Zoad haulage future n danger John Wells
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kSY ENTRY to the road ulage industry, the growth own account operation and e too lenient administration the Transport Act 1968 by censing Authorities is [dangering the future of the ofessional road haulier.
He announced that the 1968 had five prongs and only of these had been implemted. The five were quality ensing, quantity licensing, biers' hours, transport anagers' licensing and the stallation of tachographs. The Government should go read quickly with the rest of e provisions and the Licensg Authorities should adminter them strictly, he insisted. Mr Charles Holt, clerk to the South Eastern Licensing Authority, pointed out the LAs had no power to place conditions on the grant of licence and that the Transport Tribunal had over-ruled an LA on the matter of an operator needing premises as an operating base for licensing purposes (See CM February 27).
Asked about the compul sory installation of tachographs on trucks and buses, Mr Wells disclosed an interest in this matter through his association with VeederRoot Ltd. Nevertheless, he said, honest operators would welcome the advent of the tachograph which by EEC law should have been used on certain vehicles in this country since January this year. Moreover, he was convinced that when the crunch came, the trade unions would obey the law.
This was the essence of a speech to the Sussex section of the Chartered Institute of Transport in Brighton last week.
Mr John Wells, now a transport consultant, said the road haulage industry was now in a similar position to that of the railway just before the war, he said. Own account operation was creaming off the lucrative traffic leaving the road haulier with the possibly uneconomic remainder.
Newcomers were gaining 0 licences with little trouble and were able to depress rates because they had no premises despite the provisions of the Road Traffic Act 1974 which said they should.
Too many of these newcomers, Mr Wells told the Institute, were operating without proper capital and on the edge of the law but when they had to appear at public inquiry they were not dealt with properly.
Already there was an overcapacity of road haulage, said Mr Wells.