A Wasted Opportunity
Page 20
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N rejecting the Thesiger Committee's proposals 1 for the licensing of contract-carriage work and
seeking instead a new definition of a special occasion, the Minister of Transport is likely to find himself in deep water. His reason for doing so is that he is reluctant to introduce a system that would cause "much extra work both for operators and for the Licensing Authorities."
His sympathy is welcomed, but is misplaced. The system suggested by the Thesiger Committee was the result of the wise deliberations of representatives of the law, the Ministry of Transport, operators and the public. It was based on evidence submitted by all shades of opinion and offered a practical solution of a difficult problem. Behind it lay a breadth of experience that no individual could hope to command and the Minister would be well advised to accept the proposal. A greater burden would probably be placed on the Licensing Authorities than on operators, but the licensing machinery should be reinforced to deal with the extra work. Most operators would
greatly prefer a simple form of licensing, under which their obligations were clearly known, to the perpetuation of a system under which they were of ten in doubt as to the legality of their actions.
It is unlikely that legal draughtsmen will be able to devise a form of words that will precisely define all those occasions when coaches ought to be allowed to carry passengers at separate fares without road service licences, but will prevent abuse. Inevitably, hard cases will be created.
Again it will be left to the courts to interpret the statute and again there will be uncertainty until case law has been established anew. Even then, conflicting judgments may be given, as has happened in the past, and the present atmosphere of anxiety will continue, although perhaps less generally and acutely.
The Thesiger Committee have handed the Minister a ready-made instrument with which to cut out all dubiety from private-party work. He should take it, instead of fiddling with words that may mean little to anyone except lawyers.