Get Tough
Page 3
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rrHIS year, it seems, the Licensing Authorities have spoken out I more firmly than ever before about low maintenance standards on many goods vehicles. Their latest reports (see page 13) are available today. In this particular respect they make ominous reading, one area reporting that half the vehicles examined had stop notices slapped on them and several reporting more than a third as being prohibited. What makes this situation even more marked is the appalling fact that some areas, whilst examining fewer vehicles, nevertheless recorded more stop notices than were issued in the previous year.
Everyone realizes, of course, that the majority of careful operators who appreciate the sheer cash value of regular maintenance are therefore tarred unfairly with the same brush. However, the inescapable fact remains that this unsatisfactory state of affairs plays straight into the hands of the horde of detractors of road transport. It is another weight in the balance against operators in the public eye.
In their own interests, operators must not only put their house in order if it needs such treatment. More, they must bring such pressure to bear as they can oil offenders—refusing, if necessary, to load doubtful-looking sub-contractors. But perhaps, in the end, Mr. Muir, the Metropolitan L.A., has the answer. If enforcement cannot turn the tide, revocation of a licence certainly will!