One Association or Two?
Page 69
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AN advertisement in my evening paper regularly offers "self-drive vans" to all and sundry. Nobody takes exception to this, any more than to the offers of "self-drive cars" in the same column. But the use of commercial goods vehicles under a hiring allowance has several times been the cause of controversy in recent years. Although some of the causes of friction have been removed, the operators of those vehicles have still been denied a place in any of the national major associations, and are now thinking, not for the first time,. of setting up an association of their own.
They are scarcely qualified to join an association of C licence holders. The vehicles they offer can be used with equal propriety under any type of licence, although the most spectacular development of recent years has been in the use of the C-hiring margin. At one stage, the Traders' Road Transport Association, when it seemed that a policy of appeasement might keep the Socialists from restricting the C licence holder, advised their members to be chary of hiring vehicles. The policy of the T.R.T.A. may not now be the same, but they are still unlikely to welcome as members , operators under a hiring allowance.
A change in the terms of membership would be needed to enable the operators to join the Road Haulage Association. There is a good deal to be said in favour of the change. The operators, providing vehicles without traffic, are at one end of a scale at the other end of which are the clearing houses, providing traffic without vehicles. Clearing houses are entitled to join the R.H.A., although, like the operators on a hiring allowance. they may not themselves hold a licence. The historical reason for the present discrimination is perhaps that, when the RM.& came into being, clearing houses already played an important and valuable part in the road haulage industry, and had to be reckoned with, whereas the importance of the hiring margin developed only after nationalization.
Gap in FenCe
Hauliers did not welcome the development when it began. The provision of vehicles under a hiring allowance was a gap in the elaborate fence that the Transport Act, 1947, constructed round the independent haulier. -He was restricted in the main to a radius of 25 miles, whether he offered a general service under an A licence, a restricted service under a B licence, or a service to one customer only under an A contract licence.
He could continue without limit the service to one customer if the latter would agree to apply to the Licensing Authority for a C-hiring margin. The customer had to supply his own driver, but could hire the vehicle from the haulier.
More doubtful practices crept in. Operators realized that it was possible to hire one vehicle to several customers, provided each customer used one of his own employees as the driver. Several dubious devices were tried with the object of transferring the same driver from the employment of one customer after another. The difficulty of keeping a legal check on the activities of operators also tempted a few of them into the blatant use for hire or reward of vehicles holding C licences, or even no licence at all.
Against this background, the dislike of the established haulier for the increasing use of hiring margins can be understood. His licence was an important part of his business and a valuable asset. He ran the risk of losing it if he broke the law even by carrying goods beyond the 25-mile limit. The operator who hired out vehicles had no need of a licence and was subject to no mileage restriction. Moreover, if he were unscrupulous, he had nothing to lose.
Abolition of the 25-mile limit has largely removed any justification for the resentment felt by the haulier. He now sees the too-extensive use of the hiring margin as a threat to the stability of the licensing system. The operator who hires vehicles to a large number of customers might aim ultimately at using the goodwill he has built up as evidence to support an application for an A or B licence.
Scores More
Fears on this ground may have been dispelled by a recent decision of Mr. A. Robertson, the Scottish Deputy Licensing Authority. In refusing an application for an A licence for 40 vehicles and four trailers at present operating under C-hiring margins, Mr. Robertson expressed the view that, had he been more complaisant, he would receive scores of similar applications, and the whole licensing system would tend to disintegrate.
Purchasers of transport units, he said, had paid considerable sums for a special A licence. They had acquired no goodwill and were competing with operators under hiring allowances who, if they were granted A licences, would be placed at an advantage for the expenditure of no more than a small annual fee. Moreover, they could put more vehicles on hiring margins and, in due course, make a further application for an A licence.
While Licensing Authorities take this attitude, it might be as well for the R.H.A. to re-examine the question of admitting to membership operators under hiring allowances. From the licensing point of view the analogy with the contract-A licence is close, now that there is no longer a 25-mile limit. The licence is granted with little or no demur, and the man who holds it is entitled to apply for membership of the R.H.A. He should understand, however, that he -gets no help from the Association should he attempt to exchange his licence for one giving greater scope.
The hiring operator could be admitted to membership on the same terms. His entry into the association need make scarcely a ripple. There is no need to set up a special functional group for his benefit. He would complete the R.H.A. pantheon, and all providers under free enterprise of vehicles for the carriage of goods for hire or reward would then be eligible to join the one organization- Such a move would make it unnecessary to proceed with the formation of the Vehicle Operators and Traders Alliance, but would no doubt be in line with the wishes of the sponsors of that association. There has been a tendency at times for the R.H.A. to emulate the military hero in Shaw's satire, who, having once struck an attitude, refuses to retreat from it or to make an apology.