Points that A-Licensees Must Watch
Page 42
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Information that Should be Collated as Evidence in Support of Applications for Renewals or Variations of Public Carriers' Licences IT is an axiom that one learns by the experience of others, but, so far as licensing is concerned, hauliers in general appear to be the exception to the rule. Although they have been warned many times of the importance of bringing full evidence to support their
applications, operators continue to appear in court with inadequate or unsatisfactory information. . Most Licensing Authorities have extraordinary patience • with small carriers, and often, in effect, conduct their cases for them, but it is quite unreasonable to expect such sympathy as a matter of couise. Alternatively, the Authorities often adjourn cases for the production of further evidence, a procedure that wastes the time and money of all parties concerned.
Legal Aid Advisable.
Now that the period of the renewal of A licences is at hand, it is important to begin to gather together information • that will be useful in sup port of applications. If the railway attitude towards the B-licensee may be taken as a guide, it appears that the A-licence holder is entering troublous times and the necessity of scrupulous attention to detail in preparing evidence becomes twofold.
In the long run, it is usually an economy to seek legal aid, or to engage a reliable transport consultant who is well versed in legal procedure. In some provincial towns it is difficult to find a solicitor who specializes in road-transport law, and an ill-advised choice of a representative may lead to considerable unnecessary expense—as much as, say, £30. It is in this connection that membership of an association is particularly valuable.
Although, in an unopposed application, all the data collated may not be required, it is wise to have them aiailable. A schedule should be prepared showing the number of vehicles operated, their tonnage, the quantity of goods carried as a whole and the average per vehicle, year by year, from, say, the 12 months preceding the basic year.
• A Useful Formula,
Particularly in an application for additional vehicles is it more important to show an increase in the tonnage of goods carried per ton of unladen weight of vehicles than an overall expansion of business, because the improvement may be due to the operation of a larger fleet.
Details of the revenue earned per year should be drawn up, along with a table of rates charged and operating costs. Although a Licensing Authority is not entitled by law to insist upon the charging of fair rates, the question B28 of undercutting must surely exert some influence. If it could be shown by an objector that an applicant for
in
creased tonnage had expanded the traffic upon which he was relying in his application, by undercutting the rates of existing hauliers, the Authority would be justified in assuming that the business was "false " and that the traffic could well be handled by other operators.
The applicant should clearly outline his activities, giving details of the places served by him and the number of occasions on which he has visited them, and the classes of traffic which he handles. If he has special experience in the transport of certain types of commodity, and particularly if his vehicles have been purchased with the object of meeting the requirements of certain trades, these points should be emphasized.
Witnesses should be available to testify the efficiency of the applicant's services and to state definite reasons for their preference for the use of his vehicles. If an applicant seeks to increase his fleet with the object of dispensing, partly or wholly, with • the need for hiring vehicles, detailed evidence of the inconvenience caused by hiring and its undesirability in other ways should be forthcoming from customers, as well as from the applicant.
Dispensing with Hiring.
It is useless to make a sweeping statement condemning the practice of hiring ; specific occasions on which inconvenience was experienced must be cited. The need for particular types of vehicle, such as vans, which may be difficult to secure at short notice, is a good argument in this connection. The tonnage of goods carried by hired vehicles and the total suns paid on this account over a given period, as compared with the aggregate amount of goods transported and the revenue, should be scheduled.
In cases where an applicant operates partly in one traffic area and partly in another, general evidence concerning his activities throughout the country is not sufficient to support an application for vehicles normally used in a particular area; information of local operations must be supplied.
A haulier who wishes to increase his fleet may justifiably claim that he is entitled to reap the benefit of the improved trading of established customers. He must, however, prove that the additional tonnage is necessitated by an expansion of business on the part of his clients or the industries in which they are engaged.
Question of Newcomers.
An interesting point has recently arisen concerning newcomers to the haulage industry. It is already well known that new applicants have to satisfy the onus described in the Appeal Tribunal's Enston decision, but the definition of a newcomer has now been questioned. In the appeal of Mr. E. C. Barkley (upon which, as reported in last week's issue, decision was reserved), it was submitted that operators who commenced after the basic year, but before the Act gained Royal Assent, should receive special consideration. In its decision on the appeal of Mr. G. A. R. Pennington, however (also reported in last week's issue), the Tribunal held that a person who started in business at any time after the basic year was a newcomer.
Applicants for A licences who work for only one or two customers should guard against being forced by objectors, particularly the railways, into accepting Contract A licences. A qualification for such a licence is, of course, that a contract for at least a year shall be entered into by the carrier for the exclusive use of a specified vehicle or vehicles for a customer. Many, manufacturers and traders prefer not to bind themselves by legal contract to a haulier, whilst others cannot supply sufficient work to enable a vehicle to be used exclusively in their service.
What is a Public Carrier?
In this connection, the Barkley appeal raised another notable point. Counsel for the railways suggested that a man who worked for only one customer was not a public/carrier and was not, therefore, entiti d to an A licence. As the 1933 Act specifies only public, limited and private carriers, and as the haulier whose sole business is that of transport and who serves but one concern is obviously neither a limited nor a private carrier, he must surely be entitled to an A licence. A Licensing Authority would certainly not be justified in refusing an A licence on the ground that a contract A licence was required, if the 'eustomei would not sign a contract.