REFERENCE Mr. Sherriff's article (CM March 10) on the effect
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of the recent John Hodgson (Haulage) Ltd., appeal before the Transport Tribunal, he and others seem to have fallen into the same trap.
This appeal and the two previous judgements cited before the Transport Tribunal were in connection with licence variations and not applications for licences.
In all three cases the particular applicant was the author of its own inconvenience.
The remedy, not discussed before the Transport Tribunal, is already amply provided for in the Road Traffic Act, 1960 and its predecessor the Road and Rail Traffic Act, 1933; it is simply a question of following the correct procedure.
If applicants refrained from jumping in with both feet by applying for so-called "renewals without modification" while a variation of the expiring licence is pending, this situation would not be created.
When an appeal on a variation is pending, all an applicant has to do is to apply in the ordinary way for a so-called "renewal with modification", incorporating in appropriate terms in the new licence, the variation, and the subject of the appeal.
Jt follows by virtue of S 160(3) of the Road Traffic Act, 1960 the expiring licence is kept alive pending the decision on the "renewal" application.
Doubtless a Licensing Authority would withhold a decision on the "renewal" application until such time as the Tribunal had given its judgement on the "variation" appeal.
It is suggested the law to date is and always has been adequate to deal with this particular situation provided the licensee concerned seeks advice and does not blunder ahead with a "renewal" application regardless of the consequences, simply in order to obtain an early automatic grant in chambers.
W. E. TRUSELER, Thames Ditton, Surrey
Call for Hope device
I DO NOT wish to join issue with your correspondent, A. Percival. His experience is far greater than mine. However, if we accept that when an articulated assembly jack-knifes the rear wheels of the tractive unit try to change places with the front wheels and are encouraged to do this by the inertial forces of the semi-trailer, then by carrying the positioning of the king-pin to absurdity and placing it just behind the front axle we will have made a prejack-knifed artic.
Such a configuration might be described as being in a state of equilibrium.
Regarding the Hope anti-jack-knife device, I think it would be a pity if vehicle makers did not see the light and start fitting this or a similar device, without the compulsion which must inevitably result from a further increase in tragedies.
R. W. MASTERS, Fir Tree Close, Leeds 17
Lorry park "bouncer"
LOOKING through CM I was surprised to read that the threeaxle tank trailer of Vaux Breweries is claimed to be the first of its kind in operation. Some weeks before Christmas I was engaged in an extended demonstration with a Continental artic tractor for Wincanton Transport Services, who were running a trailer almost identical to that shown; also a York-Darham project.
Going on to a different matter, I see that the question of drivers not using lorry parks has cropped up once again. I think that a recent experience of mine may throw a little light on this subject. A few weeks ago I pulled into a large park with a tractor and 10 in. trailer. I had agreed to meet a colleague there, subject to parking space. There was in fact room for another five or six outfits as large as mine, but the attendant was most unpleasant; not only did he refuse to let me in, but he also tried to get me to back out into the rush-hour traffic. I refused, however, to do this, and turned round inside the compound.
When I asked him his reasons for not allowing me to park, he said that was his business, but he did not like my face, nor did he like foreign vehicles! All attempts to contact anyone at the head office of the organization failed; nobody answered the telephone.
I have since heard it said that this sort of thing is quite common, as certain operators "look after" the attendants in these parks to ensure that there will always be room for them, though in actual fact these spaces are seldom all occupied.
E. G. CORKE, London, W.13.
Time and motion?
LABOUR-SAVING systems work for some, but not for all. Basically the larger organizations with their machines and new business efficiency methods make the grade, but what about the small man? All too often it would appear that the latter suffers and the former benefits.
As a small haulage operator I used to pride myself on the speed and efficient manner in which my accounts were sent out; the overheads for so doing were pretty low, but not any longer.
Many of my bigger customers have had the business efficiency experts to look-over their organisations. New systems have been evolved, and consequently I now find that the cheap, speedy and efficient rendering of my accounts to them no longer works.
Instead of single copy invoices, I find that some customers demand "invoices in duplicate"; others require them "in triplicate". Now this entails extra work as my system has previously been geared to single invoices. Extra expense is now involved in obtaining additional invoice forms and in completing them. There was an alternative; a photo-copying machine, but for the moment I have not acquired one.
No longer can my accounts be prepared and rendered at the end of the month. Some customers demand accounts weekly, others require them by the 25th of the month, otherwise they are carried over to the following month before settlement. As if this were not bad enough—there are some customers who nominate their own periodic accounting period, usually a fourweek spell, and this again involves special attention.
Now I know that we are taught that the customer is always right, and whether he is or not, he can literally call the tune, but I cannot help feeling that "big business" is tending to put the rest of industry out-of-gear with their new fangled ideas and neargimmicks.
Let's have efficiency by all means, but we cannot ensure national efficiency if we have systems galore. Streamlined effort must be our goal, but why oh why cannot we have a system which is more standardized and therefore capable of benefiting everybody?
I suppose I shall be accused of being out-of-date. Of being a small chap with a grievance or envious of the bigger battalions. I am none of these things, but I do deplore the way some of us are being held to ransom. It sometimes seems as if we are the victims of a "trial balance" with a difference.
"TRUNKIE", Essex.