DTp justifies its action on permits
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EPARTMENT of Transport Iicials do nothound hauliers rer the misuse of permits to Lease their sadistic impulses • thrust permits down the moats of hauliers who do not aed them said DTp Road reight Division chief Reg awson last week.
Speaking at a conference on uropean road haulage in )ndon he said that there was ) question of discriminating ;ainst hauliers of a certain ze or against a certain area's tuliers.
But he warned that it was ie business of the Departent to control and stop the ;e of fraudulent permits in der to protect the haulier ho ran with good permits. "This had led to people king whose side'we are on. le answer is simple — we are the side of the reputable -itish haulier and do not ant to see his interests irmed by the activities of iscrupulous operators," said r Dawson.
Mr Dawson said that all ac)11 taken against users of Ise permits was taken to eserve the negotiations car on by the DTp with other Ivernments for increases in iotas.
He said that if operators ere using "bent" permits en the countries whose perits were being copied were cely to cut rather than exnd the quotas for following ars.
On negotiations Mr Dawson Id the conference that talks ith France, West Germany id Austria had been very sappointing and it had been I the British delegation had ,en able to achieve to avoid its in some quotas.
Answering allegations that reign vehicles have been lowed into Britain without iving their permits stamped Mr Dawson commented that this "is nothing to do with us."
The future of the permits issue looked bright for Britain, said Mr Dawson. Already bilateral agreements had been negotiated between Britain and Afghanistan, Iran and Jordan — and the Afghanistan agreement had been completed at the request of the Afghanis.
Other agreements with Iraq and Syria were also in the course of negotiation although they were taking more time and proceeding more slowly.
Mr. Dawson assured the conference that there was a lot of confidential contact between Britain and other countries with which we have agreements and a lot of help was available to Britain in this manner if necessary.
"This means that we sometimes get bonuses on the • condition that they are not granted any publicity," he said. This was because countries jealously watched the quotas of others with a view to increasing their own quotas.