;TRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF C-LICENCE FREEDOM
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road haulage offer as good a service. Proof of need would also lead to considerable administrative waste: either existins C-licence holders Would be able to continue to operate (thus penalizing new applicants) or all holders, of which there are well over half a million, would have to pass through a very cumbersome administrative "screen".
Weight restrictions on C-licence vehicles, as against Aand B-licensed vehicles, would lead to higher costs or lower standards of service, says the B.R.F., and any suggestion of distance restrictions on own-account transport would be clearly wrong, there being an apparent attraction in it only for those wishing to direct goods to other forms of transport.
Road goods transport is already penalized in competition with rail transport, the B.R.F. asserts. pointing out that in the year 1963-64 total Government road expenditure of any kind in Britain will amount to £182m. but total road user taxation will reach £755m.. of which goods vehicles will contribute £232m.. through fuel tax (£179m.) and vehicle licence duty (£53m.).
The Federation says it could not object if British Railways won from the roads, by fair competition, the annual 54m. tons of freight which it claims to be suitable,. but the user must decide which form of transport was suitable in each case.. The B.R.F. memorandum refers to the Beeching Report's assess
ment that "any deliberate influencing of the balance between different forms of transport in future is more likely to be in favour of the railways than against them ", and comments: "We can only trust that it is not the intention of the (Geddes) committee to weigh the scales against road transport ".
In putting its views on licensing to the committee of inquiry, the National Association of Corn and Agricultural Merchants has drawn upon its own journal's survey of the trade's transport and gives interesting details, of actual operating conditions. Pointing out that its 2,000 members market 7m. tons of home-grown grain annually and supply farmers with seeds. agricultural chemicals and the major part of the 15m. tons of feedingstuffs and 5m. tons of fertilizers used on farms each year, the Association calls for maximum freedom for the operation of C licence vehicles in the farm supply trade. No benefit, says the Association, can come from changing the basic regulations covering C-licence operation and such freedom is especially essential in view of the Beeching proposals to close many country railway stations.
While merchants rely on outside hauliers to some degree, N.A.C.A.M. gives two basic reasons for the extensive use of C-licenced vehicles: a high degree of two-way traffic bringing supplies to farms and taking goods away, a trade in which it is essential for drivers to know
the goods they are handling and the location of c. and d. points at the many farms they serve—a service often including assistance with loads; and the service element, which involves not only an integrated transport service for delivery of farm requisites but also caters for emergency deliveries in an industry where nature plays a large part in the timing of operations.
The Association's survey provided a 25 per cent sample of the trade, the information stemming from 558 merchants running 3,786 C-licensed vehicles. Of the 558, some 273 used hired transport throughout the year to supplement their own fleets, 238 used hiring only at peaks and 47 relied wholly on their own vehicles. -Nearly 100 per cent of the platform and bulk vehicles -in the main capacities used -by merchants (1-5 tons. 5-10 tons, 10-15 tons and 15-18 tons) ran more than 60 per cent fully loaded. This 60 per cent loading was easily attained in the 5-I 0-ton platform class (which represents 60 per cent of merchants' total vehicles) and over 54 per cent of these vehicles had sack lifting gear.
Bulk vehicles formed 7 per cent of the total, most of them in the 5-10-ton category, and here also there was over 60 per cent loading. In the 10-15-ton category, where there was one bulker for every three platform lorries, vehicles ran nearly 64 per cent fully loaded; more than 55 per cent of all vehicles in this class had sack lifts.