Annual Reports of the Licensing Authorities
Page 18
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228,210 vehicle inspections
THE Annual Reports of the Licensing Authorities for 1973 published this week reveal that Department of the Environment inspectors issued 32,728 GV9s after inspecting 228,210 vehicles.
0-licences were held by 0 140,310 operators covering half a million vehicles, and of the 360,364 men who applied for hgv driving licences 209,815 were granted.
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Northern
MrJ. A. T. Hanlon reports that the number of applicationsfor new 0-licences continued to rise. He issued 13,511 heavy goods vehicle driving licences during the year and 3,481 provisional licences an increase of 41 per cent.
Enforcement of overloading offences was hampered in the area owing to the lack of suitable weighbridges. Despite this, 4,027 vehicles were checked and 72 were found to be overloaded. Of 15,000 vehicles examined at the roadside 15 per cent received prohibitions.
Yorkshire
The Licensing Authority, Mr R. S. Thornton, reports a 24 per cent increase in the number of 0-licences granted during the year to 1,651. Of the 2,000 licences which were due for renewal, only 1,587 applications were received. There were 29,217 heavy goods vehicle driving licences granted during the year.
During the year 18,379 vehicles were examined in conjunction with the police and 2,052 were reported for irregularities. Vehicle inspections in the area totalled 15,964, of which 1,971 resulted in prohibitions.
North Western
Mr C. R. Hodgson reports a 25 per cent increase in the number of new 0-licences applied for 2,990 compared with 2,404 the previous year. There are 19,780 0-licences in the area, which is a net increase of 6 per cent. There were 42,299 hgv driving licence applications made in the area, and during the period 50 per cent were granted.
Maintenance standards continued to show an improvement with immediate GV9 prohibitions being reduced from 4 per cent in 1972 to 3.4 last year, and delayed prohibitions fell from 12,8 per cent to 9.1 per cent last year.
West Midland
The growth rate for the West Midlands traffic area operators' licence applications is running at about 2 per cent per annum. Roadside and silent checks revealed that drivers' recordkeeping was far from satisfactory, and both operator and driver prosecutions in this respect rose from 29 per cent to 49 percent, during the year, resulting from the examination of some 34,000 vehicles.
South Wales
From the South Wales traffic area, the LA reports a substantial increase for new operators' licences over the previous year. In 1972 there were 760; last year the figure rose to 923 with.a total of 821 being issued.
' While 1,000 operators should have applied to renew their operators' licences in South Wales last year, only 835 did so. A total of 12,932 hgv driving licences was received, this is 408 up on the previous year. 12,726 were issued. After an examination covering 4,782 vehicles 1,417 received prohibitions. Just over 200 were immediate.
East Midlands
There was an increase of 27 per cent in applications for new 0-licences during the year, and Mr C. M. Sheridan, the LA, reports that he is receiving 147 new applications a month. There were no objections lodged during the period and since 1970 only five objections have been made in the East Midlands.
• During the year 9,290drivers applied for an hgv test and of them 5,267 passed. The number of applications for hgv licences increased by about 400 to 28,534. While 3,861 vehicles were checked for weight, 1,059 were found to be overloaded.
Eastern
-In the Eastern traffic area, Mr H. E. Robson, had "a comparatively uneventful year , "although the number of applications for new licences received was 23 per cent up on the previous yer. While 1,349 licences were granted to new entrants, 380 licences were surrendered and 235 of those whose licences expired failed to apply for new licences.
There were 21,818 hgv driving applications made and just over 50 per cent were granted. Of the 300 vehicles checked and weighed 25 per cent were found to be overloaded and 300 of the offences restarted in prosecutions.
Western
In his first term in the Western traffic area, MajGen Sir John Potter received 1,724 new 0-licence applications 33 per cent fewer than the previous year; 1,493 were granted. No objections were received in the area and it may be some indication of the apathy shown by statutory objectors throughout the country when, as the area reports, "few of the statutory objectors take Applications and Decisions".
He received 26,345 hgv driving applications and granted 25,883. In this area also, the LA makes reference to the limited resources of his enforcement staff but from 2,475 maintenance checks, 636 received adverse reports.
South Eastern
Maj-Gen A. F. J. Elmslie, the South Eastern LA, reports that new applications rose by 272 during the year to 1,713, of which 19 were refused. He called 176 operators under Section 69 and imposed penalties on 140 of them.
During maintenance checks, 9,235 vehicles were examined, and 578 prohibitions were issued. The inspection of foreign vehicles coming in through South Coast ports led to the prohibition of 31 vehicles.
The 67,230 driving licence applications during the year were 1,000 up on the previous year. During the year 6,210 driving tests were conducted, with a 46 per cent failure rate,
Metropolitan
Mr A. S. Robertson is another new LA reporting for the first time. He has received 2,712 applications for new 0licences, an increase of some 200 over the previous year, but 809 operators who were due to renew their licence failed to do so. The Metropolitan area is responsible for issuing short-period licences for the entire country and 508 were issued. The largest numbers of applications came from the Irish Republic and Switzerland 167 and 186 respectively; Turkey and Jersey came at the bottom of the list with one each. There were 13,840 vehicles examined in the area during the year resulting in 3,055 prohibitions or 22 per cent of the total.
Scottish
Mr A. B. Birnie reports from the Scottish traffic area that the total number of licences held in his area is 1,305 just over 500 up on the previous year. But once again 436 licence holders failed to renew their licences, although 601 were granted to Northern Ireland operators compared with 493 in the previous year. There were 29,135 hgv licence applications made in 'Scotland, 16,000 of which were successful. Maintenance standards have undoubtedly improved with a steady reduction in prohibition notices from 1967 when the figure was 37.3 per cent, to 13.7 per cent last year. \