"Injustice" of Records Legislation
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THE national secretary of the Traders Road Transport Association, Mr. H. R. Featherstone, referred last week to an "injustice" done to employers under the Road Traffic Act in respect of the liability upon an employer to ensure that his drivers keep proper records.
Drawing attention to a -number of recent prosecutions, Mr. Featherstone said:— " No one disputes that it is right for the responsibility to be laid upon the employer, but the law as framed at present means that he is bound to be found guilty irrespective of the precautions he has taken in any case in which improper records have been kept.
"There have been a number of recent summonses on this subject when the employers are able to show quite clearly that they have taken the most elaborate precautions to instruct their staff and to check their records. "Despite this the magistrates have been bound to find them guilty and have, in fact, said that they must find them legally guilty although morally they consider them innocent.
"There seems no reason why the law should not provide that the employer is liable unless he can show that every reasonable precaution ha c been taken to ensure compliance with the law."
WESTERN WELSH RECESSION IN TRAFFIC
QINCE 1956 the Western Welsh OmniIL-) bus Co., Ltd., has suffered a drop of more than 14m. in the number of passengers carried annually. This was revealed by the chairman of the company, Mr. E. L. Taylor, at a long-service presentation dinner held in Cardiff last week. The companyls-peak"y'ear was 1956 when they carried 45,67'2,720 passengers. In 1961 they carried 81,149,318.