The British licensing system has recently shown signs of crumbling from within'
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NOT much reliance can be placed on conjectures concerning the recommendations of the committee of inquiry into roadhaulage licensing which is to be set up by the Minister of Transport. There is no certainty even about the subjects that will be discussed, and at this stage it seems that neither the R.H.A. nor the T.R.T.A. really knows what he will want to know. Something more definite is known of recent events that are likely to have some influence on the Government committee, even if it is not acknowledged. Very much the same influences must have affected the R.H.A. licensing study group, the report upon whose work was publicly released last week, and which was summarized in The Commercial Motor.
First in any list of events, although latest in time, must come the publication of the Beeching plan. It was the final stimulus which provoked the Minister into his decision to appoint a committee to inquire into road licensing; and, although Mr. Marples' announcement came towards the end of the R.H.A. group's deliberations, it was itself the last link in a long chain of reports and investigations, all leading to the same conclusion. It is interesting to recall that this was forecast in a leading article by this journal, published on March 8 of this year. The Beeching plan set the seal on what had gone before by defining the new status of the railways as specialists and not as universal providers of transport. That role must be taken over by road operators; the now half-forgotten Hall report, also published in March, pointed to this conclusion, too.
Recent events have included several outside inquiries. In some respects they have cancelled each other out, in that, for example, one will recommend much tighter restrictions, and in particular the curbing of the C-licence holder, and another the following week will reach the conclusion that licensing ought to be abolished. In a sense, the report of the R.H.A. study group is one more in this series, in that it is sectional and does not make reference to what other groups have said. The Ministry committee will be more inclined to examine the various bodies of opinion, and to give its own views on which suggestions are good and which absurd.
NOT PARTY DIVISIONS
Comments from outside, although most of them have come trailing political affiliations, cannot easily be divided along party lines. The proposal for putting an end to licensing, for example, came some time ago in an article by Mr. Patrick Jenkln, which appeared in Crossbow (the journal of the Bow Group, a body which regards itself as part of the Conservative party). The same conclusion was reached from different premises by the group of economists and others whose discussions were distilled into a lengthy dissertation occupying most of one issue of Socialist Commentary, a publication with political ties that should be obvious.
Another of the conclusions of the same group, reached by means of honest ratiocination but with obvious regret, was that the interests of the economy justified the continuation of keen competition between road and rail on longdistance routes. This typically reluctant retreat from the faith is a sign of new hesitations within the Labour party. Mr. Harold Wilson's recent performance in the House of Commons becomes all the more impressive when it is realized that, while giving the general impression that he was carving the unfortunate Mr. Marples into little pieces, he was tiptoeing with immense precaution through a heap of party ,bric-h-brac that the slightest false move would have set jangling hideously.
Britain for many years has exported her political institutions. This does not necessarily apply to licensing systems, whatever assumptions may have been made. Most countries have agreed that there should be some form of licensing for road transport, and have made the broad distinction between professional carriers and carriers on own account. The details vary considerably from country to country. This was impressed upon hauliers generally during the time when it was reasonable to suppose that Britain would shortly enter the Common Market. The six countries already in were discussing ways and means of working together, and transport had an important part in the Treaty of Rome. Representatives from the road transport industry of each country were meeting regularly to decide upon a common policy for themselves, and at one time observers from Britain were permitted to sit in while the discussions were taking place.
Interest may have waned in the precise course of events in Brussels, but operators cannot forget what they learned about Continental systems of licensing, nor be unaware that Britain may still join the Common Market, in which case British licensing would be expected to conform by stages with the structure that is still being worked out in Brussels. Strong elements of Continental practice have made themselves felt in some of the suggestions in the R.H.A. report, and the Government committee of inquiry is bound to investigate what is done abroad.
Apart from all the considerations so far mentioned, the British licensing system has recently shown signs of crumbling from within. In the course of 30 years, the machinery may have worn out, and the environment has changed almost beyond recognition. The declaration of normal user has become inflated so that the old ideal of an A licence giving its holder fairly wide latitude has become impossible, except for a few large operators whose work is diverse enough to justify a general declaration. The new interest taken by traders in running their own road transport has knocked alarmingly large holes in the licensing barrier, and the process has been encouraged by the principle of diversification followed by many large groups. In spite of general dissatisfaction, the R.H.A. group still wants a licensing system, even if really basic changes are recommended in the present structure. In all probability, the Government committee also will not be in favour of abolishing A licensing. One other opinion of the study group that could be confidently forecast was that the trader should retain his freedom of choice, which presumably includes the unfettered right to operate his own vehicles.
Such a principle was confirmed in the statement of policy issued by the R.H.A. only a short time ago. Once again, the verdict of the committee of inquiry on this issue is less predictable.