Notices
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DISCONCARTING degree of uncertainty continues to attach to the future of proprietors of motor coaches who are operat ing long-distance and other services. The Minister of Transport has announced, in relation to the pending activities and decisions of the Road Traffic Commissioners, that these proprietors are to carry on as usual until the hearing of their applications. Nothing precise is known as to dates, and the position appears to be that many such owners are liable to have their cases heard, and thereupon, in a number of instances, be told that they must cease working forthwith.
We venture to enter a plea on behalf of these anxious owners of motor coaches. Not they alone will be affected. We therefore extend our plea to the Minister and the Commissioners to consideration for the employees in the first place, and the customers— the great travelling public —in the second place.
No small inconvenience will be caused to those who patronize these coaches if they discover that facilities which appealed to and served them are to cease suddenly. In tact, we feel sure that there will be a large volume of public dissatisfaction unless ample notice be given before services, now widely utilized, are stopped. The public does not accommodate itself In any hurry to such changes, no matter how the official mind may think they should do so, and it can be of no advantage to the Ministry of Transport; all things considered, to generate any further sense of 'hardship or deprivation than is necessary. There is likely to be more than enough as it is.
The inevitable addition to unemployment is a factor which will, no doubt, weigh with the Minister and his Commissioners. Whilst the discharges might be almost insignificant compared with those now threatening in the coal-mining industry, they are certainly not negligible, and it is surely better to permit a slight excess of travelling facilities to be offered for a few months longer than suddenly to throw out of work three men, or more, for each motor coach put out of commission. That number per licence is certainly affected if one takes into account depot and repairing staffs, as well as those who travel with the vehicles.
The suggestion which we make for deep consideration is this : That, except in those cases where It has been sought quite recently to establish claims by "jumping in" on routes already well served, no refusal of an application should become effective until a minimum of three months has expired from the date of the hearing by the Commissioners. We think the Minister and his Commissioners might even go a little farther than this, and, in the great majority of cases, allow existing licences to apply; as they did during the summer of 1930, by remaining valid until September 30th next, without question. A considerable element of hardship would then be removed, and the blow, where it has to fall, would be distinctly softened.
The Speed-limit Condition on Roadservice Licences.
THE suggestion of some Area Traffic Com missioners that a condition should be attached to all licences and backings limiting the speed of the vehicles concerned to 30 m.p.h. is at once redundant and unfair. It is redundant because the speed limit is already imposed by law. The unfairness liesin' the principle of inflicting a double penalty for the offence of exceeding the speed limit.
Provision has been made for this offence. Operators may not work vehicles to timetables compliance with which "is not practicable" without an infringement of the speedlimit regulation; drivers may not drive at excessive speeds. The ordinary recourses against offenders are open. This suggestion is tantamount to proposing a licence condition that the law must not be broken.
Excursions and Regular Coach Services.
T"question of the competition which holders of excursion and tour licences canbring into being against operators of regular coach services is one which the Area Traffic Commissioners will have some difficulty in settling with fairness.
A point raised at a recent public sitting was that it is hard on express-service operators if those conducting excursions are so licensed that they can come in, unrestrained as to minimum fares, on race days, etc., and seize the bulk of the extra traffic on a route which is operated by express-service companies that have to run to schedule every day of the year and are able, and, one might say, entitled, to increase their services on such occasions.
Similarly, excursion licences, if worded in general terms, may be misused by the concentration of the vehicles, not only on special days but regularly, upon one route so that, in effect, they provide an express service. It would be a serious thing if this were done deliberately and Commissioners must see that licence conditions incorporate the necessary safeguards. It has actually been suggested that the proviso permitting licences for excursions and tours to be granted In general terms is vltra vires.
Vehicle Examiners Must Know Their Work.
IT is vitally important that explicit instructions regarding their work should be issued to passenger-vehicle inspectors working under the Traffic Commissioners.
Many cases have already occurred in which vehicles have not been passed because they do not conform with requirements demanded by regulations which do not take effect until some future date, the consequent delay causing a great deal of extra trouble and expense to both maker and user.
We quite realize the difficulties which these inspectors are experiencing in understanding the many complicated regulations and the amendments which are issued so frequently. The problem is one of the evil results of too-hasty legislation. It seem-, however, that when an Inspector is in doubt it is the vehicle owner who is bound to suffer, whereas the boot should be on the other foot. It would appear that to desire to operate a commercial vehicle at all is being regarded almost as an offence, instead of which the owner should be treated as a public benefactor.