other concerns termed authorized (mer
chandise-carrying) companies may at any time obtain from the Minister a licence to carry specified merchandise over a particular area. Independent carriers, however, may receive a licence only in respect of trade which they obtained before the operation of the section of the Act relating to licensing. After the coming into operation of this section, any person may apply for a licence which will be granted if the Minister be satisfied that a road-transport service is necessary in that particular case and if an authorized company selected by the Minister refuses to provide the facilities.
Long-distance Haulage Annihilated.
It is obvious, therefore, that the authorized companies have a means for obtaining a monopoly of goods transport in their own areas. It is equally obvious that long-distance haulage ty private enterprise is annihilated. It is unlikely that any prospective operate,: would plan a new service and submit his proposal to the competing railway for the latter to choose or reject.
Every application for a licence must state the areas in which the applicant proposes to carry on a road-transport business, together with the class of merchandise likely to be handled. In addition to the foregoing, an independent carrier must give particulate of the number of mechanically propelled vehicles licensed and used for goods transport at any date chosen by the applicant during the,: period from July 1, 1932, to February 8, 1933, and particulars of all such machines. Before granting a licence th an independent carrier, the Minister requires that details of the total unladen weight of all the lorries licensed by the carrier be furnished, and that figure is taken as the standard lorry weight for the carrier under his licence.
The Minister, when granting a licence, has power to fix the wages and conditions of employment of workers, to require a notification for approval of all agreements entered into by the licensee with other persons engaged in goods transport of any kind, the use (either exclusively or to a specified extent) of vehicles manufacfured wholly or partly in the Irish Free State, and the conditions of maintenance of such vehicles. The Minister has power 1m impose these restrictions on any licence, whether it is issued to an independent or authorized company.
Each licence states the Garda (Police)Station from which the licensee must obtain a vehicle plate for each machine in his service. The plate must be attached so that it is visible from the near side of the vehicle. The Garda may, at any time, stop and inspect a vehicle carrying a plate.
Under Section 21 of the Act, the Minister has, in certain circumstances, power to refuse an application for the renewal of a licence, and he has the sole -power to transfer any licence. A licence owned by an authorized company may not be renewed on transfer unless it is transferred to another authorized company.
An authorized or shipping company must submit to the Railway Tribunal a proposal for/ the classification of the merchandise specified in licences granted or transferred to it, so that a maximum scale of charges may be determined. The Tribunal, after hearing all parties interested, may determine the classification of goods applicable to all licences under consideration and the licensees are required to submit a schedule of proposed charges. The Tribunal, having again heard all parties interested, may fix rates applicable to all the licences in question.
Section 51 of the Act provides that any authorized company may apply to the Minister for the transfer, compulsorily or otherwise, of a particular merchandise licence, or for the reduction of the classes of goods to be carried or the extent of operation of licensed independent carriers.
Such, in brief, is the text of the new co-ordination code being administered this year in the Free State.
The Government's Aim.
By this means it is hoped to give ample scope for the natural development of particular forms of transport, especially by road. It is the aim of the Government to make the trading community transport-minded, and not simply railway, canal or road-minded.
When we examine the peculiarities of the Free State with regard to transport facilities, it is at once evident from the size of the country alone that road transport must play an important part in internal communications. The Free State, in the words of Mr, Sean Lemass, the Minister for Industry and Commerce, could carry on without the railways.