Dark Prospects for C Licensees?
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AN ominous warning as to the future of ancillary users was given by Mr. H. N. Letts, Metropolitan Area solicitor, at the first Metropolitan Area meeting of Associated Road Operators in London, on Monday. The meeting, which was attended by over 200 persons, was designed to a.ppeal for the support of C-licence holders.
Mr. Letts declared that committees were at present sitting to determine the division of function between road and rail, and he did not think it likely that ancillary users would be allowed to go free from persecution. C-licence holders must unite with hauliers to combat restriction. " Why should hauliers" he asked, "have to prove the need for another vehicle, when any other trader might freely extend his activities ? "
Mr. R. W. Sewill, M.A., M.Inst.T„ national director of the A.R.O.; declared that ancillary users and hauliers had so many interests in common that any disagreement between them was Criticizing the lack of a well-founded road policy, Mr. Sewill said that there had been an increase of only 1.7 per cent, since 1910 in the national highways system. He supported the Severn bridge project, which The Commercial Motor is championing.
Major, the Flon. Eric Long, TD., J,P., stressed the importance of road transport in times of war, the vital need for the industry to speak with a united voice, and made a plea for the removal of the emergency taxation imposed some years ago. The Earl Howe, P.C., C.B.E,, stressed the need for better road-transport representation in Parliament. Mr. J. F. E. Pye, chairman of the Metropolitan Regional. Area, who presided, said that the membership of the A.R.O. was 12,000.
In answer to a question as to what further restrictions on ancillary users he had in mind, Mr. Letts referred to drivers' hours, record forms, the restiction of classes of goods to be carded and radius of operation. The A.R.O. was, he said, endeavouring to obtain a riding that employers are not responsible for the wrong-doings of their employees.
Mr. Sewill expressed the hope that the Commercial Motor Users Association and the National Road Transport Employers Federation would, before long, join hands with the A.R.O. He also stated that, through the Transport and General Workers Union, the workers would support their employers.
It was not possible at the meeting to form a Metropolitan Area section of ancillary users, but a meeting of.Clicence holders, who have already joined the Association,. will be held shortly, when a committee will be appointed..