Operators cannot play at stations
Page 3
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OODS VEHICLE operators will be refused authority to run rivatised heavy goods vehicle test stations, Transport Uner Secretary Reginald Eyre announced in the House of Cornions last week.
This is one of the last-minute lenges made to the Transport II before it passes to the House Lords, and Mr Eyre said the .ovision would reassure MPs id concerned individuals in the dustry that an operator should )ver be able to pass his own ihicle and fail those of his cornrtitors.
And Transport Secretary ivid Howell told MPs that the P.for almost certain transfer of e stations to Lloyd's Register Shipping was wholly in line th the requirements and sugstions advanced by the transort select committee, and with a needs and concerns exessed during the committee lge of the Bill.
If the negotiations with Lloyds, lich are now at an advanced ige, are completed satisfactor, a new independent associan will be set up and controlled Lloyd's.
rhe Government has also induced a further amendment the Bill, giving a new defence goods vehicle operators arged with causing or permitg a vehicle to be used in ntravention of a prohibition ier when it is considered to be
3dangerous condition.
rhis new defence, which will ply in all parts of Britain, was roduced by Scottish Solicitorneral Peter Fraser, and means operator can plead as a deice that he took all reasonable icautions and exercised all a diligence to prevent an ofice from being committed.
he operator would also be otected if he had no )wledge that a vehicle being ven was prohibited.
Ar Fraser explained that the r was being brought into line h that which applies to buses
and coaches, but said that there would be no weakening of the sanctions available against the careless or irresponsible operator. The amendment protected people who were innocent in practice of wrongdoing.
At present, a driver or operator is guilty of an offence if he drives a prohibited vehicle or causes and permits a prohibited vehicle to be driven. This absolute offence was altered in the Bill to include the words "knowingly driving or causing and permitting", and the new amendment clarifies the Government's intentions.
The Road Haulage Association has been campaigning for some time for due diligence to be taken further, and included as an allowable offence where overloading of vehicles occurs in spite of an operator or driver's best efforts. This amendment does not go to such radical or potentially controversial lengths.
Shadow Transport Minister Albert Booth, who described parts of the Bill as "narrowly doctrinaire" and conceived to sacifice the interests of road safety to Tory monetarist prejudice, said it would result in the public sector being destroyed "because of the aims of a crusade, the achievement of which seems to justify any end."
He also said he was alarmed about the Government's approach towards downplating of goods vehicles, and said he hoped the Government would insist that operators which took advantage of a lower licensing fee under the power sought in the Finance Bill would be required to display a prominent plate.