Rail Effort to Pervert Justice
Page 39
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
0 NE of the most vicious attacks yet made on t he roadhaulage industry has just been launched by the railways. During an appeal hearing it was. submitted that; if objectors could prove that suitable transport facilities existed in the districts in which, or places between which, an applicant for discretionaiy tonnage or for additional vehicles operated or proposed to work, his application should, in law, be dismissed.
This contention is applied even to cases where an applicant is carrying, or wishes to carry, for customers with whom he dealt in the basic year. In effect, the railways seek to have the Enston decision. applied to applications by established hauliers.
If this argument be sustained no carrier, no matter how long he has been in the business, will be secure. Traders will be deprived of the 'right of choice of transport media and, if the principle be brought to its logical conclusion, the haulage arrangements of industry and commerce throughout the country may well be thrown into a state of confusion. Certainly, the whole road-haulage industry will be undermined.
The discretion of the Licensing Authorities will be .fettered and applicants will be entirely at the..merey of the objectors. Indeed, if objectors stated their cases on the lines suggested' there would be no need for the applicant to pursue the matter ; his application could be refused without a hearing. Such a state of affairs would be preposterous and all the principles of justice would be violated. • The Appeal Tribunal has referred the matter to five national associations for thpir views, and it is being considered by the British Road Federation. Now, if ever, is the time for united action by road-transport interests to prevent the plunder ing of their very livelihoods. At the resumed hearing of the appeal which has raised the issue, the associations should be represented by the finest lawyers in the country, and should fight to the last ditch to foil one of the most impudent attempts ever made to harness justice to individual ends.