Relief from Records Approved
Page 44
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THE Minister of Transport's promise to relieve some C licence holders of the need to keep records has been approved by M.P.s and, at the same time, the Minister has been given the means to extend or reduce the concession if he should so wish.
The Committee considering the Road Traffic Bill approved, without a division, a new clause saying that for an experimental period of not more than two years drivers of C-licensed vehicles with an unladen weight of not more than 16 cwt. and operating within a radius of up to five miles would be exempted from the obligation to keep current records of hours of work, journeys and loads.
Mr. John Hay, Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Transport, who moved the clause, explained that the holders of the licences would be exempt from causing such records to be kept.
The Committee accepted an amendment by Mr. R. Gresham Cooke (Cons., Twickenham) which gave the Minister power to modify both the operating distance and the weight of vehicles affected by the change.
Accepting this suggestion, Mr. Hay emphasized that this did not mean that it was the Government's intention to make this a permanent change in the law. Before there could be an extension beyond the two-year limit, the Minister would have to lay an Order before Parliament and it would have to be approved by both Houses.
The Committee rejected a new clause, introduced by Mr. Graham Page (Cons., Crosby) which would have given the Minister powers to make regulations concerning the carriage by road of dangerous substances such as explosives, poisons and acids.